Ok, I've come down from my sugar-high caused by way too many soda pops and candy bars that kept me chugging through, staying awake from Sunday morning to late Monday night. It's not a good state to watch and try to judge the ads in, so I'd like to thank a whole bunch of people too numerous to mention, among them DDB, TBWA, FLO TV rep Edelman, Teleflora, Lynch Communications and Medialink Worldwide for sending their ads in early to help the process along here. Y'all rock and you know it. The 2010 super bowl XLIV commercials in the collection.

I always come down pretty hard, blaming my negative reactions to lack of sleep, but overall I think this bowl was sup-bar. So sup-par I almost instated a "roll-eye rating" for each ad, that's how often I caught myself rolling my eyes.

Now that I have caught some shuteye, I figured out what really bugged me with the ads. The See more online. What is this, the "AOL keyword" of the tens? Why are you telling me to see more online when you have my attention on TV? In the future, I'm sure we'll be able to click links in TV-ads, but we're not quite there yet, so hows about you TV advertisers use the TV-medium to tell us what is it you want us to know? Vizio seems busy putting the internet on TV so I guess I can see more online, on my TV soon.  read more »

Fourth Quarter:
Vizio - :60 spot by Venables, Bell & Partners, SF directed by Wally Pfister and features Beyonce Knowles-Carter.
Review: @caff ok, so this spot totally went off on the whole internet swip-age but, it makes sense for the brand (unlike other SB ads of the night).
@dabitch: UuuuGhhh, if I see Tay Zonday & the numa numa guy again in an ad I'll scream. I like robots tho. Even robot arms.  read more »

Third Quarter:
Walt Disney Pictures - :30 by in-house for Prince of Persia

Motorola - :30 by new roster agency Anomaly featuring Megan Fox and new Motoblur phone.
Review: @caff Stupid. But whatever. I thought Megan Fox was so last year. Then again, I'm not the demo.
@Dabitch I am. I TOTALLY want a phone that can take wide-angle full figure X-ray through bubbles and bathtub pictures at only arms length, and send them to all my pals just by me *thinking* that I will. That's not what it does though, is it?  read more »

Round two, coming at ya.

Second Quarter:
Budweiser - :60 entitled "Bridge" directed by Paul Middleditch of aWHITELABELproduct for DDB Chicago, with post/VFX from The Mill NY and music out of Elias Arts.
Review: @caff A human bridge? C'mon. Sure that would work. Who needs reality in a Super Bowl ad? Feels like Bud and Bud Light is trying too hard this year.
@Dabitch seriously? That's the funniest script they could think of? Do I need to be drunk on Bud to get it?  read more »

Here we go! That's right. It's game on for the in-game ads. Let's hope we see some winners tonight in the Ad Bowl. If only it's as epic as the Super Bowl intro with Jay-Z. Maybe next year they'll give a trophy to the best ad as well. ;) Based on what we've seen so far, maybe we need to call it the Trite Bowl. (ads will be filled in as we post them)

First Quarter:
Bud Light - :30 sec - Dude builds a whole house out of beer cans.
Review: @caff Typical Bud Light spot. Not very funny, it's like they tried too hard to be funny and failed.
@Dabitch yeah, it's very Bud Light. Like the beer, leaves no residue.  read more »

First, we have not received confirmation yet from Google as to whether they are running Parisian Love in the super bowl, third quarter. It's this years dark horse rumor, due to this tweet from Eric Schmidt maybe it will, maybe it won't. Not a bombastic ad by any means, but it's a nice one, however it does break the superbowlian tradition since it's been aired before. Second the spoiler post hasn't been updated since Friday but if you want to read more about each ad, that's the place to be. This is simply a cheat-sheet, with links to the ads we have already published.

See, for your bathroom planning, I decided to make a cheat sheet in order of who airs their ad when, and how long each ad is so you don't miss a sixty. Inside. The only set order is which quarter they air in, we don't know the order within that.  read more »

Adland's own Claymore has posted An open letter to my beloved advertising industry. regarding the super bowl commercials.

We totally back him on this - but don't let this stop all you agencies from sending us the ads early. ;) Now that you know where we stand I won't have to do that scouts honor swearing regarding embargoes every time you ask me to. I look so silly in my cub scout* uniform.  read more »

The Raging Grannies tear CBS a new one because of their choice to air the Tim Tebow anti-abortion ad, and stating that "willing to air more advocacy ads" - just as long as its not anything for a a gay dating site. To the tune of Three Blind Mice the grannies croon "CBS - Corporate Bulls Shit , they won't take ads from Moveon or The light , but take three million from right-to-life, they're hypocrites that won't give a voice to womens choice"

You tell 'em grannies!

The MoveOn stuff was back in 2004, see moveon goes to the superbowl and CBS says nope.

* For Swedes or those who can read it by the way, I've posted an article on Newsmill about this.  read more »

Teleflora's Super Bowl 2010 Commercial has grumpy-funny Don Rickles voicing the flowers. Yep, Mr Warmth is a bunch of sarcastic tulips, giving the recipient grief as they've been delivered in a box. A Box! The twist is that Teleflora hand delivers flowers in a vase, and that's the way to do it. Here we see Don giggling at the script and ad-libbing what flowers would say if they were delivered to him, as well as hear from the creatives.

A newcomer to the world’s biggest advertising stage, truTV is revealing its first-ever Super Bowl commercial and giving viewers an exclusive look at the spot in its entirety and a 2 minute look at the making of the spot.

The Groundhog Day-themed spot features Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The ad promotes the new truTV series NFL FULL CONTACT, which premieres the day after the Super Bowl: Monday, Feb. 8, at 10 p.m. In the ad, Troy plays the role of “Punxsutawney Polamalu.” After he sees his shadow, a proclamation of six more weeks of football is declared.  read more »

Cliff Freeman and partners had a special brand of funny. They were the creators of where's the beef and this little advertising in-joke known as "The pitch", they made us believe that anyone who didn't eat toasted subs was raised by wolves, they created a string of funny Little Caesars ads, and they made us laugh during the super bowl. This year, there won't be a Cliff Freeman ad during the bowl. The sudden closing of America's funniest advertising agency seems to spell the death of the thirty second spot.

I thought it apropos to make a restospective, and when I had him on the line I asked Cliff Freeman: What's with all the radios? Your office wall was/is covered with retro radios. Of course, that too turns into a reason to smile as Cliff Freeman responded: I never got new business from shots like that but I did get a lot of people wanting to sell me old radios.

Without further ado - the Cliff Freeman Super bowl commercial career, a retrospective. (Like, inside, after the jump y'all)  read more »

If you have been paying attention to Caff's übergeeky list Super Bowl XLIV Ads *Spoiler Alert* (so updated that we had to post it twice), you know when you should be heading to the bathroom for maximum game and great ad ratio.

This is just your friendly heads up to not go for the big flush in 4th Quarter, because that's when Audi's ad is on and I think you'll enjoy it. I must admit, I had my doubts, I mean Venables, Bell & Partners dug up Cheap Trick for the music, and the "Green Police" has made more than one person associate it straight to the Nazi-helpers Ordnungspolizei which is now making its rounds across the web. And when viewing the social media effort you might even think they'll air something like that, making for another Gatorade dog drinking moment "huh?" during the bowl. But no, it all comes together - and they have an ant eater* in the ad, so they might even take home the top honor in the unofficial "weirdest animal in a super bowl ad"-game we play while we watch.

* At least I think that's an ant eater on a leash. Whatever it is, it cracks me up.  read more »

More superbowlian ad bannage. I thought I'd collect them all into one post, but if it's one thing you can be sure of this time of year, it is that more "banned super bowl ads" are coming, so I might as well get them out of the way one by one. The WSJ blog says: CBS Puts Kibosh on Potential Super Bowl Ad from KGB and Adfreak quips CBS does not want KGB's head-up-ass spot. I swear, ever since that horse fart there seems to be a competition in who can get the dumbest ad to air during the bowl. Budweiser's "cutting the cheese" never made it to the bowl though.

UPDATED: Friday, 02/05
In less than a week, Super Bowl Ad Madness will be upon us. And, typically, as the clock winds down, more and more is revealed from the brands we'll be seeing in the game. We bring you an update of the ad players for what you might see this coming Sunday.

Again, If you like to be surprised by the ads you see on February 7th during Super Bowl XLIV, close your eyes, hum a tune and click to read the next article. *Do not read on*. You have been warned.

First Half:
UPDATED: Cars.com will continue its ’Confidence’ campaign by DDB Chicago with one 60-second commercial that will air in the first half. Titled "Timothy Richman," the ad was directed by MJZ's Gillespie and edited by Cut+Run 's Steve Gandolfi, with VFX from Mass Market.

(more inside)  read more »

It's that time of year again, when every player worth their PR department will holler Banned super bowl commercial about their tasteless dreck (PETA played that card hard last year with their banned veggie sex ad)... But this year, the rules have changed ever so slightly with the approval of the Tim Tebow ad. When CBS approved the script for that, the claims of "Banned by CBS" seem a lot more credible, even if they are rejected with this note:

"CBS Standards and Practices has reviewed your proposed Super Bowl ad and concluded that the creative is not within the Network's Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday," the rejection letter said, according to Fox. "Moreover, our Sales Department has had difficulty verifying your organization's credit status."

Not everyone can caugh up almost $3 million for a little airtime, even if prices dropped slightly this year, so sending in something that will obviously be rejected is the cheaper smarter way of getting a lot of press attention. Just ask Godaddy, they've turned it into an art form.  read more »

It looks like Anheuser-Busch has inadvertently pulled a "New Coke" (remember THAT super bowl ad where Jim McMahon & Refrigerator Perry drink their choice?) when they said they'd finally send those Clydesdales to the glue-factory. Adage reports that massive consumer protests may lead to the famous horses making an appearance after all. The horse-hubub has been all over the press, as people can't seem to imagine a bowl without them after a 15 year run. Now VP-Marketing Keith Levy says that a previously rejected Clydesdale spot (from Budweiser agency DDB), might make it to the bowl.

When probed if he had planned this all along Levy responded; "I wish I was that smart," reminiscent of Keough's New Coke fiasco quote: "We're not that dumb, and we're not that smart"

I might be tired of the Clydesdales, but it seem they still have fans.  read more »

Bridgestone have, like last year, decided to release sneak peeks on what may come on Feb. 7 - and as a bonus they've released some interview footage with the creative teams who worked on each ad. The Bridgestone brand will also serve as the title sponsor of the Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show featuring the legendary rock band, The Who. Yes I can say legendary, if you don't like it I'll get out my guitar and do my rendition of "behind blue eyes" and trust me you won't like that.

First up, set in a future where "the world is very wet" and great tires are worth their weight in gold,
Trent Stoner and Michael Fluck from Bridgestone show us what's going on at the shoot in the middle of the Nevada desert. (more inside)  read more »

An update to the post Tim Tebow's anti-abortion ad already causing controversy - as CBS justifies why they are airing the Tim Tebow anti-abortion ad:

"We have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms," said CBS spokesman Dana McClintock, according to the AP. "In fact, most media outlets have accepted advocacy ads for some time."

Audi has announced that it has created a series of social media programs in support of its third Super Bowl ad. Ladies and gents, I give you the Green Police, an enforcement team created to protect and conserve the environment. A classic satire / spoof, the Green Police have “Public Service Announcements” designed to advise consumers on ways that they can make better choices to protect the environment.  read more »

It's eleven days and fiftysix minutes until the superbowl people, and we have some dark horses showing up to our advertising party. FLO TV has bought two spots during the game, it's the first time we'll see mobile TV advertised during the bowl. FLO TV hopes to raise awareness for both mobile TV overall and for the FLO TV brand as the leader of that category with their ads.

The creative: ‘Injury Report,’ featuring sports commentator Jim Nantz. It takes a humorous look at a guy who accompanies his girlfriend on an endless shopping spree and the effects it takes it on him. The spot shows how he our Personal Television can help him stay connected to the game he’s missing – a move that helps alleviate his failure to maintain possession.

I bet Sean Hayes wanted one of those instead back in the super bowl XXXII commercials when he appeared in a Bud ad and found a bunch of guys watching the bowl ...over here, in the petites.

The second ad is set to a contemporary remix of The Who’s “My Generation”, it's called ‘Moments’ and celebrates the shared experiences that unite the US as a nation. It features black eyed peas singer will.I.am’s doing a fresh twist on the lyrics to help underscore the ways in which different generations are affected by technology and, specifically, how people today interact with television programming. He's got some experience in updating music for the bowl, last year we saw him in Pepsi Refresh - Anthem

We'll also see FLO TV airing a spot pre-game. called ‘Long Drive’. In that CBS Sports Commentator James Brown "brings peace to a family on a long trip by introducing them to the FLO TV Auto Entertainment service". All of the creative was a collaborated effort between Magner Sanborn and Agency 3.0.  read more »