Community

Here's where we stand.

John Frank, Editorial Director:
"My favorite was Careerbuilder.com’s screaming woman, crying man. It captured perfectly how a lot of us are feeling (and how we’re reacting) in this economy. Monster.com comes in second for the same reason. I thought it was a bit too gross and less creative.

"Least favorite: Coke and Pepsi ads. They blended together for me, I miss the old days when each had staked out different brand territory. Now they’re both about being happy, and they're both a little vague."

Allison Enright, Managing Editor:
"2009’s Super Bowl ads were remarkable for what they were missing, namely ads for American cars. I saw one decidedly uncreative Dodge ad pushing its employee pricing plan, which, in my opinion, seemed like throwing away $3 million because it felt the same as every other car ad on TV lately. The expectation of the Super Bowl audience is higher for these ads and this didn’t deliver. No GM. No Ford—although the Toyota Tundra ad seemed to follow the “Built Ford Tough” model. I did, however, think the Audi ad featuring Jason Statham was cinematic good fun. The Hyundai ad touting its ‘car of the year’ status to other car company execs and their culture-perfect reactions made me smile."

Piet Levy, Staff Writer:
"Only two spots last night had me in stitches. The first - Careerbuilder, naturally. But I also thought the Denny's Toughguys spot was hilarious. Here's an ad that's as simple as can get - no visual effects, no crazy edits, no big stars - and it was far funnier and more creative than a lot of the other ads that tried way, way too hard."

"The flipside of that was the Monsters Vs. Aliens/Sobe 3-D spots. The concept did have viewers across the country with goggles in hand, ready to watch. But the 3-D gimmick was a vast disappointment, and the creativity on display (Dancing footballers? Really?) was totally one-dimensional."

So, Marketing News readers, what spots did you like? What spots did you hate?