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A total of 106 million people tuned in to the biggest football game of the year to watch two titans of the game battle it out for league domination.
And the commercials. Mainly the commercials.
Every year, we excuse our common senses and decide, for however many hours the game lasts, we will voluntarily subject ourselves to commercials.
Here are a few thoughts I had of some of Sunday’s standouts.
Enough of the baby
When the E*TRADE baby was still new and slightly off-putting, there was some degree of kitsch that made it work.
But just like the FreeCreditReport.com jingles, enough is enough. The baby needs to go.
It’s hard to write that without sounding like some cruel, twisted individual.
Even though it’s a computer-generated baby, saying "E*TRADE should ditch the baby" sounds horrible.
But it should. The idea has gone past the point of unique, past the point of creative and is just now wearing thin – just like that loser and his friends still unable to grasp the concept of credit scores.
Google
One of the simplest commercials of the night and definitely a contender for the best.
Google’s commercial was a story told for the information generation.
An unseen character is typing away at his computer, looking at study abroad options for the semester.
By using Google, he’s able to craft his entire life. The user finds flight information and translates a cutesy phrase. We’re told a story through searches – this person has met someone, fallen in love, moved to France and started a family.
All within 30 seconds and all with Google searches. Its effectiveness is it kept our attention – a unique feat for someone simply typing on a screen.
Perhaps it worked because we’re all familiar with Google. We’re all aware that our lives are pretty much dependent on instantaneous information.
There are more variations of this style of commercials available online with different stories.
"The Simpsons" meet Coke
Mr. Burns has lost everything. He’s fallen victim to the terrible economic situation and lost his $3 billion fortune.
The citizens of Springfield are seen taking whatever’s left of the former tycoon’s estate – Smithers included.
Mr. Burns, a man who once tried to block Springfield’s access to the sun, escaped with $1 trillion in U.S. currency, was shot by a baby and tried to make fashionable items out of greyhound puppies, is presented as a vulnerable everyman.
With the prospect of a cold bottle of Coca Cola, Mr. Burns bonds with resident Apu and the rest of the community in the park.
It’s not really anything groundbreaking, but it’s still enjoyable.
There’s no need to set anything up because "The Simpsons" is so ingrained into the cultural lexicon.
The best commercial of the night
No matter how poetic Google was, no matter how innocent, there’s no comparison to the mind-blowingness of the promo for "The Late Show with David Letterman."
Satan must obviously be skating to work nowadays – perhaps the Snowpocalypse that crippled much of the country made Hell freeze over.
David Letterman and Jay Leno appeared in – of all things – a commercial for "The Late Show."
Oprah Winfrey also appeared, continuing a 2007 Superbowl commercial with Letterman.
What made this commercial so amazing was that Letterman and Leno have spent most of their recent weeks trading barbs at each others’ expense as a result of the late-night TV shuffle.
That, and because of a turbulent professional history in which Leno was seen as stealing Letterman’s dream job of hosting "The Tonight Show."
It’s a great commercial nobody expected, nobody saw coming, and it worked.
Letterman, to the right of Oprah (with Leno on her left), decries it "the worst superbowl party ever."
Leno replies Letterman was complaining "because I’m here."
Letterman then mimics him, much to Oprah’s disapproval.
It’s a funny, tongue-in-cheek commercial that speaks louder than the product it was advertising.
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