This madness is getting old

After spending weeks on a script for a commercial and toiling over the smallest details, it can get really disheartening to see a competitor's successful TV spot involve nothing more than a few bags of skittles and two man-headed sheep. Why do I spend hours crafting the perfect line of copy or the most convincing visual, while consumer trends could flip a switch without warning and turn advertising as we know it on its head?

In an ad that brilliantly contains both the spontaneous and the intuitive, VW depicts one of their cars lasting the test of time. Two joggers are shown preparing for their morning run, edited to take place over the course of many years.

Even more challenging for me as a viewer is my need to read the subtitles while watching the two joggers age quickly over the course of the ad. When I watched it the first time, I only caught the last few pieces of dialogue. I was able to grasp the concept well enough – but I was very intrigued by what I had missed and proceeded to watch the spot again until I heard every line. The copywriting is brilliant across the spot and the visuals are strong enough to keep consumers aware of the story without their full attention.

Props to VW for some quality ad work in a world where stumbling your way to the top sometimes involves a touch of insanity and a dash of bad taste.

Super Blog

Like any nerdy copywriter, I took notes and assigned grades to each commercial I saw during the Super Bowl. Right? People do that?

A few commercials stood out to me, my favorite being the Motorola Xoom spot:

What's great about this ad is that it doesn't just go after every other tablet competitor - it aims straight for Apple and hits hard. They did a beautiful job mimicking the 1984 commercial by Apple and, to drive the point home for those who don't pick up on the visual cues, they even depicted their main character reading the book "1984" within the first few shots. Once they establish the white ear-bud-infested setting, a nice little love story develops and lets us all know just how hypocritical Apple has become sicne they launched the first 1984 commercial. I don't think the tablet is shown doing anything particularly groundbreaking (like video chatting, or something specific that an iPad can't do), but it establishes Motorola as Apple's competitor-to-watch. It's nice to see that they went after Apple in a way other than mocking the Mac vs PC style, like T-mobile has recently.

My runner-up commercial was One Epic Ride by Kia. It was initially released a few days prior to the SuperBowl, but it was aired on game day as well. Kia isn't known for their high-end product line, but they've produced a spot here full of CG content which I'm sure didn't come with a small price tag. The commercial is quirky and easy to watch much like the brand itself, as opposed to being stuffy and bland. They chose a style that went well with their existing consumer perspective on the company, rather than trying to rebrand themselves altogether. It's like saying, "Hey, we've got a great new car - but we're still Kia!"

Which commercial could I have done without?

The answer to that is tied between Tibet by Groupon and In The Boot by Mini. I can't even bring myself to embed them, they are just that awful. Go ahead and scroll back up and watch the other two commercials again and save yourself a headache over the future of the advertising industry.