EAST LANSING, Mich. — Two Doritos television advertisements earned the top grades in the Michigan State University Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing’s list of the best commercials of Super Bowl XLIII.
While football fans watched the Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Arizona Cardinals in Sunday night’s game, MSU advertising faculty members huddled to watch and grade the commercials.
Of the 51 commercials that aired during the Super Bowl, the experts rated two Doritos spots, one featuring changing people and a second ad of throwing snow globes, as the top two.
“Beer usually is the king of Super Bowl advertising,” said MSU advertising instructor Robert Kolt. “But the Doritos ads were both funny and well produced, and Super Bowl fans love good humor in the big game.”
Other commercials featuring a Clydesdale fetching a tree limb and a Bud Light ad featuring Conan O’Brien also scored high marks from the advertising faculty, closely followed by animated ads produced by Coke and Sobe, which aired in 3-D.
Using a 10-point grading scale, the 18 faculty members rated each commercial based on creativity, production and overall quality. The faculty considered whether each commercial’s strategy was unique and relevant to the appropriate consumers and also determined whether the ad’s execution was memorable and bolstered the reputation of the product.
Among this year’s worst commercials were ads for movies Transformers and Race to Witch Mountain, closely followed by an ad for CareerBuilder.com.
This year’s top 10 Super Bowl commercials were:
Doritos (world changes)
Doritos (throwing globe)
Budweiser (Clydesdale can fetch)
Bud Light (Conan O’Brien airs in Sweden)
Coke Zero (Steelers’ Troy Polamalu in Mean Joe Green classic)
Sobe (3-D ballet)
Coca-cola (bugs take guy’s Coke)
Bud Light (guy jumps out the window)
Teleflora (boxed flowers insults valentine)
Pepsi-cola (forever young)
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