Best Ads

The Wall Street Journal ran an online poll after the game to select the favorite commercials: lWSJ.com - Clever Gags Score High On Super Bowl Ads (paid link, sorry!) The envelope, please:

In early results of a reader poll last night on The Wall Street Journal Online, FedEx Corp.'s spot featuring a caveman crushed by a dinosaur after failing to use FedEx was scoring highest with respondents. In an interview, Bill Ward, professor of advertising at Michigan State University called it "pre-hysterical."

Sprint Nextel Corp.'s ad showing a guy demonstrating the "crime deterrent" feature of his cellphone by hurling it at his buddy's face was running second in the online poll.

"I loved it. It was so unpredictable," said Tony Smith, a 29-year-old teacher in Denver, of the Sprint spot, crafted by Omnicom Group Inc.'s TBWA\Chiat\Day. "They nailed it," said Toby Barlow, executive creative director at WPP Group PLC's JWT. "Superlative, it blew away my expectations."

Anheuser-Busch Cos., which typically dominates the Super Bowl ad action, was also a high scorer with a clever commercial crafted by Omnicom's DDB that showed a group of guys bowing before a "secret" refrigerator they'd discovered that was full of Bud Light.

That ad "broke through and was attention-grabbing," said Emily Raman, a 28-year-old ad student at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill., who was watching the game with 35 other students.

Another Bud Light spot, showing husbands pretending to be working on their roofs, also tickled ad executives and consumers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, as did the Budweiser spot showing a sheep streaking through a football game being played by Clydesdale horses. "Well-done, classic Bud," said Steve Doppelt, creative director at MDC Partners Inc.'s Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners.

I was an ad-agency guy in a former life (called my late 20s) and I still watch the commercials as intently as the game. I voted for the Sprint -- Theft deterrent, with honorable mention to the Bud Light streakier, FedEx caveman, and Fabio (though I confess I have already forgotten what Fabio was selling).

For worst ad, I voted for the Diddy "brown & bubbly." Rap has a limited segment and the spot didn't grab me. Honorable mention to the girls' self esteem spot. Yes, I'd like to fix all the world's ills and buy it a Coke(r), but the worst problem these young girls will have is that there will be no boys to date in high school, nor educated employable men to marry. Everybody but me on this blog has daughters (I have nine nieces!) so I may be rebuked, but if we must have self-esteem programs, can we aim some at young men?

I love this country! Great game, great commercials. I liked the Stones set.

Click "Continue..." to see the poll results, sans cool bar chart.

Which Super Bowl ad was best?

Ford Motor –- Kermit
90 votes (1%)
MasterCard
139 votes (2%)
Aleve -- Nimoy
73 votes (1%)
Sprint -- Theft
736 votes (12%)
GM Cadillac
27 votes (0%)
Bud Light –- Office
226 votes (4%)
Ameriquest -- Doctor
410 votes (7%)
FedEx -- Caveman
1258 votes (20%)
Nationwide -– Fabio
44 votes (1%)
Budweiser –- Clydesdale
808 votes (13%)
Diet Pepsi -- Chan
54 votes (1%)
Ameriquest –- Friendly skies
430 votes (7%)
CareerBuilder –- Chimps celebrate
255 votes (4%)
Degree for Men -- Stunt
32 votes (1%)
Bud Light –- Rooftop
126 votes (2%)
Diet Pepsi -- Diddy
37 votes (1%)
Sprint –- Music
63 votes (1%)
Dove
292 votes (5%)
Emerald Nuts –- Machete Men
32 votes (1%)
ESPN Mobile
60 votes (1%)
Burger King
139 votes (2%)
Bud Light -- Secret fridge
551 votes (9%)
Gillette
20 votes (0%)
Toyota
30 votes (0%)
CareerBuilder -- Employees commiserate
227 votes (4%)

6159 people have voted so far

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Which Super Bowl ad was worst?

Ford Motor -– Kermit
99 votes (2%)
MasterCard
33 votes (1%)
Aleve -- Nimoy
72 votes (2%)
Sprint -- Theft
93 votes (2%)
GM Cadillac
501 votes (12%)
Bud Light -– Office
59 votes (1%)
Ameriquest -- Doctor
60 votes (1%)
FedEx -- Caveman
117 votes (3%)
Nationwide –- Fabio
188 votes (5%)
Budweiser –- Clydesdale
46 votes (1%)
Diet Pepsi -- Chan
131 votes (3%)
Ameriquest -– Friendly skies
59 votes (1%)
CareerBuilder –- Chimps celebrate
20 votes (0%)
Degree for Men -- Stunt
36 votes (1%)
Bud Light -- Rooftop
11 votes (0%)
Diet Pepsi -- Diddy
485 votes (12%)
Sprint -– Music
46 votes (1%)
Dove
101 votes (3%)
Emerald Nuts -– Machete Men
357 votes (9%)
ESPN Mobile
30 votes (1%)
Burger King
1050 votes (26%)
Bud Light -- Secret fridge
18 votes (0%)
Gillette
239 votes (6%)
Toyota
136 votes (3%)
CareerBuilder -- Employees commiserate
44 votes (1%)

4031 people have voted so far

Posted by John Kranz at February 6, 2006 11:15 AM