For the first time, I was able to watch at least some of every game of the World Series. For a long-time baseball fan, this was a big deal that has been a long time in coming. But since I am not a big TV watcher, I am not as adept as some at escaping the commercials. Oh yes, I take snack breaks, probably a few too many of them. But, still over the course of the World Series, I watched a lot of ads, many of them multiple times. So I decided to make watching ads a little more interesting and become a critical observer of them. The results of this are my own annotated lists of the best and worst of them.
Here are five of my most important criteria.
- Was there creative energy in it?
- Did it have a positive message overall, positive for the company and for our culture?
- Was it interesting? Did I enjoy watching it?
- Did it respect my intelligence?
- Did it fit and respect the venue?
Okay, here are the top five
- Mo’ne Davis – This ad was sponsored by Chevrolet. It championed the rise of women’s sports in America today and fitted with the World Series by featuring a young girl who can pitch a baseball 70 mph at the age of 13. By the end of the ad, I wanted to know what company had the wisdom and welcome sense of Americana to sponsor it.
- T-Mobile’s the Big 7th – This ad reflected the interactive nature of the world today, something that cell-phones are exploiting for better or worse. The ad was shown as part of the traditional 7th inning stretch. It allowed the audience to be part of the ad in the way that TV announcers at games are trying to do by showing fan clips.
- Anheuser-Busch – the history of baseball. The ad showed great moments in baseball history through the experience of fans of that time in history. It was appropriately sepia in tone for the oldest ones too. I loved the Babe Ruth’s speech over the radio moment. I’m not a fan of alcoholic beverages, but I have to hand it to the people who do advertising for Budweiser.
- Nissan Rogue – the little boy’s ride home. The ad was a gem of creativity. It seemed to flow from the fresh mind of a child where the line between fantasy and reality is very thin. It was fascinating to follow. It captured the desired feeling tone of security very successfully too.
- HP ad with the lost iguana — This ad successfully showed that HP has many products while keeping attention with a mini-story of a child-prodigy manager who smoothly runs his campaign to find his lost iguana using HP technology. Two favorite moments – he’s in bed and lights up the town with big screen ads at the click of a button on his phone; and, like a big-time CEO with a little too much confidence, he rightly predicts the knock at the door.
When I finished making this list, I noticed that four of the top five winners also had great story lines. Interesting!
No ad rating would be complete without talking about the losers as well. The World Series had plenty of them too. When these played I went to get a snack whenever possible.
- Painfully awkward Rob Lowe – This ad was banal and offensive to my intelligence from the beginning. Do ad makers really think people are that dumb? It was unkind to those who are not with it. It sealed its fate as the worst of the worst by sinking to offensive and unnecessary toilet humor at the end. Direct TV – you lose.
- Dumb and Dumber 2 – This is the trashiest ad for a trashy program. Raunch and idiocy replacing humor! Enough said.
- Geico – Ickey Woods – celebrate anything. This whole series of ads has long ago lost its punch. You can only ride a good idea (..but did you know that…) so far. This one rode it ad nauseam. More stupidity. Seeing ads like this confirms how TV in general has sunk so low that smart people seldom can find a show to watch.
- Rob Lowe – Creepy – Direct TV loses again. This one was not quite as low as the other one as it had no toilet humor. But it still insulted my intelligence. Do they really think I would choose Direct TV because one creepy person uses cable? I’m not impressed by actors playing different roles. I felt creepy about the whole ad.
- Sonos your home – The one where gold crept up the walls. This one is gross and seems more like a horror flick where the viewer is about to be engulfed in good-looking yuck. It is on the list because it failed spectacularly in the basic task of advertising – making a positive emotional appeal on behalf of the product.
Well, that’s my take. Any comments? What were your favorites and what ads were the butt of your jokes?
