MSU profs are not wowed by Super Bowl ads

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/profs27_20030127.htm

BY JULIE HINDS

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

What did the experts think of this year’s Super Bowl commercials? In a word, eh.

The not-great, not-bad consensus came from Michigan State University’s advertising faculty, which gathered Sunday for its sixth annual review of the top ads.

The professors — Bill Ward, Bonnie Reece and Bruce Vanden Bergh, among others — gave good grades to Anheuser-Busch and Pepsi for doing their usual solid job. But in general, the MSU crowd wasn’t wowed by what it saw.

The buzzworthy 90-second Cadillac ad was deemed fine, but 60 seconds too long.

The Osbourne family ad for Pepsi Twist drew laughs, but it was a victim of its own hype. The commercial got so much publicity before Sunday’s debut, it didn’t pack much of a surprise.

The Sierra Mist ads earned praise for making a strong connection to the soda’s thirst-quenching message. The mutt playing havoc with a fire hydrant and the baboon who catapulted from his zoo pen into the polar bear pool both got passing marks.

The barfing beef jerky commercial for a Dodge truck, however, earned a resounding “eewwww.”

This year’s 30-second slots sold for between $2.1 million and $2.2 million.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.