Pilot Distractions

Super Bowl Commercials: The good, the bad and the icky

Tue, 02/05/2013 - 11:45am

The Super Bowl always brings out everyone's A Game in the commercial industry, but this past weekend's round up of commercials were all over the map. In 2013, the average 30-second spot costs up to $4 million and people expect to be entertained, to be wowed and to be moved. So what was UP with the Go Daddy commercial Perfect Match featuring supermodel Bar Refaeli slurping faces with some nerdy kid? I mean, way to put the 'Bar' in 'Barf!" That is something my eyes cannot unsee, my ears cannot unhear, and my gorge cannot unrise.

Here are some of the best commercials in my opinion and we would love to know yours.

In order of how they appear in this article:

Doritos Goat 4 Sale

I had to watch this three times. Why are goats so damn funny? Every time the goat screamed, so did I. Note the foreshadowing of the guy in the neck brace who originally sells the goat.

Doritos Fashionista Daddy

Clearly Doritos was the winner in this year's contest. Going into this commercial, you know the dad is going to dress up and it's going to be cute, and of course, he's going to be caught. Classic situational comedy, but the real 1-2 punch at the end is the guy with the Movember beard who hasn't shaved it off since the previous Movember in the wedding dress. That killed.

OREO Whisper Fight

Having lived my entire adolescence in a library (I know, real popular) hearing people try to talk in a mock stage whisper after being repeatedly shhhhuuushhh'ed up by the irritated librarian, I couldn't help but have flashbacks when this commercial came on. If there was an eight-year-old in your house who didn't laugh when this played, that kid needs some emergency play time, STAT.

Samsung Mobile

I love Seth Rogan. I love Paul Rudd and I love the guy who plays Saul on Breaking Bad, even with that horrendous weave on his head in this commercial. It felt like an SNL teaser though. The joke is in the frustration they feel in being legally prohibited to say certain words in the commercial. Kind of like being told all your life that the polite way to say it is to "pass wind."

2013 Budweiser-The Clydesdales

Oh, hang on, just stoked the woodstove. Think an ember flicked out, catching the corner of my eye. That's all the tears are about, nothing to see here. This commercial makes seven-year-old little girls out of all of us, no lie. When a foal, all grown up, and now enlisted in the Budweiser Clydesdale parades, breaks free and gallops back to his original trainer, you will thump your chest and yell, "Why God, why couldn't I have had a horse when I was a kid?"

Lastly I'm including the gross Perfect Match commercial, so you can suffer like the rest of us.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com