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Spots reviewed as they aired, more or less. Also, I don’t review regional ads (if I can tell they’re regional), film trailers or promos for CBS shows or the NFL.

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Bud Light, “Light House” – I’ll give Bud Light credit for refraining from the scatological (that means “poop”) comedy from years past, but this didn’t really have the feel of a Super Bowl spot. Good production values, of course, but it seem like, well, any other Bud Light spot. You could call that creative consistency, but I won’t. B-

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Snickers, “Betty & Abe” – This spot started off quite strongly with venerable comedienne Betty White getting walloped in a game of touch football and then talking smack. The payoff of “you’re not you when you’re hungry” however, was a let down (even if it is true as this diabetic can attest). If you’re going to intro a spot with Betty White at wide out, don’t change her to a pasty suburban dude halfway through the spot. Bonus points, naturally, for good use of Abe Vigoda in the stinger. B

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Focus on the Family, “The Tebows” – Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahha. Okay, the ad itself wasn’t great, but the strategy was brilliant. This “controversial” ad – dubbed so by pro-abortion advocates who hadn’t even seen the spot – was nothing more than a classic “please visit our website” ad. No mention of abortion. Not even a hint. Just a proud mom who speaks of her “miracle baby.” Me, I would’ve said “abortion” seven or eight times during the spot, but I’m ornery like that. Still, feels good knowing a bunch of so-called pro-choice (as long as you choose to agree with us) folks got their collective BVDs in a wad over this. Spot: B, Strategy: A+

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Hyundai, “Paint” – This spot for Hyundai’s new Sonata sedan, filled with classical music and well-done slow motion footage, had me right until the end when the someone insisted on inserting the supers “Better paint quality than Mercedes CLS550” and “Think about it.” Unnecessary and message-muddling. B-

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Boost Mobile, “The Shuffle” – Twenty-five years after the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl and tainted themselves with the stank of “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” Ditka, McMahon, Singletary and crew are back for another shot at rhythmless fame. Teasers were released in advance of this spot, and now I’m wondering why. Too obvious jokes and poor use of a Rascal – comedy sacrilege! And whoever thought Ditka saying “That’s fresh” was fresh was more wrong than going to Bears game without having a brat and a heart attack. C-

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Doritos, “Bark Collar” – This first of this year’s winners of Doritos’s Let’s Tick Off Our Agency and Let Random People Shoot Our Super Bowl Spots Contest was fantastic. Not counting the hideous premise, awful CG and lack of understanding how a bark collar really works (sound and vibration). Did I say fantastic? I mean craptacular. D+

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Doritos, “House Rules” The second winner in the Doritos contest was much better than the first. A little predictable, but well shot and the kid was a hoot. B

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Bud Light, “Asteroid” – Strategy was a bit weird (is Bud Light really the sign of a good time or just a signal that a pack of D-bags is nearby?), but the spot gained momentum until the very end. And again, no farting horses. B

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Coca-Cola, “Hard Times – Mr. Burns” – Coke continues it’s “Happiness” campaign with what appeared be the entire cast of “The Simpsons.” Except we all know it wasn’t the entire cast as Hans Moleman didn’t die. Still, well played, Coca-Cola. Well played. A

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GoDaddy.com, “Spa” – Another year, another chance to berate GoDaddy.com for their skeeztacularly bad spots featuring never-a-role-model-to-my-daughter, Danica Patrick, with their pleas to “go online for the unrated version.” Oooooooooh. Please, GoDaddy, go away. F-

I never link to GoDaddy spots.

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Doritos, “Casket” – The third (of four, yowza) winner of the Contest That Shall Not Be Named. Doritos, you are dead to me. D

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Bud Light, “Voice Box” – Hmmm, the Bud Light spots are getting progressively better. Dare I hope for a spot equal to Apple’s “1984” by the end of the game? Eh, no. But this spot was both fun and, hopefully, a message to Kanye, T-Pain (who appeared in the spot and must be laughing all the way to Da Bankz, yo) and the rest of the Auto-Tune crowd that their trick was played out the moment Cher released “Believe” back in 1998. B+

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Monster.com, “Fiddlin’ Beaver” – A beaver playing a fiddle? Funny idea. A beaver playing a fiddle promotion something called “precision job search” on Monster.com? No idea how the two tie together. Especially when it appears that said beaver just practiced and played his way to stardom, no want ad required. C

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Bridgestone, “Whale of a Tale” – Had me until the end when the “Now that was a bachelor party” line turned it into a “The Hangover” knockoff. Could’ve used more physical comedy than verbal. And that’s saying something when were only two lines. That I remember. Don’t make me rewind the TiVo, people. B-

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Skechers Shape-Ups, “Joe Montana Testimonials” Ummm, what? D-

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Cars.com, “Timothy Richmond” – Stellar production value, nice writing and a welcome low-key style. But this is simply a retread of Cars.com’s “David Abernathy” spot from last year. There’s even a medical intervention, and the final scene is nearly identical in execution. If I hadn’t seen this spot before, I’d like it a fair amount (although I still say the genius-stumped-by-used-cars is a bit of a stretch). But I have seen it before, so, well, meh. B-

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Budweiser, “Bridge” – Nice buildup with the town rushing to the aid of the Bud delivery truck stuck at a downed bridge, but a little too much time was spent on the solution to said problem. Probably funnier if they’d just shown the tire tracks on the people’s backs at the bar instead. B-

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CareerBuilder.com, “Casual Friday” – I don’t know if CareerBuilder.com will ever trump their chimp-based campaign that spawned a thousand Monk-E-Mails between me and my friends, but this one ranks pretty high up there. Nice use of tighty-whities and the guy’s disparaging remark about pants near the end was spot on. Voice over line beginning with “expose yourself” was a bit too snicker-snicker-tee-hee for my taste, though. Nonetheless, nice pants, Terry. A-

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Dockers, “No Pants” – Wow, two spots in a row featuring people with no pants. In this case, all men. And in this case, much less satisfying. If you’re going to have men wander around in their unmentionables, have them do something besides march through a field singing about said unmentionables. I’ll bet the agency is hating their media placement right about now. C

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Hyundai, “Favre” – Jokes about Brett Favre growing old and repeated retiring should probably themselves be retired. But the execution of showing a 50-year-old Favre holding a hologram-producing MVP trophy (“Help me, replacement hips, you’re my only hope.”) and still waffling on retirement made me chuckle. B+

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Bud Light, “Stranded” – I assume this was a pretty spot-on parody of “Lost” given that I recognized as such while having only watched about 15 minutes of the series. Some good sight gags and slow burn looks from the (hold on, let me check IMDB) Kate knockoff. Still don’t get double tagline of “always the sign of a good time/here we go,” but anything beats the dreaded “Drinkability” campaign of yore. B

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Dove Men’s Care, “A Boy’s Life” – Awesome, awesome, awesome spot for the wrong product. Up until the product reveal: A, After: C-

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Dodge Charger, “Man’s Last Stand”If I’m putting up with all the stuff the soulless dudes in this spot apparently put with, I can tell you the car I won’t be driving in exchange for my subservience is a Dodge Charger. Car guys know this, so I can only assume this spot was aimed at fans of Ed Hardy gear. C

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Teleflora, “Dead in a Box” – If you’re going to get Don Rickles to voice your insult-spewing box-o-tulips, let him be Rickles. Instead, Teleflora reshot last year’s dud while cranking down the muted irony and cranking up the elbows to the ribs. Although I think the guy that used to be in the Bud Light “Dr. Galakowitz” campaign might have appeared in drag. D+

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Papa John’s, “Papa John Delivers” – I don’t mean to repeat myself, but ummmmmm, what? D

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Dr Pepper Cherry, “Dr. Love – Little Kiss” – Even midgets in Kiss makeup can’t salvage this “let’s deliver product benefits straight to the camera” mess. Dear advertisers of the world: The ratio of people who claim to think Kiss is cool versus the number of people who actually believe it is quite high. So stop already. C-

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truTV, “Punxsutawney Polamalu” – An Oompa Loompa version of Pittsburgh Steelers fave Troy Polamalu (who was a in a Super Bowl spot last year for Coke Zero) replaces the world’s most famous groundhog and promises six more weeks of football. Pretty well done, but feels like it just needed a little more something something to push it over the edge. C’mon, man, yank it! B

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Universal Studios Orlando, “Harry Potter’s The Wizarding World” – Universal Studios seems to run a Super Bowl ad every year. And every year I wonder why. C-

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FLO TV, “Jim Nantz” – Grr. Arrg. This spot should’ve been funny. Premise wasn’t overtly original, but you don’t have to be original to be funny. You just have to let the writer write. Or maybe they did. Shame on you, writer! Also, the Chia Pet-esque “where to buy” tag really classed up the joint. Yeesh. C

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Intel, “Sad Robot” – “Okay, here’s the idea: A guy talks about how cool Intel’s new processors are and, in the process, hurts the company robot’s feelings. The end.” Maybe Apple should switch to AMD. C-

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FLO TV, “My Generation Remix” – So FLO TV hires will.i.am to do what he did last year for Pepsi, only less creatively. Mmm-kay. C

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Miller High Life, “Small Businesses” – Not quite as nifty as last year’s one-second spot, but still a nice bit of minimalist awkward awesomeness. B+

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Acura, “MDX” – Woman sees symbols followed by ugly, Japanese version of the Aztek. D

No link; suspect this was regional.

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Motorola, “Megan Fox – Motoblur” – Megan Fox in a bathtub pimping something called Motoblur that is either a phone or a phone feature. I couldn’t tell. And not because I was distracted by Megan Fox in a bathtub. I see better version of that every day, people. No, really, my wife’s name is Megan. Anyway, a tired technique with a couple funny bits. At least it wasn’t a GoDaddy.com spot. C

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Volkswagen, “Punch Dub” – Stevie Wonder notwithstanding, anyone who’s ever played this game knows it’s Slug Bug and not Punch Dub. You hit when you see an old Beetle, not some jalopy of a Jetta. If you’re going to co-opt lore about your brand – lore you didn’t create – have the courtesy to not jack with it. C

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Denny’s, “Free Breakfast – Chicken Warning” – I really shouldn’t like this spot as much as I do, and maybe it’s just the Girl Scout Thin Mints talking, but I thought it was a hoot. Used a screenwriting technique known as “the Pope in the pool” (look it up) to make what is basically a talking head spot interesting. Too bad the chicken puppets weren’t Muppets like I’d originally read. B

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Michelob Ultra, “Little Bumps (Lance Armstrong)” – Let’s see here. Throw cash at famous athlete? Check. Throw cash at production? Check. Throw cash at media buy? Check. Produce memorable, relevant spot? Check please. D+

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HomeAway.com, “Vacation Teaser” – Hmmmm, the Griswolds return in a short film for a vacation home rental website. Spot wasn’t great as far as trailers go, but you had me at “Griswold.” Spot: B-, Strategy: A-

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Bridgestone, “Your Tires or Your Life” – If you’re going to make a gag about someone mishearing “wife” for “life,” make sure said “wife” doesn’t look like a “hooker.” D+

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KGB, “Sumo” – 500 pounds of dumb. Both the commercial and the service. D

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Coca-Cola, “Sleepwalker” – Well-produced, but not terribly interesting. C

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E*Trade, “Baby Girlfriend” – Okay, I’ve actually liked most of E*Trade’s talking baby campaign in the past because they put clever, adult dialogue into the mouths of a baby. Which is weird, but whatever. This ad? Well, let’s just say throwing in overtones of hot, baby action and a milkaholic floozy pushed it right on over the shark tank. C-

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U.S. Census Bureau, “Snapshot of America” – I do love me some Christopher Guest mockumentary action, but this spot (and the entire series) is just flat and a waste of my money. Do you understand why I want small government now, my hippie coworkers? Do you? C-

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Google, “Parisian Love” – I was so ready to dog this spot after the first five seconds, but dang if it wasn’t effective in showing how Google can answer so many of life’s answers. Now I’m just creeped out. Where’s my New Testament? Shoot, Google probably knows that, too. Not evil? Ha! B+

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Kia Sorento, “Sock Monkey Dreams” – Three words: Jet-skiing sock monkey. Okay, some more words. Great music, great direction, great editing, great ending line (which wasn’t spoken) to tie it all together. Bra-freakin’-vo. A

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Bud Select 55, “World’s Lightest Beer” – Was this a regional spot? Sure felt like it. Message delivered! And ignored. C-

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Vizio, “Beyonce” – Well, at least this year’s Vizio ad wasn’t as mind-numbingly dumb as last year’s Vizio ad. Might want to try for some more au courant internet memes next time, though. C

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Diamond Foods, “Emerald Nuts & Pop Secret” – Sad + sad = sadder. D+

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Electronic Arts, “Dante’s Inferno: Go to Hell” – EA makes an interesting choice in pairing footage from its ultra-graphic new video game “Dante’s Inferno” with Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine.” The music actually works quite well, but the footage feels a bit too much like a standard-issue video game trailer. B-

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Budweiser, “Clydesdale & The Bull” – Well, there was 60 seconds of nothin’. D

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Honda, “Crosstour Squirrel” – Writer: So, how do we pimp this bloated Accord/SUV mashup that looks like a Honda-fied Pontiac Aztek? Art director: I dunno, put a squirrel in it? Writer: Done. C

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Denny’s, “Chickens Across America” – Worth it if only for the chicken screaming silently in space. B

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Audi A3, “The Green Police” – I’m torn on this one. I like how most of the spot exposes the utter ridiculousness of the über-greens. But then they turn around and connect their A3 TDI diesel to the same movement. Not as cool as last year’s “The Chase” spot, either. Still, a good use of Cheap Trick. B

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Taco Bell, “Charles Barkley – NBA Buck Box” – Third time’s the charm: Uhhhhhhh, what? D

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Doritos, “Snack Attack Samurai” – The fourth and final “winner” in the contest I gave up caring about years ago. C

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Bud Light, “Book Club” – Bud Light saves the weak sister for the end. Even the preceding Doritos ad was better. Ouch.C-

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Hyundai Sonata, “Built by Hand” – Reminded me of the original Saturn work. In a good way. Not especially powerful for a Super Bowl spot, but nice branding nonetheless. B-

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E*Trade, “Tears” – Did E*Trade switch agencies or something because, wow, not good. D

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GoDaddy.com, “News” – Another “go here for an unrated version” tease from my least-favorite advertiser extant. More Danica. More T&A. More fail. F

As usual, I don’t link to GoDaddy’s garbage.

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Denny’s, “Chicken Birthday” – Okay, we get it. C

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And in case you forgot, the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-17.

I know that this is not exactly new, but have you seen this spot for Jameson Irish Whiskey?

I love it. Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I really love gin more than scotch, and even after a visit to Scotland and the Glenkinchie Distillery, I have not developed the acquired taste for scotch like my brother. But, I got to tell you, as a novice, trying to distinguish the difference from one mossy, peaty glass to another is half the battle to acquiring the aforementioned taste. This work helps them stand out and I imagine gives people a personality they can identify with. At least enough to get them in the boat. Well done, credit for the spot goes to TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York. That work comes on the heels of a long standing word-of-mouth campaign that got them the growth they needed to eventually speak to a larger audience—thus the new (or relatively new) work.

Great piece of film. However, the print is weak and looks like an afterthought. Web presence looks like they repurposed an off-the-shelf techno widget and feels out of touch with the wonderful story telling foundation they have with John Jameson. So close and yet so far.

Next up, how about this idea:

Fun take on a product that has all the money in the world but a tough time getting people to pay attention. Not a lot of news in the “classic” part of this category. Yet they have given us a reason to pay attention and a reason to think happy thoughts. Credit and the cork go to Coca Cola and Definition 6. Well done.

Eager to hear what you think.

The “Pick Me” work done around the Fantasy Football craze was a neat example of how creativity can extend your media buy. I never saw the work myself, although I imagine I’m in (or certainly near) the target. In fact, I would never have known about it unless my 10 year old son made sure to grab me one day when I got home to show me a cool thing he saw on the computer.

Fun idea. Easy to see why it spreads, but I got to tell you, I’m not sure what Reebok is wanting me to do? Now, I hear the words “Pick Me” and I may like the players a little more as I see them without all the gear so I can identify them beyond just a numbered jersey…but it feels like a missed opportunity.

Next up of the ideas is the Fun Theory from VW from overseas. Check out this clip:

Wow. Love it. Love it. Love it. A hand for the team that thought it up. A hand for the client that signed off on an idea that does not readily identify with driving. A standing ovation for the production team that pulled it off so well.

But there is more — check out the rest here: www.funtheory.com. Man, I was pumped when I saw it. Well done.

Finally, I saw some really fun work for a tired and formulaic category. Think CPG work for cereal has to be typical slice of life work with expected product shots? You might be suffering from IDS. Fiber One has a campaign around the idea of IDS or (Irrational Disbelief Syndrome). Does a nice job of getting your attention, making you smile and getting you to think differently or rethink the expected reaction to breakfast cereals and snack bars.

I mean these guys are hammering the copy points of Fiber One at you and it still manages to be funny and entertaining. No misunderstanding what they want you to take away, yet it is done well enough that it doesn’t get old. Then you hit the site they have created and the integration is terrific. Good stuff all the way around.

While I loved elements of all three and the VW staircase execution I believe is the most memorable, the cork this month goes to: The Fiber One team and the good folks at the Coping with Disbelief Institute. Great idea and a compelling reason to try the product.

Cheers!

Can someone please pass the skim milk?

You see, we’re in the idea business. And we love what we do.

You may also notice (if you’ve seen our client list) that we have a great deal of restaurant experience. In fact, not just experience, but a real passion for the dining industry and tackling the unique challenges restaurant brands face.

So as the economy started going south and the media kept banging the gong of doom, people started hunkering down, staying home and spending less. But for some reason, things didn’t get a whole lot better.

Our planning and insights team started taking a hard look at behaviors, trends, statistics and a whole lot of other factors in order to see if something could be done to help not just our clients, but everyone else as well.

And as we dug, and learned and uncovered…an idea began to form.

Waiting around for bailouts and handouts isn’t the answer. The answer is us. All of us.

Our intent is to create a movement. One based on the simple premise of reminding people that they can contribute to the economic recovery by doing very normal things.

Like eating out at a restaurant.

Take a look at this video. Let us know what you think.

And eat out for a change, will ya?

The first idea that caught my eye came from a creative team down at George Patterson Y&R in Australia. A writer and art director teamed up to prove once and for all that creativity makes good business sense.

You may have seen this already and if so you likely got a laugh, but equally important – the results of the Wicked Sick BMX experiment are impressive. This really is brilliant.

The second idea I came across this month blew me away. It was the most engaging thing I’ve seen in a while. And as far as I can tell there was no commercial application to it. It was simply an incredibly dynamic example of what the medium of social media is capable of producing.

I dare you to try and only watch one time. It captures a few minutes of a single morning earlier this year at a train station in Belgium. I really don’t think you can watch it only once.

Two terrific ideas. Each amazing in its ability to engage the audience.

Well, hard to pick between these two, both are fantastic. But this month the official Cheers goes to the guys down in Australia, not only well crafted copy to make a compelling ad, they positioned the bike apart from the competitive asset, and man did it get results!

That’s creativity at work.