Like everyone else in America, I watched the Super Bowl last night. I watched entirely for the commercials and the new episode of Glee. I was a bit disappointed in the commercials this year, unfortunately.

First, there seemed to be a lack of creative talent in this year’s commercials. I didn’t see anything really innovative. A lot of the commercials I’m almost sure I’ve seen before.

Second, there were a tremendous amount of car commercials. There was a complete saturation. I couldn’t tell you which brands were which commercial (except for the Volkswagen ones.) The car commercials were especially boring and formulaic (except for the Volkswagen ones.) It was the same ad over and over again, a car drives up really quickly with instrumental music and then they tell me how many mpg it gets.

At least this Chevy ad made fun of the repetition:

The standouts (good and bad) were the ad that called for a breaking-away from old luxury, the trippy compact myth ad, and the Volkswagen ads. (Notice that I can’t remember the brands from the first two ads. I’m not going to look them up and pretend I remember in that sentence. That defeats the point.)

The concept for the luxury ad was interesting. Not really intended for my demographic (18-24 yr old females) but it was different from the majority of the car ads last night. It got my attention, but not enough brand reinforcement since I have no idea what car it was for.

Oh right, it was for an Audi. Anyway, the trippy compact ads were annoying. Also, I can’t remember the brand, just that it was a compact car (because they kept saying it over and over again.) I do remember everyone in the room saying the ad was giving them a headache. I think it was an attempt to get noticed that stepped just a tad bit too far over the line into annoying and repellent. It’s for the Hyundai Elantra. Hey! My boyfriend drives that car! Anyway, here’s the ad:

The only good car commercials in my opinion were the two Volkswagen commercials. The Force commercial was moving, funny, nostalgic and adorable, all at the same time. Most importantly, I remembered the commercial, not just for the plot, but for the fact that it was a VW ad.

This might just be because I’m writing a thesis about foreign words in advertising slogans and their new slogan is “Das Auto.” Not only did I enjoy the ad, but it was relevant to me because I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on their 1990′s “Fahrvergnügen” campaign. I wonder if this ad had as much influence on others. Feel free to give your two cents in the comments.

The second ad was cute as well. It was not as interesting or compelling as The Force ad but I liked it and noticed it was VW. (Again, the thesis-writing-factor? Maybe. I’ll let you be the judge.)

Some other quick thoughts: I hated the GoDaddy.com ads. I’ve always hated them though. I think they’re so cheap and tawdry. They’re not meant for me, obviously.

I liked the Doritos ad where the guy was sucking the Doritos dust off of his coworker’s fingers and another guy’s pants. It was very funny. Doritos ads are usually really good.

I was disappointed with Budweiser, Coke and Pepsi. The ads were a letdown compared to the humor and originality that you usually see at the Super Bowl.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Make sure you comment with your favorite ads and why. You can also vote for your favorite ads here: YouTube AdBlitz