Super Bowl Sunday is here. Yep, it’s time for advertising’s big day in the spotlight. With an expected 100 million viewers, the average cost of ad slots breaking all-time records of more than $4 million for a mere 30 seconds. Some quick math shows us that ad prices averaged for more than $135,000 per second of air time this year. So who are the winners and losers of this year’s super bowl ads:
2014 Super Bowl Ads Winners:
KIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob-wn52Dkmk
Contrary to popular belief, big budget commercials are very difficult to pull off. Kia, quite simply, knocks it out of the park. In a spot that pays homage to the Matrix and stars Laurence Fishburne in a reprisal of his role as Morpheus, Kia delivers on its tagline “challenge the luxury you know.” It is the perfect spot to communicate the way Kia has come up in the world of automobiles.
Jaguar
Jaguar went all-out in its first-ever Super Bowl commercial. Directed by Tom Hooper (an Oscar-winner for “The King’s Speech”), the ad stars three actors who have turned up in super-villain roles: Ben Kingsley (the Mandarin in “Iron Man 3”), Tom Hiddleston (Loki in the “Thor” movies), and Mark Strong (Lord Blackwood in the Robert Downey Jr. “Sherlock Holmes”).
Volkswagen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzio0qhdxZY
Volkswagen went out to create “the ultimate super bowl ad”, and with funny German scientist accents, babies, monkeys, puppies, Carmen Electra, an old person taking a tennis ball to the groin – they might have found the algorithm of awesomeness. This ad is only a part of a series of commercials that the German automaker is airing these days all in the same theme.
Budweiser:
What do people love more than Football, dogs and beers? Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” spot has already gotten a lot of web buzz (more than 32 million views). Not because it’s about anything or tells such an exceptional story, but because it taps into the weird connection between little furry animals and our “share” buttons.
2014 Super Bowl Ads Losers:
Doritos:
Doritos, a longtime Super Bowl advertiser, revealed its five Super Bowl finalists for the 2014 “crash the super bowl” competition. More than 4,500 entries were received from more than 30 countries and this ad from Thomas Noakes of Sydney, Australia titled the “Finger Cleaner” seems to bethe leading favorite. We think it’s just gross.
Axe:
This commercial falls last on the list, not because it was bad, just because it really didn’t follow the comedic trend. All in all though, the commercial was very well done. The music was a little melancholy, and the first half of the commercial was suspenseful. However, once the plot unfolded, it was rather enjoyable.