The Wall Street Journal-20080204-Coke- Clydesdales Score With Super Bowl Viewers

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Coke, Clydesdales Score With Super Bowl Viewers

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A number of marketers tried to win over Super Bowl viewers with gross-out ads, but two feel-good commercials were the big hits among advertising executives and consumers.

Coca-Cola Co. had one of the most popular spots. The ad, made by Wieden + Kennedy, shows Underdog and Stewie balloons fighting over a Coke balloon during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade -- only to be defeated by Charlie Brown. "Awesome and exactly what a Super Bowl commercial should be," says Mark DiMassimo, chief executive of DiMassimo Goldstein, a boutique ad agency. "It's big, epic, sunny and beautiful."

"Yes, Charlie Brown finally gets the win," says Bud Kerwin, a 31- year-old salesman from Chicago.

Anheuser-Busch Co.'s Clydesdales, a perennial fan favorite, also scored among ad and marketing executives and consumers surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. The Budweiser spot, created by Omnicom Group Inc.'s DDB Chicago, shows a horse failing to make the team of Clydesdales chosen to pull the Budweiser wagon. But with the help of a Dalmatian who plays the role of personal trainer, Hank the horse eventually succeeds.

"I loved it and it made me cry," says Rochelle Fainstein, a junior creative director at Havas SA's Arnold New York. "The guys and girls at my party liked that ad the most," says Steven Murry, a 32-year-old manager at the United States Soccer Federation from Chicago. "You can't go wrong with horses and dogs."

In a year in which the game ended in an upset, the lineup of high- priced commercials also beat expectations, those surveyed said. "Welcome back, Madison Avenue, you came up with the goods this year," says Dean Crutchfield, a branding expert at Omnicom's Wolff Olins.

It wasn't only the warm and fuzzy ads that did well during the game. Several gag-joke spots also stood out, including one from FedEx Corp., and several from Anheuser, long the biggest advertiser during the pigskin matchup.

FedEx's ad, via Omnicom's BBDO, features gargantuan pigeons being used as a delivery service. "FedEx always has good Super Bowl ads, and this one is on point and really funny," says John Staffen, chief creative officer at Arnold NY. "The ad was memorable and is likely to be the one talked about," says Matt Krehbiel, a 29-year-old student at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill., who was watching the game with a group of 36 students and faculty.

One spot that caused some people to laugh out loud was a Bud Light ad that shows a man with the ability to breathe fire wreaking havoc during a romantic dinner. The man accidentally sets the house, his date and her cat ablaze. "That ad was hilarious," says Eric McCue, an electrician from Hartsdale, N.Y.

The Cinderella story of the evening was Procter & Gamble Co.'s ad for Tide to Go, which features a talking stain. "Brilliant ad for a boring category," says Mr. Crutchfield, of Wolff Olins. "It resonated with me," says Kevin Quinn, 42, a small-business owner in Minneapolis. "We have all been there."

With more than 90 million people in the U.S. expected to tune into Sunday's game, dozens of advertisers had no qualms about forking over as much as $2.7 million for 30 seconds worth of ad time. Despite an increase in prices -- last year's top price was $2.6 million -- ad time for the game sold out faster than it has in years. With media splintering at a dizzying pace, the annual football game remains the biggest mass-marketing vehicle. Viewership levels are nearly double that of its nearest competitor, the Oscars.

Because some 60 spots air during the game, getting attention isn't easy. Some ads stood out for the wrong reason. A commercial created by Wieden + Kennedy for Careerbuilder.com, the online job site owned by Gannett Co., Tribune Co., McClatchy Co. and Microsoft Corp., features a computerized image of a heart jumping out of a woman's chest and holding up a sign that says "I Quit" in front of her boss.

"That was stupid and morbid," says Walter Ivers, a 39-year-old teacher in New York City.

In Careerbuilder's other spot, an animated firefly answers the call of an unhappy office worker. The two sing a duet and things are looking up -- until a cartoon spider swings down and captures the firefly. "I just didn't get it," says David Corr, an executive creative director at the New York office of Publicis USA, a unit of Publicis Groupe.

For some companies, gross-out humor worked. An ad from AMP Energy drink, which is owned by PepsiCo Inc., shows a fat man who, to start a stalled car, attaches jumper cables to his nipples and chugs the drink. "A jolt of fun," said Joseph Mazzaferro, a creative director at MDC Partners Inc.'s Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners. And E*Trade Financial Corp.'s spot, which, through the use of special effects, shows a baby talking and spitting up on his computer while making trades, got some laughs.

A spot for Victoria's Secret in which a scantily clad model reminds football fans that Valentine's Day is around the corner was a hit with some viewers. "I hope my wife watched that ad," says Simeon Roane, executive creative director at Publicis. Victoria's Secret is owned by Limited Brands Inc.

Volkswagen AG's Audi, which returned to the game after almost 20 years with a Godfather-themed spot to promote its new R8 sports car, was seen as the winner of the ad battle among the car companies. The ad shows a man awakening with grease all over his sheets and hands and finding the front end of a car under his sheets. "Unique ad and a great way to sell a car," says Gradwell Sears, an art director at Arnold. Perhaps more importantly, almost a dozen people surveyed said the car was "hot."

Ads from General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co. lacked flair, many of the ad executives and consumers we talked with said.

Typical for Super Bowl ads, a number paraded celebrities across the screen, including actress Carmen Electra, baseball star Derek Jeter and NBA luminaries Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade. But only a few managed to truly entertain, according to the ad and marketing executives surveyed. Among the successes was funny-man Will Ferrell in a spot for Bud Light playing a character from his new movie "Semi- Pro."

An ad for Diet Pepsi Max featuring Missy Elliott, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes and Macy Gray, all nodding off until they are revived by drinking Diet Pepsi-Max, had some watchers tapping their toes. "A lot of fun and entertaining," says Tiffany Tyler, a 26-year-old student at the Kellogg School of Management.

A star-driven ad that failed to live up to expectations for those surveyed was one from PepsiCo's SoBe Life Water that shows lizards dancing with model Naomi Campbell. "I thought I was watching an ad for Geico," says Bill Ward, professor of marketing at Alfred University's College of Business.

The biggest fumble of the night with viewers was by Salesgenie.com, a company that provides databases to marketers. More than half-a-dozen ad executives found the company's animation spots offensive. In one ad, a married panda-bear couple speaking with Asian accents worries that they may go out of business but are saved by a panda psychic who recommends Salesgenie; the other ad shows a white boss berating an Indian salesman, Ramesh, who has eight children.

"Its hard to imagine that a company would be that insensitive," says Rita Rodriguez, chief executive of the Brand Union US, a branding firm owned by WPP Group PLC.