My favorite Super Bowl spots

First and foremost, Happy Chinese New Year.

Secondly, here are a list of the Super Bowl spots (in order of appearance) I found most enjoyable. I agreed with some of the other advertising publications out there but had a sprinkling of others as well. Yeah…my list is a little extensive. I’ll include a quick little tidbit for each.

Apartments.com – Fun concept. Kept me intrigued until the very end. Client reveal at the end was a good match and pleasant surprise.

Audi – Great story. Awesome parallel and smart sell of Audi’s main idea: the car is fast.

PayPal – Beautiful art direction. Beautiful copy. And not to mention, I’m obsessed with that Demi Lovato song. I just saw that Ad Week ranked this as their Worst 5 spots in the Super Bowl, and I couldn’t disagree more. As PayPal’s first-ever spot, they did right to do a broad brand anthem. The intention of this was to get their name out there and set themselves on the stage with the big boys. In that, they’ve succeeded.

Marmot – So ridiculous and funny. Props to Goodby. It’s nice when you can tell a story, sell your product, and include a cute animal all at once.

Budlight – Good celebrity mashup. I only included this because Amy Schumer is hilarious. Other than that, this commercial and campaign errs on the side of run-of-the-mill.

T-Mobile x2 (Steve Harvey + Drake) – They did a double-whammy and really impressed me this Super Bowl. Props to Publicis Seattle. The Drake spot was funny and also struck a chord with all ad people out there, and the Steve Harvey spot was was very timely. Not to mention it was an appropriate clap-back. T-Mobile is super impressive for rising up so far from when they sank to their very depths back in 2010. Wonderful transformation.

Prius – Fun story that definitely got their point across. Way to totally bash preconceptions that the car is weaker. Way to show that with less gas, you can go farther. This was a smart concept.

Pokemon20 – It got me amped for Pokemon. This is an epic short film spot with just the right amount of mystery throughout to really drive home the big reveal. Also superb audio with a great fit in those taiko drums building excitement. The score for this deserves a lot of respect.

Wix.com – Kung Fu Panda cameo. I guess this is more of an honorable mention, but it was funny to see some timely parody using a beloved cartoon character.

Heinz – Obviiiiously this one would be a big hit. It’s so whacky and adorable, no rational human being would be able to resist. There’s no profound messaging here, but it was highly entertaining. That’s what makes this spot shine.

Axe – Lovely messaging that shows how a man can be strong in so many ways. It was definitely very disruptive in all the right ways that still held strong to the core messaging of the brand.

Kia – Once again, a great story. Brand anthem-ey message and the perfect narrator, Christopher Walken. The spot was also random enough to maintain your attention. Good for Kia to really position themselves as anything but beige.

Colgate – The last great spot of the evening. So simple and profound. It shows you exactly how much water you’re wasting and equating that to what that water could actually do for others that need it. The truth and insight behind it transforms your mundane tasks and you recall this commercial every time you’re in front of the sink. Brilliant ad.