2/8/10
The Super Bowl Ad Superlatives (in the Love and Sex Category)

BEST OVERALL: Dove Men+Care’s “The Journey to Comfort”
At last, a commercial that celebrates manhood without being sexist, stupid or beer-related! It’s basically a mini-movie crammed into 45-seconds (seriously, try counting the number of scenes they had to shoot) that follows one Everyman’s life from birth to adulthood by highlighting the big moments as well as the mundane ones: puberty, love, marriage, jar-opening, parenthood. The message is “You’re mature and comfortable enough in your own skin that you don’t have to worry about seeming like a pussy if you want to moisturize your skin.” And it avoids all the divisive or offensive gender stereotypes often found in Super Bowl ads. BUT — and it’s a big “but” — the title of “best ad” only applies to the 45-second version that aired during the Super Bowl last night. If you search online for it (and on the Dove site), the version that will probably come up first is the ONE minute version, which sadly DOES include a bunch of tired gender stereotypes, like fighting at parties, never showing your sensitive side and never showing fear — ugh! Like with good film making, good commercial making is all about editing, editing, editing.

45-Second Version (Yay!):

One-Minute Version (Boo!):

MOST ROMANTIC: Google’s “Parisian Love”
Who knew Google even had to advertise? Maybe they don’t; maybe they just can. And this simple yet elegant and emotionally powerful ad, which follows a love story via Google searches, only confirms why they are such a force to be reckoned with: they get what people want (in more ways than one).

MOST SEXIST: Dodge Charger’s “Man’s Last Stand”
Bridgestone’s “Your Tires or Your Life” came close to capturing this award (for it’s lame old joke that has a douchebag handing over his wife to a marauding band of scary-looking male outlaws in order to save his car’s beloved tires), but Dodge clinched it with their spot featuring a range of dead-behind-the-eyes husbands/boyfriends who have been beaten down by doing such emasculating and soul-crushing (read: considerate) tasks as putting the seat down and putting dirty underwear in the hamper and listening to their partners’ opinions — the horror, the horror! Well, because these brave yet broken men do all these selfless things, there is one thing they can — nay, will — be selfish about: the kind of car they drive. Gag.

FUNNIEST: CareerBuilder.com’s “Casual Friday”
And you thought your work environment was bad.

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5 Comments

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  2. But, it was one of those “Manly Scrubbies” on the Dove ad.

    My Man laughed and just said, “Yep.” Basically, his life.

  3. most of the ads this year were pretty lame. i was hoping that the “busted baby” of E-Trade would have at least placed in the top five.
    you have to admit that it was quite funny.

  4. Agree that the Dodge ad was pathetic, but disagree on funniest, which was the Doritos ad with the electric dog collar. We only had four people here, so not a large sample size, but the vote was unanimous.

    Mixed reviews on the Dove ad; it was good until the male half of our festive crowd realized it was a promotion for metrosexual skin care. No takers here for the multiple bottles of lotions and toners and little face scrubbies for men. So, there you go.

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