Super Bowl sales pitches;how good or bad were they?

Another Super Bowl has come and gone,leaving those of us who are not into football with only one thing to talk about,the ads.

Even tho most of my TV viewing last night flipped between MSNBC's "Predator" marathon,The Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet and the new episode of Flight of The Conchords(pretty funny,especially the West Side Story riff),along with the special post game edition of The Office,my sister and I did try to catch a couple of the SB commercials as they aired.

There were plenty that I missed,but thanks to the internet I have been able to catch up with a goodly number of them. Some will be the stuff of water cooler conversations while others will get the "what were they thinking?" treatment. Let's take a fresh look at a few of these highly price set pieces of marketing to see if any of them were worth the key spots that they were placed in last night.

THE GOOD AND THE NOT SO BAD

A BALLET OF BUGS

This Coca-Cola ad is rather charming,as a forest of insects gracefully plot to swipe a sleepy picnicker's soda to the tune of "Peter and The Wolf". My favorite bit is the butterfly camouflage trick,very clever and visually pleasing:



EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Pepsi went with a "Refresh" theme,showing how times may change but some things stay somewhat the same. It was nicely done,without too much computer enhanced gimmickry and making the pop culture connections fit in like perfectly matched puzzle pieces:



FORTUNE TELLING SAFETY

Doritos went for the funny,as this office gag about a "crystal ball" that granted folks free snacks was a sweet one-two punch of goofiness. Oh,one word of advice;I wouldn't try that bit in the real world,just look at what happened to the poor promotion seeker at the end there:



MOVIE MADNESS

RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN: I was really disappointed,being a fan of the original Witch Mountain movies,at this remake that is clearly meant to be a family friendly sci-fi star vehicle for The Rock. Don't get me wrong,I think he's great in movies but the story is supposed to be about the kids,not him!:



LAND OF THE LOST: Another old school kiddie show turned into a pumped up spotlight for a big star to strut his stuff on,this time it's Will Ferrell. *Sigh* Can't someone out there in Hollywood greenlight a project that has some originality to it,instead of overdone retreads? Am I the only one sick of these cinematic leftovers?:



ANGELS AND DEMONS: This Da Vinci Code sequel is technically a prequel,but the time lines were switched up a bit for this movie. I'm one of the few folks who actually did like the DVC film(tried to read the book but couldn't get past the first couple of pages)and this teaser looks to be just as popcorn entertaining as that one was:



THE TRULY BAD

LOSE THE LIZARDS: I never understood the appeal of the SoBe lizards and this ad featuring football players doing ballet and random characters from the upcoming Monsters Vs. Aliens doesn't help matters much. These dancing reptiles are not as interesting as the Geico gecko and about as appealing to the product as garlic beer would be at a vampire bar:



TELEFLORA TERROR: I have to credit the ladies at Smart Bitches for bringing this hideous ad to my attention,which has an office gal receiving a bunch of smack talking flowers that insult not only her and her cat,but the vast majority of women in the viewing audience.

Guys,you may have thought this was funny when it was pitched to you but trust me,that whole bit comes off more like a routine that even Andrew Dice Clay would be embarrassed to perform in public. Oh,and your print/online ad slogan "Make Her Thorny" is beyond repulsive:



To wash the foul taste of that ad out of your brain,enjoy this opening bit from the Super Bowl Special episode of The Office,which had plenty of laugh like hell moments. Dwight was insane to do what he did,but the man did have a point about just how unprepared everyone was for a real fire emergency,which made for some classic TV comedy timing.While many of these commercials are either hit or miss,last night's show was definitely a touchdown: