The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The day after the Super Bowl is famous for two things: 1. The losing team pointing fingers at bad calls made by the officials. And 2. In depth analysis of all the multi million dollar ad campaigns. Since I've already ripped the officiating, saying amongst other things that they acted more like blind mice than zebras, it's time to analyze the best and worst commercials as only I can.

Keep in mind though that my only criteria for judging is that a good commercial is one in which Brian, Russell, Joanne, and I laughed and a bad commercial is one in which we didn't.

The Good:

1. The Don't Judge Too Quickly series in particular the one in the hospital with the doctor zapping a bug and declaring him dead just as the patient's family walks in.

2. The Magic Fridge - This commercial looked eerily familar like I had seen it before or even dreamt it up myself but nonetheless an instant classic. Beer commercials more than any other product's commercials should be funny so you remember them like the Budweiser talking frog series. Similarly this one will resonate for a while.

3. The Fedex commercial with the cavemen. Historically inaccurate since cavemen and dinosaurs didn't roam the Earth at the same time but still a very good spot regardless. The cruel twist of irony at the end was priceless.

4. The mastercard commercial with McGvyer. If only because it was a commercial with the greatest tv star of the 80's. The only thing better would have been a spot with the A Team.

The bad:

1. The Burger King whoppettes - some people in my test group actually liked this spot, especially the ending with all the toppings piling on each other. I however, couldn't stand the song and dance routine. It reminded me too much of a bad episode of the Drew Carey Show. The only thing that was missing was Mimi.

2. The Diet Pepsi can campaign - trying to market a can that doesn't do anything other than fizzle as a pop star has got to be one of the worst ideas of all time. Just because it's soda pop doesn't mean there's an obvious transition there to pop culture. It was such a stretch that it would have made Gumbi proud. The fact that P.Diddy was in it just made it that much worse. The man can't find a band or settle on a name. Why should I buy something he's endorsing? And Jackie Chan co-starring alongside a pepsi can? At least that's better than some of Chan's other recent co-stars like Chris Tucker and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

3. Any regular commercial - why waste money on releasing a straight forward ad even if it's for a new product like Gillette's new five blade razor. Only comical spots should air during the game.

4. Similarly don't air tired old ad campaigns like the Career Builder monkey spots. The Super Bowl is the time to break out fresh material and try it out on the biggest audience of the year.

All in all, there were a few good spots and a few ones that were so bad I've already forgotten them. The best part about the entire night though had to have been all the Lost promos and lest I forget the trailer for the Pirates of the Caribbean trailer. Posedion also looks like the kind of big budget action movie that I will run out to see even if Will Smith isn't in it.

Otherwise it was a pretty non descript night. Let's just hope that for next year's game they come up with some more creative stuff.