After Deflategate, and the media’s pseudo debate over whether or not cheating represents poor sportsmanship or just out of the box game play, it was good to finally sit down Sunday with a few cold brews and some nachos and enjoy what the Super Bowl is really about – the multi-million dollar ads that try and bring some joy into our otherwise drab and dismal lives.
This year’s game – the XLIX edition – was no different, and is always our bent, we’d like to know which of the car ads you thought was the best expenditure of their respective companies marketing dollars. Did you find Pierce Brosnan utterly charming? Or, did you find Mercedes Benz’s inserting its latest GT into a classic fable to be the most admirable? Let us know your take on the car ads, I can tell you my favorite ad out of all the Super Bowl spots was the Brady Bunch Snickers spot with Danny Trejo.
If you missed some of the spots, or live outside the U.S. and wonder why we call it football when nobody ever yells GOOOOOOAAALLL!!!, then the car ads are linked below.
BMW- i3 “Newfangled Idea”
Mercedes Benz- “Fable”
Jeep- “Beautiful Lands”
Kia- “The Perfect Getaway”
Lexus NX- “Make Some Noise”
NASCAR on NBC- “Nick Offerman”
Fiat- “Blue Pill”
Toyota- “How Great I Am”
Toyota- “To Be A Dad”
Nissan- “With Dad”
Image: TalkingPointsMemo
Hooniverse Asks- What Was This Year's Best Super Bowl Car Commercial?
By Robert Emslie
Feb 2, 2015
Jeff Glucker
Sort of Greg mentioning that he used to own a Pontiac Aztek.
I work with a guy named greg that drives an aztec and he loved it. Fun fact, lumina euro wheels fit on an aztec.
I'm voting for the NASCAR ad – it's perfect. I'm sure some people will nod appropriately, you even have the ironic hipsters on board. It's a great, witty speech, with some truth at the bottom. And who doesn't adore powdered wigs?
The Japanese and the MB ads were surprisingly bad. Didn't somebody tell Lexus that the 80s are gone? You could replace that fugly Lexus with a Datsun and no one would notice.
I'm not a big fan of Pierce Brosnan either, but the Kia ad was pretty cool, too.
I loved the Jeep- “Beautiful Lands” ad, really classy with the attitude of a jeep:)
I laughed at Fiat Blue Pill, Was a little confused at the Jeep (but seriously, they had a lot of pressure on them after the Eminem, Bob Dylan and Clint Eastwood ads)
Maybe I'm sappy, but the Toyota Dad ad was pretty strong. I got the Nissan ad, but I have always hated "Cat's Cradle" and couldn't understand the need for the guy to get wrecked. My mind immediately went, "Are we doing a Dan Wheldon thing here?"
Most of all I was just really happy to see men and dads displayed in a good light throughout the night. After decades of seeing them as clueless, moronic buffoons, it was a very welcome change and hopefully a vision of things to come.
I'll vote for anything that isn't that Nationwide ad with the dead kid.
Yeah? What the hell was that all about? I get the message, but that was a big wet blanket on the bonfire.
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You Tube isn't working for me so…
<img src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s3UogfAGg0" width="600">
Embedding you tube isn't working for me so..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s3UogfAGg0
You have to make it http:// not https://
I know my biggest laugh of the night was the Furious 7 car chase between office towers. It's like Looney Tunes and Moonraker had a ridiculous baby with Vin Diesel.
Fiat's Blue Pill. . . apparently they think there's an audience segment that's okay with driving around inside an analogy for an erect penis.
I am not a part of that segment.
Didn't like Nissan's "With Dad" either. Again, what was the message? Why wasn't the son at the track with dad? GAAAA!
That was my thought too. Hey kid, glad you saw me on TV, here's a new car. I got you Nationwide insurance, have you kissed a girl yet?
The one that actually got me interested in the car it was promoting?
The Lexus RC 350 ad. And as a rule I don't like Lexus.
[youtube BOZywMwhEIM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOZywMwhEIM youtube]
This can't possibly be the same ad agency as the one with the 80s fail above? This is a gorgeous, light-hearted, spot on ad. Just where Lexus wants to go with the other ads, just that they are so intense and exerted.
I think a lot of advertisers go into the Super Bowl forgetting that sometimes they need to push the product creatively, not just the brand.
As far as I can remember, this was the only one where the commercial was about the car and not a clever (or not-so-clever) story or brand statement.
And it's the only one I sought out after the game was over.
in the song the dad avoids his son and later finds that his son is avoiding him. this is not what happened in the nissan ad.
it's like using that janis joplin song to actually advertise a mercedes benz.
The Nissan commercial actually kinda pissed me off, as they're ignoring, completely, the story of Harry Chapin's song.
It's not an ode to good parenting…not at all.
I have much respect for that tune, which likely is a contributing factor.
Right. The whole story they tell does not fit the one in the song.
And the story they told was. . . lame. Wouldn't've happened that way.
Not only was it a lame story, Dad could have been driving -anything- there was nothing linking Nissan to that story. Further, noting that women are responsible for more than 50 percent of car buying decisions, Mrs. Lokki tuned that ad out after about 11 seconds and – the advertisements were the ONLY reason she was even watching the Super Bowl.. She couldn't have told you which company put out that ad for $100 – and it sure wouldn't make her want one of their cars.
TL/DR: FAIL
Fiat 500L will now forever be a compensator car.
Also, we know it was the 100 year-olds doing burnouts in their Dodge Challengers who really killed Nationwide Boy.
Yeah, really, why isn't the Dodge ad listed? I thought it was awesome. And it is SOOO rare to feature old people in an ad without mocking or making fun of them. Bravo to Dodge's agency.
[youtube JKKlqMs19tU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKKlqMs19tU youtube]
I thought the Fiat Blue Pill might have been the best car commercial. I chuckled during it.
I have a bone to pick with the Jeep commercial. The song / visuals were off. It is a commercial for Jeep, an iconic american brand, an iconic song about the US, during the Super Bowl yet half the visuals were not in the US. I would be fine with commercial if it had a different sound track but with that song I expected the be "F*&k Yeah! 'murica!" at the end but instead I was just 'eh?'.
I actually agree to that. A bit bored by the same old idea of Jeep the American idol, yada yada. Then the American images became international…not far off for a conspiracy theorist to spin that idea further in a bad light.
I just didn't get the Mercedes Tortoise and Hare ad by Mercedes. Who was Mercedes aiming at with that? At the time I just could figure out to whom they thought that ad would sell cars. I guess ultimately, since Tortoises grow very old, it must be the same silver-toupee-set that Dodge was aiming at. Old people with enough money for a Benz can still beat them there young whippersnappers in their sports cars. Maybe the Nationwide kid got smacked by a speeding Mercedes.
Sigh I can't edit my post. Did I rember to mention it was the Mercedes ad by Mercedes about Mercedes I was talking about? You know, Mercedes.
Now we know who you work for.
/wink
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