Superbowl 47: Ravens, Power Outages and Commercials

As a native Marylander, this year was the first year I was actually as excited for the actual Super Bowl game as for the commercials. It turned out to be a crazy game: the Ravens kicked major butt in the first half, and then, after the Beyonce/Destiny's Child halftime show...the lights went out. This ended up delaying the remainder of the game for a good half-hour, and the Ravens lost momentum when they resumed play. In the end, though, they won, beating the SF 49ers by 34-31. Congrats, Ravens.

But back to the ads. Honestly, Super Bowl advertising tends to get a little stale. It's always the same products (Doritos, beer, various automobiles), because that's where the money is. Moreover, the advertisers tend to sacrifice coherence for cleverness or humor, resulting in ads that use crazy plot devices in an aim to sell products that are only tangentially-related. However, there was a good crop of ads this year. Here are my 10 favorites, saving the best for last.

10) Volkswagen "Get Happy." This ad, featuring a white man going around speaking with a Jamaican accent, achieved what it set out to do: it made me happy. Will I go out and buy a VW now? No, but the ad still made me happy.




9)Babylandia! This 2014 Kia Sorento ad depicted a dad trying to explain to his young child where babies come from. His answer: the mysterious planet Babylandia. The ad had some clever visuals and neatly tied in the Sorento's "It has the answer to everything" tagline.

8) Taco Bell's "Viva Young." I liked this one largely because Fun's "We Are Young"  in Spanish: even better than Fun's "We are Young" in English. Also, rebellious elderly folks sell.

7) M & Ms "Anything for Love." The M&Ms commercials always make me laugh, and I love this song.



6) PSY's "Gangnam Style" for pistachios. The pistachios commercials are always culturally relevant (the Simpsons, keyboard cat), so it figures they would bring out PSY's viral hit for the Super Bowl. I have a bit of a problem, however. I ran across someone online who said it sounds like he is singing "Condom Style," so I hear this every time I hear the song now.



5) Ram "God Made Farmers." This was an odd commercial. Honestly when I first saw it I thought it was going to be a political message about supporting American farmers...and then it got to the end and showed a Ram truck. So apparently they are trying to sell Ram to farmers. It was definitely a memorable ad, though, with the narrator's deep, haunting voice, and it's almost somber tone stood out among the funny/not-so-funny ads. 

4)  "It's Only Weird if It Doesn't Work." It was the night for Stevie Wonder, who was featured in several different "voodoo" themed ads for Bud Lite. This one, with the Ravens and 49ers voodoo dolls, was my favorite.



3) Tide Montana Miracle Stain. Hilarious. My favorite part was the wife who obliterates the "miracle stain" with Tide and gives the clean jersey back to her husband, saying "Go Ravens." Go Ravens indeed.





2) Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen for Samsung. The ad that actually aired towards the end of the commercial was clever, but I think I like this take better. Rudd and Rogen are asked to develop as Samsung ad for the Super Bowl but aren't allowed to actually name the game, teams, etc., resulting in lines like "San Francisco 50-1-ers and Baltimore Blackbirds."

1) "Brotherhood," my favorite ad of the night.The Budweiser Clydesdales are just classic. And adorable. Especially baby Clydesdales. *Squeeeee*