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Christmas for Ad Agencies

Even though I only worked at small agencies, the type with clients who would never get near Superbowl-level budgets, watching the game itself was like a magical celebration of the industry. Even though my agency days are behind me, I still celebrate the occasion the only way I know how - by telling everyone around me to keep it down so I can watch the ads.

Here's Bob Garfield's "official" Ad Age ad scorecard. To be perfectly honest, I missed some of the ads because I just wasn't being diligent enough (they were competing with a lot of food). Like the Kermit the Frog one - I saw it on the screen, but couldn't hear it. And as much as I love Kermie, well, whatever. But here's what I (and my friends) thought of what we did see (and these are in no particular order):

Pizza Hut and Jessica Simpson (and Garfield doesn't mention this one): Oh, how the mighty have fallen. This mostly encouraged the girls in the room to say that we're over Jessica and Team Lachey all the way.

Dove (self-esteem for girls): It made all the girls tear up. It made all the boys roll their eyes, except for the one who has twin girls. Seems just about right to me.

Escalade (runway model): Personally, I sort of hated it. First of all, it was a total ripoff of the Mercedes beauty campaign from a few years ago. Second, the model in this ad was supposed to appeal to men?

FedEx (caveman): I thought it was OK. Nobody in our group laughed until the very end, though.

Hummer (monster baby): You spend that much money on a Superbowl spot and don't run a new commercial? It's not a bad spot, but we all felt cheated.

GoDaddy.com: Whatever. That's all I have to say.

Ameriquest (airplane and defibrillator): Lots and lots of laughter and we even knew what it was about.

Career Builder (monkeys): These spots just prove that people really do love monkeys. There was actually excitement in the room when the first one came on. Everyone even remembered last year's ads.

Michelob Ultra Amber (coed football): We all liked this one...and I liked that it reminded me of that Reebok ad from a few years ago. Hitting is funny.

Sierra Mist (airport screener): AWESOME. Personally, I find both Michael Ian Black and Kathy Griffin hilarious, so I was laughing even before they did anything. Loved it.

Diet Pepsi (agent): The un-Sierra Mist. I love Jay Mohr, I really do. But he's not exactly "next generation". And Puffy? Are you kidding me?

MasterCard (MacGuyver): This campaign must be getting old because this was a fairly brilliant execution of it, but our group barely watched it, and had little to say about it afterwards.

Emerald Nuts (acronym): Everyone but me hated it. It was too random for their tastes. Personally, I thought it was sort of weirdly funny and, as I said last night, even if they hated it, they all paid attention. I think this one works.

FINALLY...I'll lump all the Budweiser, Bud Light and that international beer ad into one: Great job, DDB Chicago. For reals. I thought they were all great and so did everyone I was with. Garfield didn't love the Bud Light spots, but we must just be the "arrested adolescent target" they were written for because we laughed out loud and consistently.

All in all, not bad. But much of that is because DDB dominated the airtime. Whatever makes me laugh, though. Whatever makes me laugh.