Super Bowl Commercials Disappoint

The hype. The title. The glory. It all came down to one game. This year, it was the battle between the “un-beatens” and the underdogs. In one of the biggest upsets in NFL history, the Giants outplayed the Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII. Whether you are a Patriots or Giants fan, viewers could find common ground in one aspect of the big game: the commercials.

Super Bowl commercials have always provided entertainment and an avenue of humor for viewers. Companies spent an average of $2.7 million for a 30 second spot, according to The Associated Press.

Who can forget Budweiser’s monumental “Whassssupp” commercial? People were greeting each other with this phrase for weeks after this advertisement was aired. Then there was the racy godaddy.com commercial, which aired last year, that sparked months worth of controversy.

The 2008 Super Bowl commercials had a plethora of celebrities, but it is questionable as to whether or not the advertisements lived up to the comical expectations.

In the Diet Pepsi commercial featuring Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, LL Cool J and others, all of them acted as bobble heads, rocking to the beat of Haddaway’s “What is Love.” Overall the Pepsi advertisement was a pretty convincing commercial.

Will Ferrell played his character in his new movie called “Semi-Pro” for a Bud Light commercial and later on in the programming, in an unexpected spot for “Life Water,” Naomi Campbell did a rendition of Thriller with a group of lizards. Charles Barkley and Dwayne Wade made an appearance in a T-Mobile advertisement, while Justin Timberlake showcased his stunts in a Pepsi ad.

The Doritos spot was undoubtedly one of the funnier commercials, with a man dressed in a mouse suit beating up a man building a mousetrap. Adrianna Lima posed in a seductive Valentine’s ad for Victoria’s Secret with a football in hand, luring male and female audiences away from their surroundings and in to the television.

Danielle Balser, a 2nd-semester biology major, enjoyed the Bridgestone Tires squirrel commercial, where a squirrel and woman scream in sync as her car drives towards the animal, swirving just in time to avoid the squirrel and showcase the tires abilities.

“It was funny to see the animal and woman screaming back and forth,” Balser said.

There was a 30-second spotlight on George Clooney’s newest movie, “Leatherheads,” written by former Sports Illustrated writer Rick Riley, about football in the1920s. Similarly, the new action movie, “Wanted” about a league of assassins was also introduced.

“The first commercial should have set a high standard for the rest of the commercials, not the opposite,” said Brian Kelly, a 4th-semester physical therapy major. “The Budweiser commercial about the fire was not funny at all. That commercial did nothing for their product. Lucky for Budweiser, they had funnier commercials to make up for that one, like the Carlos Mencia dating one.”

Lauren Albert, a 4th-semester accounting major, personally loved the Shaquille O’Neal horse racing, commercial for Vitamin Water, commenting that “anytime Shaq smiles, we all smile!”

For those of you who missed any commercials or do not want to wait for them to be aired again, you can check all of them out at myspace.com/superbowlads.

via dailycampus.com