Striking Ads and Stopping Power

Duds. It doesn’t take more than a swipe of a page in a trade pub to spot them. Not duds like the clothing you wear, but duds like the 4^th of July fireworks that don’t ever go off. You know, the ads that seamlessly camouflage themselves with everything else. Shiny stainless steel products, smiling operators in action, the next best “innovation” claim. Or maybe it’s the ad that tries so hard to be clever, but only turns out to be corny — yes, lots of those exist in the pubs I read.

My Super Bowl commercial review

So for years I’ve watched the Super Bowl for the commercials. This year, I thought I’d give you my 2 cents about the creativity and marketing value of each of the national (and non-CBS-promo) commercials that ran during from kickoff to final play, each in a sentence or two. A few hits, mostly misses, not many repeats, but overall not very inspiring. You can watch any of the commercials again here. Let me know your thoughts (and if I missed any!).