Doritos Missed the Boat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLgrcqWRlow


This Super Bowl ad by Doritos was a missed opportunity for one of the leading advertisers during the big game. The ad showcases ingenius comedy and uses great product placement to never leave someone guessing who created it. The ad, only came in the top five in the voted contest on Doritos website.

Recently, the trend of allowing the public pick what Super Bowl ad a company uses has grown. Doritos, created an online contest called "Crush the Super Bowl." In the contest, the public could see the videos being chosen from, and vote which ones they wanted to see during the game. The surprise of which ones would be chosen was the point behind this contest.

Having seen all of the ads that Doritos had to choose from, many people watching the game had already seen the ads, creating less excitement in their response. Also, some viewers were disappointed that the ads they wanted were not picked. Many people on the Internet have been outraged by this ad not being played. It isn't worth the added hype to offend fans of a product, and waste the surprise by extra Internet views.

Milwaukee's Shocking Ads

Residents of Milwaukee have seen these ads for some time, as the city continues to shock the public with PSA's using the most radical tactics possible. However, do these ads actually help the people living in the city think about these subjects, or instead do the ads only insult people, or make them generally uneasy?

I feel that the ads are great in terms of being shocking. When a person waits at a bus stop (which many of the ads are targeted at a younger, urban crowd who might be more likely to use buses) or driving down the interstate seeing one a billboard, they have to notice it. I think that in terms of getting the attention of the public, and certainly getting the busy of the public they are more than effective. However, I feel that the buzz is for all the wrong reasons, and that the ads really do little to help think about the topics at hand.

I know that studies suggest the ads help - however I'm not convinced. I've spent a good amount of time in downtown Milwaukee, and every time I see an ad like this with others, we aren't talking about how moms shouldn't sleep with their babies, or how pregnant teens need to be helped and reduced in Milwaukee. Instead, we're discussing how outrageous the ad is, and wondering how the city get's away using government money in order to publish them.

So I challenge those in Milwaukee - next time when you see an ad of this nature, ask yourself, do you even know what issue is the concern with the ad? And does the ad make you think about that topic any more than you were before. From my experience and observations, the target audience, young people, don't get anything out of them.

Go Daddy, or No Daddy?

Go Daddy did it again! Another year of poor Super Bowl advertisement that seems to do a better job confusing viewers that entice amateur web developers to use their company's services and hosting. With an unnecessary amount of "sex appeal," even men seemed to be turned off by this year's ad campaign. Body painting on models, and then realizing the painters didn't remember the "m" in "com"? I'm not sure what that even means, and I feel no one else did either.

Here is my "male perspective" beef on this ad. When trying to entice a strong amount of sex appeal in an ad, I find it rather unflattering when in HD quality, the model being body painted in the commercial has a large amount of bleached belly hair that clearly shows. I'm not trying to make a shallow point, I just think that detail should have been noticed before spending such a crazy amount of money on publishing the ad. And, it was just gross to be quite honest.

Back to more serious marketing however, I feel that Go Daddy has a huge branding problem. Rather than being recognized by the public as the leading Internet domain marketer, they have a better reputation of being those responsible for raunchy Super Bowl ads, and an obvious advertising/marketing problem. Go Daddy needs to get this figured out - or just stop all of the Super Bowl advertising in general, because too much money is simply being thrown away with this failed advertisement scheme.

Honda's Super Bowl = Super Mistake

Honda launched their "Ferris Beuller" themed commercial a week early of the Super Bowl, attempting to first make their ad viral to an Internet audience and to younger fans of the movie. However, I have two main problems with this advertisement. I feel the release of this ad was not handled appropriately, and I feel that the content of the advertisement was a truly missed opportunity by Honda.

Making a Super Bowl commercial a viral sensation is nothing new in the modern age of television commercial advertisement. Many companies have successfully accrued widespread interest in their ad days before the Super Bowl and made great success of the situation. Honda however, released their entire commercial, even a "full" or "expanded" version on the web, ruining any chance of surprise for viewers watching the Super Bowl programming. The suspense is what people should be talking about - not the actual commercial that people have already seen. I think they made a large mishap with that decision unless they somehow change what has already been released and surprise us at the Super Bowl.

The content of the ad, I thought to be a missed opportunity. Not only were the references to the movie only mostly funny - but they could have done a much better job choosing what scenes to recreate and what jokes to redo. Also, I felt that the ending, asking the viewer "what are you waiting for?" was a bit unusually, and may hit the viewer the wrong way. I know that Honda thought they had a slam dunk with this ad, but for me it was a bit to sloppily thrown together, and without enough thought on the content. Also, I'm not sure who the target audience is, though I'm assuming it was those born in the 1970-1990s. The jokes and references could have been more funny and more surprising.

Though these are only my two cents, I feel that Honda had a great idea, just didn't create the product of advertisement they could have - and really leave the viewer wishing they had.