I love football, but I love Super Bowl ads even more.
This year, however, I was disappointed.

• GoDaddy: Seriously? Too hot for TV stuff still? I would think Danica Patrick would have some more self respect than this. But then again, I guess she needs to sexify the racing world. Do the pervy guys who go to GoDaddy to look for the “rest of the videos” actually buy domains and hosting services? Would be interesting to find out. I personally avoid them if possible.
• ETrade: Babies were cute for a while, but when the baby gets older and you have to replace it with a new, younger ETrade baby, it might be time to switch it up and come up with a new concept.
• Doritos: The Doritos in the coffin was just kind of disturbing.

A couple of highlights for me were:

• Kia and the sock monkey. Who can deny the cuteness of a sock monkey? And the thought of the sock money with his homie’s hitting up Las Vegas “The Hangover” style is kind of hilarious. What it said about the car though, is still confusing.
• Budweiser. Let’s face it. We all know who Budweiser is. We all know the Clydesdales. And for that, the ad of the Clydesdale befriending the Steer was a good balance of familiarity and cute.

But the winner by far as to be Google and its love story. What could have been boring and bland ended up with a surprise I caught on to halfway through the spot.

• Brand: Google won by showcasing their brand front and center through the entire ad. Everyone knows what Google looks like, and the simplicity of the Google home page coupled with the simplicity of the ad was a true win, consistent with their brand image.
• Product Features: We saw several Google features throughout the ad. Clever and sly: suggested spelling feature, auto search suggestions, Local Business Center, translations, web definitions, flight status, etc. What a better way to demonstrate the ease of using Google as a search engine that showing it’s strengths?
• Compelling Story: Just by watching the search terms, we built a story of the action in our mind. No fancy shots of the Eiffel tower or Lourve or a cute couple in love for this spot. Just the Google homepage. And an ad that could have been created using any screen capture tool.

What ads did you like? Hate?

To see them all, visit this nifty Hulu site: