10. Pepsi Can with Cindy Crawford
Just one look. That’s all it took. In 1992 while the Buffalo Bills were hoping that maybe their third time straight in the big game would be the charm, the boys in this Pepsi commercial were charmed completely by Cindy Crawford. Or so it seemed. This commercial captures all the innocence of childhood with the classic 1963 version of the song from R&B singer Doris Troy. Crawford never looked better than she does in cutoff shorts and tank-top. The production value makes what is now a 20-year old commercial seem as fresh and original today as it was back then. And that Pepsi can – it’s beyooooootiful. The only losers in this paragraph were the Bills themselves, who would drop this contest to the Washington Redskins and go on to lose one more Super Bowl in 1993 before fading into obscurity, presumably forever.
9. Volkswagen: The Dog Strikes Back
Another entry in the memorable 2012 Super Bowl rematch between the New York Giants and New England Patriots – sorry on both counts, Patriots fans – this was one of the more hilarious commercials of the last few years. The spot featured an overweight canine, who decides it’s time to do something about his condition. No more table scraps. Dragging dumbbells through the house. Running on the treadmill. All in a day’s work for a very Rocky-esque montage, all with the goal that one day maybe good ol’ Spot can squeeze his girth through the doggie door. And that’s just the first half. Wait till you see who walks in at the end. A wonderful companion piece, by the way, to our No. 3 selection.
8. Apple 1984
The same year Clara Peller was asking Wendys’ competition, “Where’s the beef?” Apple was going with something a tad more heady. Playing on the fact that it was a New Year AND said New Year’s number lined up with a certain George Orwell novel, the folks at Apple unleashed this stunning ad for the Macintosh, directed by Ridley Scott, that juxtaposed a woman in a track suit running from a group of Orwellian stormtroopers. In an auditorium, a sea of mindless drones are listening to Big Brother. When the woman reaches the auditorium, she flings the hammer at the Big Brother Screen smashing it into a wash of light. The message is pretty powerful symbolism for 60 seconds of football advertising, but as many Mac owners will agree, quite true to this day.
7. Snickers Football
Gotta love Betty White – at least you have to in this hilarious commercial from Super Bowl XLIV. The Golden Girls actress’s agreement to jump out on the muddy football field and play tackle-no pads football with the big boys won her a new generation of fans and launched an innovative, “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry” campaign that the company still puts to use from time to time. White looks funny enough “running” her post pattern, but when she, while actually playing a guy named Mike, lowers the boom on a teammate for telling her/him, “You’re playing like Betty White out there,” hilarity ensues.
6. Careerbuilder Parking Lot Monkeys
The chimps of Yeknom Industries returned from a five-year hiatus to the glory and grandeur of the 2011 Super Bowl. While the Packers were putting away the Steelers, we were just thrilled that our old primate friends had returned. This particular spot for CareerBuilder.com depicted the horrid monotony of arriving early in the morning to a job you can’t stand, but it did so while packing in a healthy dose of humor. As our human protagonist slides in to his spot, he is blocked in on the driver’s side by a carload of apelike knuckleheads. No problem. There’s always the passenger side, right? Wrong. While the monkeys may be hard to work with, they’ve been a gold mine for the CareerBuilder brand, which has seen, according to Forbes.com, an 18% year-over-year traffic boost from the 2011 spot alone. When they debuted in 2005, the jump in traffic was 43%. No argument that these chimps have put the job-hunting website on the map.
5. Diet Pepsi You Got the Right One Baby
It was the commercial that launched a decade’s worth of memorable advertising. Presented as part of Super Bowl XXV – the New York Giants dropped the Buffalo Bills that year 20-19 – this 60-second spot featured perhaps the greatest R&B performer of all time in Ray Charles doing what he does best. Charles had the type of arresting delivery that made you stop what you were doing to focus on him. Add that amazing quality to a slate of jaw-dropping models and a general atmosphere of celebration, and you’ve got a Super Bowl commercial for the ages. But what really made it work is Charles’ voice and its closing delivery of those six little words, which Americans would catch themselves humming in their sleep for the next ten years or so. Our only complaint: we wish we knew who those models were!
4. Volkswagen: The Force
This adorable ad aired during the Feb. 6, 2011, game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. The Pack controlled most of the contest, though the second half did see their lead narrow before finishing at a rail-thin 31-25 margin of victory. But long before things got interesting on the gridiron, viewers had already seen this gem, which advertises for the 2012 Volkswagen Passat with a little help from Darth Vader. Or is that a LOT of help from a LITTLE Darth Vader? Who among you doesn’t have some precocious youngster like this in the family? Leave it to dear ol’ Dad to feed those fantasies.
3. Coca-Cola “Hey Kid, Catch!”
Super Bowl XIV was pretty sweet for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not only did they cruise to a 31-19 victory over the Los Angeles Rams, but they also accepted a fourth Super Bowl trophy in less than ten seasons. Not bad for a club that spent much of the Sixties as perennial doormats. But as sweet as it was for the organization, it was even sweeter for the meanest man on the team. “Mean” Joe Greene, a defensive tackle for the black-and-yellow, was an integral part of the “Steel Curtain” D and had been around for each one of those Super Bowl victories. Additionally, he starred in one of the most well-known and loved Super Bowl commercials during this 1980 contest. The “Hey Kid, Catch!” promotion consisted of a battered Greene showing his softer side to an adoring child fan. No one was used to seeing the Mean One in such a heartwarming situation, and as a result, the spot captured a Clio Award as the year’s best advertisement and was even expanded into a TV movie, The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid, starring Greene and Henry Thomas (E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial). In 2009, the Steelers’ strong safety Troy Polamalu starred in a remake commercial for Coke Zero (with the Mean One’s blessing, of course).
2. Google Parisian Love
This ad made its first appearance on Feb. 7, 2010, at Super Bowl XLIV, and while it didn’t receive most of the press attention because it wasn’t funny, didn’t feature a big-name celebrity and didn’t go in for millions of dollars in production value, we think it’s one of the best Super Bowl commercials of all time. Give it a spin, and you’ll see what we’re talking about. Google uses its search engine to walk us through the major cycles of life. Earning an education, expanding your research, using search terms to familiarize yourself with new customs and locations, falling in love and having children. The searches combine with a moving instrumental to tell a story that resonates with us while prominently displaying the product itself and its undeniable impact on our world. You don’t always have to be funny or stupid to make an impact. As with running a business, Google shows us how to do it right.
1. Reebok Terry Tate: Office Linebacker
By far one of the funniest ad campaigns in Super Bowl history, Reebok’s Terry Tate: Office Linebacker may not have done a really great job of advertising the product – very little mention of Reebok is even made in the promo – but it tickles the funny bone and encourages repeat viewings. This was another Super Bowl XXXVII entry – Bucs win, Bucs win, Bucs win – which featured Lester Speight, a former college and USFL football player, as Tate, a former football linebacker, who can’t seem to separate his old job from his new one in the office world. With Tate, you’d better recycle your cans, refill the coffee and watch where you’re going with that mail cart. One screwup could mean “the pain train’s comin’” because when it’s game time, “it’s pain time.” And if you ever felt the wrath of Tate in the office – didn’t matter if you were male or female – then it would come as no surprise to get left with a bone-crunching tackle.
Well, those are our picks. Now let’s see if you agree. Share your thoughts with us below, and Happy Super Bowl!
