SURVEY SAYS: What Was Your Favorite Super Bowl Commercial?

This week I asked readers how they thought the quality of those commercials held up – which they liked best – and which was, well – creepiest. 

A plurality – though only a third of the total responses (33.7%) thought that the quality was about the same as in previous years, though more than a quarter (27.4%) thought this year’s crop was “worse”, and 11.6% thought they were “much worse.”  Roughly one-in-eight (12.6%) thought they were better, and a mere 1% opted for “much better.”  Just over 6% said they had “no earthly idea/interest.”

Now, as for the remaining 9.5% – well, they opted for “other”, but most were in the “I wasn’t real impressed, but I don’t really have a point of comparison” camp.  The reasons for that ran the gamut – from those who had seen prior years, but not this year’s – or this year’s, but not in years prior – or just generally couldn’t bring enough to mind to make a decent comparison. 

That said, one reader noted, “”Generally mediocre” would sum it up. Other than two or three real stinkers, I didn’t think they were a bad lot — more smiles than groans — but only one or two got real laughs around the room.”  Another said, “I usually take bathroom breaks during the game so I don’t miss the commercials. Not this year–for the most part, the commercials just weren’t that good. Plus, CBS seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time promoting their lackluster regular fare”.  Yet another offered a remarkably succinct evaluation; ”For the most part I thought they were fairly lame”.

As for the most popular, the winner – by a (wet) nose was The Doritos Dog Collar, which drew the top vote of 16% of this week’s respondents, narrowly nipping the Betty White/Abe Vigoda Snickers commercial, which drew the support of 13.8%.        

Third place turned out not to be on my list (not sure how that happened) – the commercial involving Jay Leno, David Letterman and Oprah – which, even in the “other” category garnered just over 10%. 

The E*Trade Baby – Girlfriend was tied for fourth with another Doritos entry – the one featuring the kid that slaps his mother’s date – with each drawing 9.6%.  Google’s “Parisian Love” was next with 8.5%, while Careerbuilder’s Casual Friday was next with 5.3%.

The rest of the list looked like this:

With 2.1% each:

• Doritos – Gym
• KGB – Sumo Wrestlers
• Bud Light – Asteroid
• Budweiser Bridge
• Dr Pepper Cherry Dr Love – Little KISS
• Hyundai Brett Favre
• Boost Mobile Shuffle

With just over 1% each:

• Coke – Sleepwalking
• Bridgestone – Your Tires or Your Wife
• Dennys – Chickens Across America
• Denny’s Chicken Warning
• TruTV Troy “Punxsutawney” Polamalu
• Dodge Charger – Man’s Last Stand
• Dockers – I wear no pants
• Doritos It’s a Miracle
• Coca Cola – Simpsons (Broke Billionaire)
• Audi Green Car (the Green Police, Police, Police…)

Another “popular” entry (albeit also in the “other” category) was the Focus on the Family/Tim Tebow ad, which was cited as a favorite by about 2%.      

Now – aside from the resulting ordering of the above, I DID give readers a chance to identify a second favorite commercial, and things spread out a LOT.  Topping THAT list (e.g. the most popular second choice) was a tie between the Betty White Snicker game and the Doritos kid slap (each drawing 11.0%), with the E*Trade girlfriend close behind with 9.9%.        

The Doritos dog collar was next, with 8.8%, while the Budweiser Bridge garnered the support of 7.7% to round out the top 5 of the second best.

Beyond those categorizations of “favorite”, “most creative”, and maybe even “stupid”, this week I also asked readers which of the Super Bowl commercials they found to be most “creepy.”     

Here it is probably no surprise that the winner was CareerBuilder’s Casual Friday (30.6%), followed distantly by another clothing-challenged entry – the 11.8% that went for the “Dockers – I wear no pants”(one reader noted, “The Dockers commercial won for me as it followed another similarly creepy Career Builder Casual Friday commercial. Those two commercials were just wrong!”) – which was just ahead of the 10.6% that voted for the preview for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (although, as one reader observed, “I think it's the movie itself, not the ad, that is the 'creepy' culprit...”).. 

Personally, I was surprised that the Audi Green Car (the Green police) didn’t register higher than it did.

Now, there were some fun comments about the creepy commercials:

“If I never see/hear another screaming chicken, it'll be TOO soon!” noted one about the Denny’s series. 

Another noted that “The TruTV add was just weird. I'm not even sure what it was for. So not only was it creepy, it was ineffective!” 

“The US Census commercial during the Super Bowl is a blunt way for the government to remind us how they squander tax payer dollars,” wondered another. “Besides, is the target market for this message really watching the Super Bowl?”

But my favorites this week all had to do with the (too) “Casual Friday” Careerbuilder entry:      

Yikes! Those people in their underwear were not pretty. I hope those actors were paid very well. I would not have taken my clothes off for any amount of money.

Just thinking of the folks I work with like that creeped me out!

It's just weird...makes you feel like you are watching porn - at work....ewwww.

Made my skin crawl. Similar to looking at a very senior citizens nude beach. Why would you want to?

The idea that fat, old men running around in briefs is a selling point for any product is very creepy to me.

re: casual Friday - who wants to see that?

But this week’s Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who said, “For the benefit of the American people, let's avoid having commercials of guys who look like me running around with no pants on.”      

Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey!