So this year, as the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks battled it out Sunday night, which ads actually registered with football fans? Which bombed? And which ones made viewers scratch their heads in utter confusion?
A highly unscientific poll conducted at Teck’s News Agency, 19 W. Chestnut St., this morning shows that there was no Most Valuable Ad, no commercial that was the hit of the game. In fact, a number of participants said the ads fell flat this year.
But several people did mention the beer ads, which are usually as popular as beer itself during the Super Bowl.
Budweiser had about 10 ads through the course of the game, which the Steelers won 21-10.
Sales rep Mark Rohrer, 38, of Willow Street, liked the Budweiser ad featuring the baby Clydesdale that has to be pushed out of the barn by the older horses.
“I liked the message of that one,” Rohrer said. “And I liked the one with the Budweiser beer bottle, where the fans poured the beer. That was neat.”
Several people mentioned that one, in which fans in a stadium held up various cards to recreate a giant beer bottle and, like a wave, moved the cards to make it look as if the beer were being poured. The crowd even made it sound as if it were being poured.
Two ads also popped up several times in our survey, both from the same company. In one, a family comes to visit dad in the hospital just as doctors are zapping a fly with paddles and declaring him dead. In the other, a woman gets stuck as she tries to get out of her plane seat and ends up straddling the man next to her, her skirt up around her waist as a shocked family looks on.
The tagline for both was “Don’t judge too quickly.”
The only problem was hardly anyone could remember the advertiser, which was the mortgage lender Ameriquest.
That was a running problem in our poll. People could remember the ad but couldn’t remember what it was for. Not something advertisers want to hear at $2.5 million a pop.
Tyrone Miller, 49, owner of Access Personnel Services, could barely remember any of the ads or much of the game. He was having too much fun at the party he attended, where nobody really cared who won.
“There was an ad where a young girl tackled the guy off the bar stool. That was pretty cool,” said Miller, of Manheim Township.
He had no idea, but it was an ad was for Amber Bock beer.
“I thought all of them were stupid,” said Jakie Martinez, 17, a student at McCaskey High School. “The Budweiser commercial with the horses? Horses don’t drink beer. That didn’t make sense.”
Of course, Martinez is a Seahawks fan, and she’ll concede she wasn’t in the greatest mood as she watched the game.
City resident Paul Kralicek, 66, who works part time in the county elections office, liked the ad in which a caveman gets berated by his boss for not using Fed Ex, even though FedEx hasn’t been invented yet.
“That was kind of surprising,” Kralicek said. “First the pterodactyl gets eaten and then the guy gets crushed by a dinosaur. It was cute.”
Dwight Smith, 35, of Manheim Township, definitely did not like the Burger King ad, a send-up of old musicals, in which women played various parts of a Whopper, including the pickles, lettuce and cheese.
“That was really bad,” said Smith, who works at the Blind Association. “And the Dove ad, that one was really odd. What was that about?”
In that commercial, Dove talked about young girls and how they see themselves and urged viewers to go online and learn about self-esteem. It was not your average Super Bowl ad.
“Overall, the ads just weren’t as funny this year,” said Smith, who works at the Blind Association.
“They were all flat,” agreed Jack Thompson, 35, of East Lampeter, who works at High Steel. “There was no fizz.”
Now, Thompson is a rabid Steelers fan (“I popped out of the womb that way,” he said.) and was thrilled with the outcome of the game. But the ads left a lot to be desired.
“That Burger King ad was just so stupid,” he said. “I was saying, ‘I can’t believe they’re doing that.’ I did kind of like the Budweiser ads, but the Hummer ad” — in which a Hummer car meets up with a Godzilla-like monster to produce a baby Hummer — “was pretty stupid.”
“They didn’t seem to hype it up this year,” said city resident Damon Sullivan, 35, who works in a factory. “They slipped this year.”
Indeed, some advertisers who usually participate in the Super Bowl chose to focus on the Olympics. McDonald’s and Visa are two of the biggest that skipped the game.
Speaking of skipping commercials, Jim Way, 78, of Salunga, enjoyed the game but didn’t notice the commercials.
“When the ads came on, I muted the TV and worked on my crossword puzzle,” said the retired Navy master chief. “I do that whenever commercials come on. If I need to buy something, I’ll investigate it myself.”
Tyrone Miller, 49, owner of Access Personnel Services, could barely remember any of the ads or much of the game. He was having too much fun at the party he attended, where nobody really cared who won.
“There was an ad where a young girl tackled the guy off the bar stool. That was pretty cool,” said Miller, of Manheim Township.
He had no idea, but it was an ad was for Amber Bock beer.
“I thought all of them were stupid,” said Jakie Martinez, 17, a student at McCaskey High School. “The Budweiser commercial with the horses? Horses don’t drink beer. That didn’t make sense.”
Of course, Martinez is a Seahawks fan, and she’ll concede she wasn’t in the greatest mood as she watched the game.
City resident Paul Kralicek, 66, who works part time in the county elections office, liked the ad in which a caveman gets berated by his boss for not using Fed Ex, even though FedEx hasn’t been invented yet.
“That was kind of surprising,” Kralicek said. “First the pterodactyl gets eaten and then the guy gets crushed by a dinosaur. It was cute.”
Dwight Smith, 35, of Manheim Township, definitely did not like the Burger King ad, a send-up of old musicals, in which women played various parts of a Whopper, including the pickles, lettuce and cheese.
“That was really bad,” said Smith, who works at the Blind Association. “And the Dove ad, that one was really odd. What was that about?”
In that commercial, Dove talked about young girls and how they see themselves and urged viewers to go online and learn about self-esteem. It was not your average Super Bowl ad.
“Overall, the ads just weren’t as funny this year,” said Smith, who works at the Blind Association.
“They were all flat,” agreed Jack Thompson, 35, of East Lampeter, who works at High Steel. “There was no fizz.”
Now, Thompson is a rabid Steelers fan (“I popped out of the womb that way,” he said.) and was thrilled with the outcome of the game. But the ads left a lot to be desired.
“That Burger King ad was just so stupid,” he said. “I was saying, ‘I can’t believe they’re doing that.’ I did kind of like the Budweiser ads, but the Hummer ad” — in which a Hummer car meets up with a Godzilla-like monster to produce a baby Hummer — “was pretty stupid.”
“They didn’t seem to hype it up this year,” said city resident Damon Sullivan, 35, who works in a factory. “They slipped this year.”
Indeed, some advertisers who usually participate in the Super Bowl chose to focus on the Olympics, which begin in less than a week. McDonald’s and Visa are two of the biggest that skipped the Super Bowl.
Speaking of skipping commercials, Jim Way, 78, of Salunga, enjoyed the game but didn’t notice the commercials.
“When the ads came on, I muted the TV and worked on my crossword puzzle,” said the retired Navy master chief. “I do that whenever commercials come on. If I need to buy something, I’ll investigate it myself.”
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