Purina ‘Adventureland’

The new ingredient in Purina’s wet cat food is LSD. Lots of it.

Pedigree ‘Catch’

A few dogs catch something. Though somehow through the miracles of ultra slow-mo and a great soundtrack, it’s more interesting than it sounds.

The Winner?

Pedigree has the better ad. But nothing beats a cat trippin’ on psychotropic drugs. Nothing.

Overall, the Super Bowl was a big fat “meh”. The game wasn’t the high-scoring affair it was promised to be, and none of the ads presented any sort of creative breakthrough. Call me a cynic, but it was really more of the same… slapstick humor, midde-aged white guy goofiness, random animal hijinks, and more GoDaddy ads that make me ashamed to be in the ad biz. The only one to hit the mark creatively and effectively was Google’s entry. They kept the focus on the product, and in that way were able to make a poignant comment on how important the internet (and specifically, Google Search) can be in our lives. But I’m sure most folks probably thought it was too boring.

If you’re really keeping count, you could probably say that the real Super Bowl winner was the actor in the ads below. How many commercial actors can lay claim to starring spots in not one, but two Super Bowl spots… in the same Super Bowl? As average as the ads are, that’s still pretty impressive. So kudos to you, Paul Giamatti look-alike.

VW has been doing some truly amazing things lately with their marketing (remember The Fun Theory?) . Deutsch, Los Angeles is getting into the mix with their great new campaign featuring Sluggy Patterson, the inventor of the old ‘Punch Dub’ game, where you slug someone whenever you see a Volkswagen Beetle. Well, now the game has extended to all VW models, and Sluggy is here to talk about the do’s and don’t’s of this craft. The campaign is funny, nostalgic, and features the absolute perfect cast for Sluggy. Who is this actor and why isn’t he in more TV work?!

Decide for yourself. The following is an LOLcat that’s been around for awhile.

This is a campaign by Publicis India that just came out for Kennel1, a fast-working dog laxative. Notice the careful attention paid to keeping the dogs at the reverse angle of the cat. Am I reading too much into this? Or is this the world’s first LOLcat-inspired (ripped off) ad campaign? Just like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, the world may never know (I take that back. This really really bored man with too much time on his hands found the answer).

The relatively new Snickers ad featuring Master P is quite good, though its hard to top the irreverence of Patrick Chewing.

The entire “Snickers Speak” campaign by TBWA/Chiat/Day New York has been an interesting one. Initially I wasn’t too keen on it. The first elements of the campaign, which simply featured outdoor in major markets featuring “Peanutopolis” and “Nougatocity”,  appeared to be too cute and off-the-wall for its own good.However, since the campaign has been fleshed out and had time to develop, I’ve really begun to enjoy it. As its creating agency intended, its starting to become iconic and highly recognizable… its quickly approaching “meme” status. They’ve helped Snickers become a brand that truly appeals to the 18-34 set through pleasant surprises, wacky cameos, and entertaining play on the English language.

For more the latter, you can “muscle up on your Snackabulary” by visiting their Snickers Translator on Facebook. It’s actually quite entertaining. Or read up on the campaign here.

Foster’s VB (Victoria Bitter) is considered Australia’s favorite full strength beer. Droga5, Sydney launches The Regulars, “one of the largest beer commercials ever produced in Australia” for VB featuring a cast of over 1500 - including multiple cameo’s of Australian sports stars and personalities - as well as a crew of 150. The ad was meant to enthusiastically portray what makes Australians authentically Australian, and it clearly shows in the ad. But it’s enjoyable even for us Americans.

Here’s some translations: “Chucking a sickie” means ducking out of work by calling in sick. A “Cashed Up Bogan” refers to a person of blue-collar background who now has a lot of money and spends it on conspicuously expensive items. “Blokes punching above their weight” refers to average looking guys who snag highly attractive females (you know, like Michael Douglas).

While I’m on this Microsoft kick, I’d like to call attention to the Bing Search Overload ads that’ve been gracing primetime for about a month. Like CP+B’s I’m a PC and Laptop Hunters campaigns, this $100 million marketing campaign from  JWT brilliantly finds the essence of the consumer appeal. For the I’m a PC campaign, it was “PC people are anyone and everyone.” For the Laptop Hunters, it was “Mac’s are great but not for the budget-conscious.” And for this campaign, JWT positions Microsoft’s Bing as a search tool that understands and identifies with consumer frustration with keyword-centric search engines. Good stuff.

I tried Bing as I’ve been looking for kitchen remodeling tips, and it has continually surprised me at how relevant the results are compared with Google. It doesn’t win every battle mind you, but it’s good enough that I’ll be using it whenever Google fails me. And that is exactly the main problem for Microsoft… Bing might be a better tool, but it could prove impossible to cure our addiction to googling.