Super Bowl Ad Reviews / A special look at the Super Bowl, the biggest advertising and marketing event of the year
David Suissa is chairman and executive creative director of Suissa Miller Advertising in Los Angeles, whose clients include Acura, SkyTel and Jenny Craig.
The 10 best:
* Anheuser-Busch (Bud Lite): The toilet paper spot. An ordinary premise made brilliant by a killer one-two punch line.
* Apple Computer: If you’ve got not one but two American icons (Apple and HAL), the subject du jour, and a haunting execution, you can get away with Super Bowl murder: not being funny.
* Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser): Louie gets a tongue-lashing. This spot stood out from lizard mania by being visceral, not just cerebral.
* Monster.com: Funny and endearing, with no animals, sex or special effects.
* Visa: Buckingham Palace. A fresh twist on the old palace guard routine.
* MasterCard: Cartoons. They Super Bowled a serious campaign by losing the schmaltz and adding the spoof.
* Land Rover: Not a belly laugh, but smart and to the point.
* Austin Powers: When everyone is having a party, silly is good.
* Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser): The lobster ad. Better than the Dalmatians because it had the chutzpah to include the beer in the story.
* World Wrestling Federation: If your audience knows that you know that they know it’s all fake, poke fun at yourself and they’ll love you.
The 10 worst:
* Buy.com: A guy sniffing a dog on national TV. Enough said.
* PepsiCo (Pepsi One): They shot a cool-looking joke, but the punch line never showed up.
* First Union: Why would someone want a cold, corporate behemoth to get away from other cold, corporate behemoths?
* Cadbury Schweppes (7Up): Actually, no, I have no plans to become an “un.” How about you?
* Progressive Auto Insurance: The world’s most lovable alien sells out for an unknown name in an unlovable category. Bad career move.
* Volvo: Drive a Volvo truck and people will salute you. If they weren’t so hard to park, they might sell a million.
* Victoria’s Secret: The secret to great advertising is surprise. Someone tell Victoria.
* California Milk Advisory Board: The moon is made of cheese, but shoot, it’s not California cheese. Earth calling client: Tell us when to laugh.
* American Express: Seinfeld. A confusing overreach that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be an AmEx commercial or a Seinfeld trailer.
* AT&T;: Big Brother’s back, and this time it’s personal.
