Brand Mix

Congratulations to the Saints. A great game that provided a sometimes distracting backdrop to the real competition--the battle of the ads. I don't think that this year's collection of ads will be remembered as one of the best vintages. Hitting, pantlessness and emasculation were the predominant themes.

1) Brand Bowl 2010 official winner: Doritos (consumer-generated)



I enjoyed camping out at Brand Bowl 2010, designed by Mullen and Radian 6, looking at all the Twitter reactions to the Super Bowl spots. Doritos was the official winner of Brand Bowl 2010 as measured by the volume and sentiment of the Twitter comments, easily beating out Focus on the Family which had been the front-runner before the game started.

This was my favorite of the four Doritos spots aired during the game. The consumer-generated spots aired were the winners of Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Ad Contest which obviously gave them a headstart, from a buzz POV.

2) Best use of old people: Snickers (BBDO)



Betty White and Abe Vigoda were the stars of this ad showing how you're not you when you're hungry. The spot easily beat out the half-time show which featured The Who. Is the NFL ever going to trust someone under 60 with the half-time show again?

3) Most surprising ad: The Late Show with David Letterman



Who would have thought that Jay Leno and David Letterman (with Oprah mediating) would get together for an ad promoting The Late Show? Or that news of this wouldn't have leaked beforehand? Pity that Conan wasn't there as well.

4) Best job ad: CareerBuilder.com (consumer-generated)
The way-too casual Fridays spot thrashing the fiddling beavers from Monster.com

5) Most unfortunate placement: Dockers (DraftFCB)
The Dockers pantless-men ad immediately followed the CareerBuilder.com ad so its pantlessness was unfortunately undermined.

6) Most extreme difference in opinion: Budweiser Select 55 (Momentum)
Bob Garfield ranked this as one of the 5 best in his review saying: "No horses, no babies, no jokes. Just 15 seconds of interesting news." Meanwhile, for more or less the same reasons, this spot found its way to the bottom of the list on brand Bowl 2010, prompting Mullen to offer free creative services to help them make a better Super Bowl commercial next year.

7) The Carrie Underwood award (for hitting the wrong note): Skechers (unknown)
Also a winner for the least effective use of a celebrity spokesperson (Joe Montana). Apparently, this was Skechers first appearance in the super Bowl. It didn't turn out as well for them as it did for the Saints.