Super Bowl Ad Review Pre-Game Show

UPDATED: FEBRUARY 5, 2011

With about a week to go, it's high time we summarized the commercial parade that will be sprinkled throughout Super Bowl XLV, which this year will feature the Steelers and Packers. We're going to do it by placement in game rather than alphabetical by advertiser, since that will make for a handy checklist. As you can see many advertisers' plans are still up in the air as advertisers still jockey for last minute airtime buys from the NFL and traffic schedules are finalized. Some ads have already broken on YouTube and Facebook pages and we've ranked those in advance.

We really haven't gone over the ground rules of the methodology of late, so for those just joining us, we rate the ads using a letter grading system on entertainment value and their ability to sell the items intended.

Commercials that include a "DO NOT ATTEMPT" disclaimer are automatically given the grade of F. Lawyers do not make commercials. Ad agencies do.

In a world where movie trailers are a breed apart, we don't rank them.

If your spot tries to be funny, but isn't, I'll mark it down.

And just a reminder that we will be again "Covering It Live" so just log on to www.davemackey.com just before game time and we'll break it all down for you in real time!

FIRST QUARTER
:60 Audi
:30 BMW
:30 Bridgestone
:30 Carmax
:60 Kia - One Epic Ride
:30 Pizza Hut - first time ever in Super Bowl

SECOND QUARTER
:60 Coca-Cola
:30 Teleflora - Faith Hill

END FIRST HALF
:30 Salesforce.com - Ads bracketing the halftime show were developed by Will.i.am and feature animated characters called the Baby Peas.

HALFTIME SHOW - Bridgestone sponsors. Music act is the Black Eyed Peas.

END HALFTIME SHOW
:30 Salesforce.com

THIRD QUARTER
:30 Best Buy - spot to feature Justin Bieber and Sharon Osbourne
:30 Disney Pirates of the Caribbean - to air right after Best Buy ad
:30 Careerbuilder - monkeys
:30 Cars.com
:30 Carmax
:60 Coca-Cola
:30 E-trade - babies
:30 HomeAway.com - The Ministry of Detourism
:30 Mars - Snickers continues last year's campaign with Roseanne Barr and Richard Lewis, two strikingly irrelevant comedians

FOURTH QUARTER
:30 BMW
:30 Bridgestone
:30 Cars.com
:60 Mercedes Benz - Tweet Race features a Mercedes powered by Twitter - B
:30 Skechers - Ad for Shape-Ups will air at the two-minute warning and will feature Kim Kardashian.

PLACEMENT NOT YET DETERMINED
:?? InBev/five spots, 2 :60 and 3 :30 for Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Bud Light, throughout game
2:00 Chrysler (spot to feature Eminem; pending NFL approval for what would be the first ever 2-minute spot in the Bowl, thought to be the single largest spot rate ever at a potential $12 million)
:30 General Motors (five spots: Chevy Cruze has real-time Facebook status updates - C; Chevrolet Volt has images of historical events - B; Cruze Eco - old people mishearing the car gets 42MPG - A-; Chevrolet Silverado - "do not attempt" - automatic F; Camaro - looks like a local spot, very clever - A)
:30 GoDaddy.com - Danica Patrick, Jillian Michaels, and ?????
:30 GoDaddy.com - new .co domain
:30 Groupon
:30 Hyundai
:30 Hyundai
:30 Hyundai - would expect at least one spot to be for their new overly expensive Equus luxury car. Confirmed spots will include Sonata hybrid and Elantra.
:30 Paramount Captain America
:30 Paramount Rango
:30 Paramount Super 8
:30 Paramount Thor
:30 Paramount Transformers
:30 PepsiCo Doritos
:30 PepsiCo Doritos - user created
:30 PepsiCo Doritos
:30 PepsiCo Pepsi Max - user created
:30 PepsiCo Pepsi Max - user created
:30 PepsiCo Pepsi Max
(There are five finalists for each of the two brands posted. Doritos commericials: "The Best Part" - B; "Pug Attack" - B-; "House Sitting" - C; "Birthday Wish" - C-; "Adam Eve" - B. Pepsi Max commericals: "Love Hurts" - B; "Zero Calories? Psshhh" - C; "First Date" - B; "Torpedo Cooler" - C-; "Elevator Girl" - C. Underlying themes - pain as punchline, and the liberal use of Ponichelli's "Dance of the Hours" as subtle underscore.)
:30 PepsiCo Lipton Brisk (Eminem again)
:30 Universal - Cowboys and Aliens
:30 Universal - TBD
:30 Volkswagen - One ad to feature Passat, one to feature Beetle

New on our Blogroll

We've added a few things to the blogroll.

One of my friends from church, Jessica Krajdel, is studying in Chile, where it's summertime down there. She is blogging about it in "Chilling in Chile".

As an old radio guy I've always had the deepest respect for one of the great DJ's and game show announcers, Charlie Tuna. He has a great blog at www.charlietuna.com, right on his home page. Charlie is one of those who is still embracing the new technologies.

When my wife and I decided to take up ballroom dancing, we found a great early mentor in Brittany Matthews, who tells of her very personal odyssey in Confessions of a Ballroom Dance Teacher.

All are accessible from the right hand side of the page.

Now, on a sadder note.... a while ago, we had on our page a couple of blogs from a very erudite member of our church choir named Case Wagenvoord. He was the author of the book Open Letters to George W. Bush: Letters to W from his ardent admirer Belacqua Jones. You can order this book from amazon.com by just clicking on the link. Sadly, Case passed away a few weeks ago, and even though we had some issues with his language at times, we liked what we had to say. RIP, Case.

Super Bowl Ad Time Again!

Yes, it is only 28 days until "The Big Game" and davemackey.com will once again have you covered with LIVE commentary on all the ads, plus your input. We had fun doing this last year on a real-time basis so we're doing it again this year. Set your calendars for Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. as the XLVth renewal of football's biggest game unfolds, complete with hopefully creative advertiser inclusions.

I understand there's already celebrity backlash to one planned ad that will use primates. Best Buy will be a newcomer to the Bowl. And you can expect the usual parade of Anheuser-Busch commercials, mostly for Bud Light.

Come join us for all the fun. Will anything top last year's extremely well-received commercial for Snickers with Betty White?