2008 Super Bowl Commercial

Finally, two months after the big game, I compiled my review of those expensive advertisements. I was surprised by the number of spots filled with commercials I had seen before February 3. I am also surprised that some commercials have not airs again since February 3.

Favorites (in order of appearance):
Apple: MacBook Air. The laptop computer so thin it fits in a letter-sized manila envelope. I sing along every time I see this commercial.

Bud Light: Wine and Cheese Party. Men show up at a high-class party with beer concealed under a fake block of cheese and hollowed-out baguette. Cheese run, anybody?

Tide: Outspoken Stain. I honestly tried to understand what the interviewee was saying, but that stain continues to steal my attention.

Budweiser: Training Hard. After one Clydesdale fails to make the wagon team, a Dalmation trains with the big horse. See, it doesn't take 30 seconds of idiocy to sell beer.

Bud Light: Pick-Up Artist. Foreign accents and broken English get women as long as the vocabulary includes "Bud Light."

T-Mobile: Hang Up, Chuck! Dwayne Wade badly wanted to be in Charles Barkley's Fave Five. Now Wade can't get a moment of free time.

Pepsi: Justin Timberlake. Call be what you want, but I didn't know that was the man who brought sexy back until the final voiceover. However, it was funny to see him hit that mailbox.

Doritos: Mousetrap. Who expected a man in a mouse costume to break through the wall to get the Dorito placed on a mousetrap?

E-Trade: Infant Investing Parts I & II. Stock trading is so easy a baby can do it? Then he spits up! With his money, the baby rents a clown although he "underestimates the creepiness factor."

Coke: Charlie Brown Wins. The Macy's parade balloons get loose. Stewie from "Family Guy" and Underdog fight for the Coke bottle. After an intense competition, the final frames show the winner--Charlie Brown.

I missed a few commercials during/after halftime because I was busy playing Wii. Those possibly funny ones include Vitamin Water: Shaq the Jockey and Bridgestone: Running over Richard [Simmons].

Looking through the list of commercials, I realize why some of them haven't been shown again. They also make you wonder why a company would spend $2.5 million for a 30 second advertisement. Some companies such as Budweiser (Training Hard) and Coke (Charlie Brown Wins) have cash to spare and other commercials they can show later. Other companies are unheard of except at the Superbowl (Sales Genie, GoDaddy.com, Cars.com). The other commercials are unspectacular or just plain stupid--Audi: The Godfather Redux (A guy follows a trail of oil to find a greasy bumper in his bed.), Planters: Unibrow (A women with a unibrow wears cashew residue as a perfume to attract the men.), and Amp: Power Up (Jumper cables attached to a man's nipples. Disturbing.).

One final "commercial". While it could be deemed an advertisement for the National Football League, this spot was as heartfelt as Budweiser: Training Hard. Chester Pitts shared his story of a grocery bagger becoming an NFL star.