Posted Feb 11th 2007 11:55AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: News, Commercials, Super Bowl
GM has agreed to
edit a commercial that premiered during the Super Bowl which shows a despondent assembly-line robot contemplating suicide. Earlier this week, GM had said it
would not remove the ad, despite complaints from a national suicide prevention group.
The
commercial features a robot that drops a screw. Because of GM's high quality controls, it's forced to leave the plant, take up several other part time jobs, and finally it jumps off a bridge, only to wake up in the plant and reveal that the whole thing was a dream sequence.
Continue reading GM will edit robot suicide commercial
Posted Feb 8th 2007 9:23PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Sports, Industry, Programming, PVR Wire, Commercials, Ratings, Super Bowl
Nielsen Media Research
has released a boatload of Super Bowl related ratings data, including the first ever "live plus same day" Super Bowl ratings, which account for PVR users who watched the big game a little bit later than the rest of the country.
The game itself got a 32.8 rating, while the average commercial got a rating of 32.1, meaning that 92.8 million people were watching those horribly overpriced ads. Does that mean they were worth the money advertisers were spending on them? Probably not, but that's a lot of eyeballs (roughly 185.6 million of them, in fact).
Continue reading Nielsen releases Super Bowl ratings
Posted Feb 7th 2007 11:32AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Commercials, Web, Super Bowl
Remember that potentially homophobic
Snickers ad that aired during the Super Bowl? The one where two guys are so enamored with a candy bar that they start eating it from opposite ends,
Lady and the Tramp-style, and wind up accidentally kissing? They're so concerned that they just kissed that they decide to do something really macho to affirm their heterosexuality, so they start pulling out their chest hair. Because that's apparently what straight men do all the time.
Anyway, now that you're up to date, you won't be seeing that commercial on television anymore. Snickers
got complaints from the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Apparently they thought the ad was homophobic. Who knew, I thought it was just anti-gay. Oh, right.
Continue reading Snickers pulls Super Bowl ad in response to complaints
Posted Feb 7th 2007 11:01AM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Commercials, Super Bowl
Sketch comedy troupe (and
future stars of Fuse) Whitest Kids U Know are
claiming that Budweiser stole one of their sketch ideas for a Super Bowl ad - specifically a sketch about how slapping is replacing bumping as the guy greeting du jour. Between
How I Met Your Mother's "Slap Bet" episode and all the
"slap fights" on YouTube, I'm not sure anyone gets to claim slapping as intellectual property. You can't stop the zeitgeist.
Decide for yourself. You can check out both videos after the jump.
Continue reading Did Bud rip-off the Whitest Kids U Know? - VIDEO
Posted Feb 7th 2007 10:25AM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Sports, CBS, Celebrities, Super Bowl
America - always threatened by the black man's sexuality. The debate hasn't gone there yet, but just you wait. An
AP story was released yesterday that strings together multiple reports of viewers who were shocked, shocked to see Prince's "demonic guitar phallus," as it was described by Stephen Colbert, projected in shadow against a large sheet of fabric during the Super Bowl halftime show.
These same viewers also giggle at the word "dooty," think a man using a microphone resembles an act of fellatio and that, from the air, Dolphin Stadium looks like a vagina. Folks, you can't rock out without your cock out so get over it already. You're just lucky this was Prince circa 2007 and not Prince circa 1984 when the guitar he took on tour would ejaculate water at the climax of "Let's Go Crazy." He kept his ass covered. What more do you want?
Posted Feb 6th 2007 2:21PM by Brett Love
Filed under: CBS, Programming, OpEd, Criminal Minds, Ratings, Super Bowl
The numbers are in and Super Bowl XLI was huge. Coming in at 93.1 million viewers, it was the third most watched program in history, and the second most watched Super Bowl. Having the lead-in to end all lead-ins also helped
Criminal Minds put up the best numbers ever for the series. The special episode following the game averaged 26.2 million viewers.
Is that a disappointment? Last year, the post Super Bowl episode of
Grey's Anatomy drew a considerably larger 38.1 million viewers. We can chalk part of that difference up to the fact that
Grey's was more of a hit show going in, but I think more of it has to do with the subject matter.
Criminal Minds is never a touchy-feely, happy bunnies on clouds kind of show, but the post Super Bowl episode was dark even by their standards. Come on, Dawson chaining up a woman and setting the dogs loose on her? That's asking a lot from the family friendly Super Bowl audience.
Continue reading Was the post Super Bowl Criminal Minds a mistake?
Posted Feb 5th 2007 2:27PM by Elizabeth Chan
Filed under: Sports, CBS, News, Saturday Night Live, Video, Commercials, Super Bowl
Is Prince God? Did he have a deal with Mother Nature or something? Does CBS have that much money to be able to be able to influence meteorology?
Obviously the only explanation of the situation is that Mother Nature loves Prince and watches The Super Bowl. She was hell bent on not making the Kevin Federline the top news of the Super Bowl, and wanted to provide her man Prince with some ethereal stage props.
How many of you were wondering if he would even play "Purple Rain?" How many of you even doubted it after he played his crazy rendition of the Foo Fighters' "Best of You?"
How many of you were still holding onto hope he would play "1999?" I was pretty pleased with his performance and less impressed with his random and particularly unattractive dancers.
But forgive me Mother Nature if you should strike me with lightning for actually liking...
Continue reading TV's Top 5!: Mother Nature watches the Super Bowl
Posted Feb 5th 2007 10:39AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Sports, PVR Wire, Commercials, Super Bowl
TiVo's released a top 10 list showing the commercials that TiVo owners watched the most during the Super Bowl. The list includes two
Doritos commercials that were produced as user-generated videos in a
Frito-Lay/Yahoo Video contest, and a Chevrolet Ad produced by 19-year old University of Wisconsin Student Katie Crabb as
part of a similar contest.The complete list is after the jump.
Continue reading TiVo's top 10 Super Bowl Commercials
Posted Feb 4th 2007 11:32PM by Ryan Carter
Filed under: Commercials, Super Bowl
Duane Wade is the new hotness, and we all know it. Charles Barkley however thinks he is still the junk after so many years. If only he knew he was actually old and busted. I guess waitresses have a way of letting you know. Duane offers to have Barkley in his fave five (from T-Mobile) and Barkley just thinks he's being a young kid who thinks he's all that, when really it is the way other around.
The waitress asks if Barkley is Wade's dad, which doesn't make Charles all that happy. This ad made me laugh. It seems that someone is always getting the better of Barkley in some fashion, even all the way back to an ad I saw when Charles complains "he broke my coffee cup." At least he is still making money doing ads.
Posted Feb 4th 2007 10:31PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Site Announcements, Commercials, Super Bowl
Posted Feb 4th 2007 10:30PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Sports, CBS, Commercials, Super Bowl
This was the spot from the NFL Superad contest. Gino Bona, from Portsmouth, N.H. won the contest after making his pitch to make the fans the stars of the ad. You can get more background on Gino and what led to the spot at the
NFL.com page.
As far as the ad itself goes. It was solid. Kudos to Gino for a job well done. I liked all the scenes with the fans, but what really sold it was the end. After flashing "It's hard to say goodbye" on the screen they cut to Bret Favre. Then they flash, "for some, it's even harder." That's a nice tie-in to the fact that every year it becomes a major question whether or not Favre will return. Good stuff.
Posted Feb 4th 2007 10:20PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Sports, CBS, Commercials, Super Bowl
A fun entry from the folks at Snapple. I'm a Peach Iced Tea fan myself, but I'd be willing to give the Green Tea with EGCG a try. So, the commercial is a success. I like the photography with the temple high atop the mountain and the dullard seeking out the wisdom of the master is a joke that never gets old.
You could see that ending coming, because why wouldn't it be on the bottle, but I like the little bit on the end where he repeated "It's on the back of the bottle." in a mocking tone as he made his way back down the mountain. Not a showstopper, but fun.
Posted Feb 4th 2007 10:11PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Sports, CBS, Commercials, Super Bowl
Another installment from CareerBuilder's jungle office, and this one improves on the training seminar bit. The guy walking on hot coals and chanting "I will improve my pie charts" was hilarious. Give them an extra point for the knock-out receptionist too. It's late in the game, and we need those kind of details.
The wedgie as positive feedback, the falling guy screaming "I'll be a team playerrrrrrrrr", and the kicker line from the receptionist, "Mr. Watts will see you now. Please remove your shirt." were all very well done. As was the reaction from the nervous employee about to be evaluated. Still not up to working with chimps, but getting closer.
Posted Feb 4th 2007 10:03PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Sports, CBS, Commercials, Super Bowl
This was a clever ad. I liked the quick list in the opening of things you can do with one finger. Amuse a baby, prove your sobriety, identify a murderer, and get to know your doctor were all very funny. And well shot too, with great camera angles.
It also worked in that while I was wondering what this is for, they hammered it home in the end with a big logo right there on the screen. It all wrapped up nicely with the "tell your expensive broker where to go" punchline at the end. It falls short of the Fed-Ex ground "Turkey neck" spot, but it's a well done ad.
Posted Feb 4th 2007 9:54PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Sports, CBS, Commercials, Super Bowl
I really liked this commercial. Jay-Z and Don Shula are playing what I like to think of as Madden 2015. The animation for the game on the table was very cool, and they get extra points for pairing these two up. That's a nice bit of casting, especially given that the Superbowl is in Miami this year.
I'm a little disappointed with the outcome of the game. Come on, Jay-Z's cool and all, but this is Don Shula. 1972. Undefeated. Etc. He can't lose to Jay-Z. The gorgeous model that cost him the game by blowing his field goal back was a nice touch though.
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