My money is on the lemur

You might think I'm crazy, but for all the cash and hype, I think this lemur is inherently more interesting and appealing than the vast majority of the ads done in this year's Super Bowl.


It even made me think of a brand: George Lucas' THX.

Bragging about getting 2 million hits to their site for their ad called "Exposure", Go Daddy's crude "smash hit" stars IndyCar driver Danica Patrick and is based on looking up women's skirts, hence their play on the word "beaver."

Go Daddy spent $3 million to run this 30 second teaser spot along with the production costs and all the costs to create the "real" ad.

So far, the lemur has racked up over 1 million views without spending a cent.

My money is on the lemur.

The one spot I really like is Audi's "Godfather" done for the R8. They really do make an offer you can't refuse:


Overall, however, the spots fail to impress. AdAge's Bob Garfield seems to agree with me. See: Madison Avenue Blows Big Game. He details (and reviews) most of the spots from this year's big game. Full AdAge coverage of Super Bowl 2008 is here. A bit more on what's still buzzing is here.

Here's TiVo's list of top-rated/TiVo'd ads:

1. E-Trade: "Baby" (spitting up)
2. Pepsi: "Justin Timberlake"
3. Doritos: "Mouse Trap" (user-generated)
4. Coca-Cola: "James Carville and Bill Frist"
5. Ice Breakers: "Carmen Electra"
6. Bridgestone: "Headlights"
7. Bud Light: "Cavemen"
8. Vitaminwater: "Horse Race"
9. Cars.com: "Plan B: Witch Doctor"
10. Life Water: "Thriller"

Here are Spike's editors picks.

It is also worth mentioning that all the sites designed to let people watch the ads are shit. For all the millions of people who go online to watch these ads every year, you would think someone would have thought to make it more entertaining. The MySpace Super Bowl page (which was heavily promoted) is complicated and is poorly designed. No surprise there. AdAge is no better. Even YouTube couldn't come up with a fun way to watch the spots.

From the archive:
2007: A good year for the ads
2006: Not so super
2005: A pretty dull bunch


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