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Feb. 5, 2007

Bud Light immigrant ad earns highest grade in MSU Super Bowl ad competition

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A Bud Light television advertisement featuring immigrants learning how to ask for Bud Light earned the top grade in the Michigan State University Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing’s list of the best commercials of Super Bowl XLI.

While football fans watched the Indianapolis Colts defeat the Chicago Bears in Sunday night’s game, MSU advertising faculty members huddled to watch and grade the commercials. Of the nearly 60 commercials that aired during the Super Bowl, the experts rated the Bud Light commercial as the top ad in a solid but unspectacular year for Super Bowl television ads.

Additional ads from Anheuser-Busch and ads from Coca-Cola and Sprint scored well in the poll, while the Unitedway.org and Salesgenie.com were among spots that brought up the rear.

While the Bud Light spot scored the highest in the MSU poll, overall the faculty thought the spots were subpar.

“Just like the beer industry itself right now, the beer ads were flat," said Bruce Vanden Bergh, professor of advertising at MSU. "Anheuser-Busch's stuff is just OK. It's decent advertising, it just seems like the same stuff they've been doing for 10 years.

“The game was better than the ads for a change.”

Using a 10-point grading scale, the faculty rated each commercial based on creativity, production and overall quality. The team considered whether each commercial’s strategy was unique and relevant to the appropriate target consumers and also determined whether its execution was memorable and bolstered the reputation of the product.

 

“This is the most costly television advertising time of the year because the Super Bowl draws an enormous international audience,” Vanden Bergh said. “Beyond that, there is an intense and growing interest in what has become a separate Super Bowl for television advertisers, and each year the creative bar gets raised.

 

“The interest in the Super Bowl ads has become so intense that if you don’t meet a pretty high standard you actually risk doing harm to your brand.”

Here's how the faculty graded the commercials:

 

Bud Light (immigrants)

                                   134

Coca-Cola (animated)

132

Sprint (connectile dysfunction)

126

Toyota Tundra

124

Budweiser (stray dog)

124

Bud Light (wedding reception)

120

Bud Light (rock, paper, scissors)

118

Bud Light (hitchhiker)

115

Chevrolet HHR

113

Doritos (cash register)

112

Taco Bell (lions)

112

Snickers (mechanics kiss)

109

Chevrolet (Mary J. Blige, celebs)

109

Coca-Cola (animated, vending machine)

106

Doritos

104

FedEx (truck on the moon)

104

Bud Light (monkey)

101

T-Mobile

99

Coca-Cola (black history)

96

Toyota Tundra

96

Sierra Mist (karate students)

95

Coca-Cola  (senior citizens)

95

Snapple green tea

95

GoDaddy.com (marketing)

94

Ford F-450 pickup

93

Careerbuilder.com

93

FedEx (workers’ names)

93

NFL final ad

93

Garmin navigation

92

Blockbuster total access

87

Sierra Mist (guy in shorts)

85

General Motors (robot)

83

Budweiser (lobster)

81

Van Heusen

80

Etrade (one finger)

80

Schick Quatro titanium

79

Revlon (Sheryl Crow)

79

Nationwide Insurance

78

Hewlett Packard Intel

78

Etrade (bank robbery)

76

Honda fuel efficiency

75

Wild Hogs movie

74

NFL (black history)

73

Budweiser (football)

72

Disney (Meet the Robinsons)

71

Careerbuilder.com fighting

                                     70

Honda CR-V

70

Izod

                                     70

Emerald Nuts

                                     65

Bud Light (guy slapping)

64

Prudential (rock solid retirement)

63

Pride movie

62

Beatyourrisk.com

58

Salesgenie.com

54

Hannibal Rising

48

Flomax 

46

Careerbuilder.com

44

Unitedway.org

39

Starter

38

 

 

 

 

 

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