And here we are, folks, time to discuss my list of "ugly" Superbowl commercials for 2014. Once again, these commercials were not as awful as in years past – I wasn’t terribly offended by any of them, or sitting in disgust.  These were just my least favorite of the bunch, for various reasons (but generally because I was left thinking "what?!"). I’m bringing you a list of seven commercials today, because there were two extra that I disliked a little bit more than would be deserving of the "bad" list.

GoDaddy

Not surprisingly, if you’ve seen my lists before, GoDaddy’s commercial makes it onto my ugly list. Amazingly, it’s not because I was majorly offended by it (which is normally the case). Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials – The Ugly 2014

For a change, there were very few commercials in this year’s crop that I truly hated, so it was tough to come up with a "bad" and "ugly" list. However, there were a number of commercials that I felt particularly blah about, or just thought that they really missed the mark with a big opportunity. 

In more than a few cases, I was surprised that a company would spend so much money both on the commercial itself, and on the ad space, only to fall flat. And in other cases, I thought the hype about the commercial built it up to be something great, only to have the execution be less than memorable. 

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the commercials that made it onto my "the bad" list: Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials – The Bad 2014

Yesterday, we kicked off the start of my Superbowl commercials review with five of my favorites. Let’s keep the positivity going for another day with five more good commercials (before we head into the bad and the ugly!). 

It’s interesting to see how subjective these choices are (and goes back to my favorite quote, which is from Anais Nin – "We see things not as they are, but as we are"). There are many lists I’ve seen and favorites quoted that I just hated, and so many of my preferred commercials didn’t make it to anyone’s top lists.  So add your thoughts to the comments – which were your hits and misses? Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials – The Good 2014 (Part II)

I feel like such a nerd saying this, but I LOVE commercials. 

Not all commercials, mind you, but commercials that are really well done make me very happy. I have been known to *not* skip through the commercials while watching a show that I’ve DVRd. Really.

So, although I like football (I mean, it’s not hockey or anything), what I love most about Superbowl Sunday is the commercials. And maybe the cake I made in the shape of a football field. 

Last year, I was really disappointed in many of the choices that brands made, and I remember wondering why they would spend so much on ad space for a commercial that was so-so, or downright offensive. I didn’t feel that way this year – there were so many spots that were just brilliant, clever or funny, so I know I’ll have a hard time of narrowing it down! 

Since I’m just coming home from judging weekend for the Legal Marketing Association’s Your Honor Awards (for which I was a judge), I’ve got all of those conversations and criteria swirling through my head at the moment. So that with likely make me hyper-critical of the messages of these ads and hopefully able to narrow them down to just my top five! All right…top ten – but I’ll split them into two posts for you!

Continue Reading Superbowl Commercials – The Good 2014 (Part I)