The New York Giants’ spectacular come from behind win over the New England Patriots at Super Bowl XLII will be talked about for years to come.
The commercials—not so much.
Outside of the cinematic brilliance of the Coca-Cola spot in which the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, balloons of the classic cartoon hero Underdog and the contemporary animated demon-child Stewie (from Fox’s Family Guy) tussle over a giant Coke balloon in the canyons of a breathtakingly beautiful New York City—only to have the balloon of perennial Peanuts loser Charlie Brown pop up and claim the giant soda as its own—there wasn’t a truly memorable commercial in the pack.
The stunning Coke Balloons spot was in a league of its own, especially in glorious high-definition. For me, it didn’t simply stand out amid dozens of other expensively executed commercials. It enchanted me in a way that no movie (including the movie Enchanted) has in longer than I care to remember. In fact, this is a spot I would love to see again in a movie theater and on an iPod. It is most definitely not a spot to speed through on a DVR. It commands attention. And it receives extra props for being a multi-generational treat (and because after more than half a century Charlie Brown finally wins!).
The night wasn’t a total wash. The very funny Will Ferrell stood out as Jackie Moon, the disco-singer turned basketball team owner he plays in the upcoming movie Semi-Pro, using increasingly inappropriate language while promoting Bud Light (ending with “Bud Light. Suck one!”). The spot made Moon a household name overnight. (It was the simplest and the best Bud Light spot of the night, and likely the least expensive to produce.) The come from behind story of Hank the Unwanted Clydesdale, brought to glory under the training of a helpful dog and set to the classic theme from Rocky, was heartwarming in the way that the annual Budweiser Super Bowl Clydesdale spot must always be.
Moving forward, there were a handful of good (though not great) ads—among them the one for Fed Ex in which giant carrier pigeons wreak havoc in a city, the SoBe Life Water spot in which lizards dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, two from E-Trade featuring talking babies that spew stock-buying advice (and in one case spew much more), and the one from Bridgestone in which assorted animals (and one human) scream when it appears that a squirrel is going to be crushed under the wheels of an oncoming car. (The other Bridgestone spot, in which aging exercise guru Richard Simmons almost buys the farm, was a dud.)
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