Let me be honest. I attended a Super Bowl party for 3 reasons: the commercials,
the great Beyonce,
and buffalo chicken cheese dip.
I would love to discuss the last two in detail, but instead, I'll attempt to recap the 4 million dollar 30 second ad spots which failed to impress this year.
This year, the reoccurring theme seemed to be babies, families, and animals. With these three crowd pleasing subjects, you would think that the marketer couldn't go wrong. OH, but they did.
Here are my picks for the top 3 worst Super Bowl commercials of 2013.
Priceline "The Mission"
This was a Priceline negotiator commercial gone wrong. The scenario is absolutely pointless and the commercial managed to lose my attention after the first 5 seconds. It was actually terrible. I would hope that Priceline executives are firing their creative agencies currently. (Too harsh? Well, they did just waste 4 million dollars.)
VW:
I don't think that Volkswagen really thought this one through. The Jamaican accent on the thrilled new owner of the red VW may be offensive to some. In fact, VW screened the commercial to a focus group of Jamaicans to determine whether or not it was offensive. If you have to screen your Super Bowl commercial to make sure it doesn't offend anyone, you probably need a new commercial. Not to mention there was not a single black person in it.
Wonderful Pistachios:
COME ON! Haven't we all had enough of this PSY character? Just because he's doing his little dance surrounded by a bunch of pistachios with legs doesn't make me want to consume pistachios any more than I already do. It's obvious that the Wonderful Pistachio team took the easy way out this time. "Ahh what will we do for our Super Bowl commercial?" "Well, America really likes that little dance PSY does. Let's get him!!" Great thinking, if the Super Bowl had aired 6 months ago when PSY was still popular.
I guess in our social media centered world, it's okay to have produced a terrible commercial. In fact, a terrible commercial can be better than a mediocre one. Why? Because it starts buzz. So, congratulations Priceline, VW, and Wonderful Pistachios. You've made my top 3 worst commercial list, and subsequently, started some social media chatter.
I agree, Karen. Despite these ads honestly being quite absurd, I remembered them all and even found myself craving pistachios this morning. It is ALL about the buzz, positive or negative. We are talking about these brands and therefore Priceline, VW and Wonderful Pistachios got what they wanted out of their 4 million dollar investments.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ariel. It is so interesting that ANY feedback is good feedback. I agree that Volkswagen may have taken a risk with their "Get Happy" commercial, but upon further research, I have come to find that the critics of the commercial are now the ones being criticized. Jamaican officials have spoken out in favor of the commercial, emphasizing that because being Jamaican is a nationality and not a race, any of those pictured in the ad could have been Jamaican. They are happy to be attributed to brand values of Volkswagen--hard working, dependable, and carefree.
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