In what turned out to be one of the more evenly matched and exciting games in Super Bowl history, the ads were ... well you decide.
USA Today had a first when two spots tied for the top spot in its AdMeter rankings. Bud Light's spot in which a guy throws a party with dogs serving as the help received an 8.35 score as did Frito-Lay's commercial in which a pug knocks down a glass door on top of a man to get his Doritos.
Rounding out
the paper's top 10 were:
- Volkswagen's Darth Vader spot
- Doritos' house sitter
- Pepsi Max's "Love Hurts" -- woman gets hit in the head with a can of soda
- CareerBuilder's chimps parking cars badly
- Pepsi with a couple on its first date
- NFL fans
- Coca-Cola's border guards.
Advertising Age saw it a little differently. The company gave four stars to Best Buy's Ozzie and Justin "What's a Bieber?" commercial as well as Chrysler's two-minute "Imported from Detroit" spot featuring Eminem. Groupon and the NFL also received the highest grade.
Chrysler's Eminem spot was the "the big story of the night," according to NM Incite. The Nielsen/McKinsey Co. business, which tracks online buzz, said the commercial went viral.
Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, told The Associated Press, "It was a very risky commercial, but it scored very well with our panel."
The Groupon spot, which got high marks from Ad Age, failed to get votes from USA Today and the NM Incite panel. "It wasn't a very effective piece of communication and clearly rubbed some people the wrong way," Prof. Calkins told the AP.