An online consensus seems to have formed around several spots that aired during Fox's telecast of the Super Bowl on Sunday: Bridgestone's "Reply All," Chrysler's "Imported From Detroit" and Volkswagen's "The Force" were deemed the best of the bunch.
But movie ads had their own parallel contest -- think of it as the Puppy Bowl to the Super Bowl -- with roughly a dozen commercials for upcoming films. Which ones did the best job of enticing viewers? The "E.T." stylings of the "Super 8" teaser? The strangely low-key ad for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon"? The whimsy of "Rango"?
Refresh your memories with the commercials below, then vote in our poll.
Movies figured into some of the biggest ads during Sunday's Super Bowl. Unfortunately for Hollywood, those weren't commercials for movies.
A number of the best-received spots referenced well-known films: Kia threw a slew of movie tropes at the screen — including a helicopter chase and an alien invasion — with a spot for its new Optima called “One Epic Ride.” Coke featured a bevy of computer-generated ogres with cinematic overtones in one of its commercials.
Meanwhile, Chevrolet used a car hanging off a bridge “Inception”-style, and a spot for Budweiser saw a saloon crowd join together in a rendition of Elton John's “Tiny Dancer” in the manner of a popular scene from Cameron Crowe's “Almost Famous.”
Perhaps the most buzzed-about commercial invoked “Star Wars” as Volkswagen touted its new Passat in a spot called “The Force” that used a child dressed as Darth Vader to promote the car's remote-controlled ignition.
The actual movie ads? They landed with more of a thud.
Perhaps the most well received — or at least the most intriguing — came with “Super 8,” the J.J. Abrams-directed, Steven Spielberg-executive produced science-fiction film that comes out in June. While some Twitter users said it reminded them a little too much of Spielberg's “E.T.,” comments about the commercial were retweeted often and generously. (That's the video above.)
Another Spielberg-affiliated movie, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” earned a warmer reception than ads for previous films in that franchise, in part because the spot took a less noisy approach than earlier incarnations. (The Paramount Pictures film also teamed with Chevrolet for a post-game spot called “Bumblebee,” named after the auto-robot in the film; both the car brand and the movie were flogged in the commercial.)
But a pregame ad for the new Adam Sandler comedy “Just Go With It,” with a woman running on a beach in a bikini, was less well regarded.
Passing almost as quickly were short spots for “Thor,” Kenneth Branagh's Marvel superhero film, and Fox's ad for the talking-bird animated film “Rio,” which also tried to hook viewers with a multimedia campaign. A spot for Johnny Depp's animated movie “Rango,” directed by Gore Verbinski, did earn a reasonably enthusiastic reception.
Depp also saw his “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” promoted during the game in a commercial that emphasized comedy over action. "Captian America: The First Avenger," meanwhile, gave audiences their first look at the World War II action adventure.
Hotly anticipated coming into the game was a spot for Jon Favreau's genre-bending “Cowboys & Aliens,” which comes out in July. [For the record: An earlier version of this post said that the film was being released in June.] But the immediate reaction online was lukewarm. (The full video below.)
Companies paid as much as $100,000 per second to advertise during the Super Bowl. Nearly a dozen films were pushed before or during the big game, with the aim of appealing to the largest single-day audience on the TV calendar. Last year, however, that effort yielded mixed results: For every ad promoting mega-hit “Alice in Wonderland,” there seemed to be one touting a dud like “The Wolf Man.”
Hollywood did make its presence felt in other ways on Sunday evening. Popping up in several ads were the unlikely faces of Oscar winners: Adrien Brody, Timothy Hutton and Cuba Gooding Jr. all hawked products during the show.
Perhaps the best that can be said of the movie spots during the Super Bowl last night is that no one's talking about them. Amid a mind-numbing and often-banal parade of the Dorito-loving and the pant-less, the spots for films like "The Prince of Persia" and "Alice in Wonderland" generally escaped scorn, if also good mention of any kind.
The "Shutter Island" ad was probably the most compelling of the bunch, and it had been shown before. "The Wolfman," which took just 15 seconds to make its Gothic, shape-shifting points instead of the trailer's minute-and-a-half, was a fine if unremarkable reminder of the Del Toro-fest set to premiere this Friday. "Alice in Wonderland" was intriguing but cryptic and overly "Where the Wilds Things Are"; it may simply be too hard to showcase the weird brilliance of Tim Burton in 30 seconds (at least we hope that's the reason). "The Prince of Persia" ad was entirely forgettable.
It's a curious crossroads for the film business and its Super Bowl involvement, which was already on the wane this year. Many movies will doubtless see little direct effect from their budget-chomping spots. (It's telling that, in contrast to a few years ago, most of the movies advertised are opening in the coming weeks, not this spring or summer; it's certainly not the platform for a big unveiling that it once was). And if "Iron Man 2" and other franchises sitting on the sidelines open to big business despite their big-game absence, it will further raise questions about the wisdom of spending so big for pieces of marketing that, creatively and commercially, do so little.
Film culture did find its way into the spots, some of it in the better ads. "National Lampoon's Vacation" made a (sort of) subtle appearance in a Homeaway ad reference to the '80s comedy classic. Bridgestone nodded to a modern comedy classic with its "Hangover"-inspired use of a killer whale. And memories of "This Is Spinal Tap" came flooding back with Christopher Guest's commercial for the Census Bureau." In the future, the best way Super Bowl commercials could be about the movies is not to be about the movies.
Super Bowl movie spots haven't featured much these past few years besides things getting blown up, as though one has wandered from the (semi) wit of beer and snack food spots smack into Michael Bay's editing room. In three of the most popular live-action spots last year -- for "Transformers," "G.I. Joe" and "Star Trek" -- a total of exactly eight lines of dialogue were uttered (and with gems like "You don't stop, you don't hide, you run," Noel Coward it wasn't).
So it may not be the worst thing in the world that we're seeing fewer ads this year, as only three studios (campaigns for approximately seven movies) splurge on the $3-million buys. Studios instead are relying on the more cost-effective province of Comic-Con and the Web. (Paramount, responsible for all three of the aforementioned spots, has opted for just those avenues for "Iron Man 2," holding back on a Super Bowl ad for the film despite the massive success of an "Iron Man" commercial two years ago.)
Still, the reaction to the trailers does have a way of foretelling quality and commercial reception, which is why ads for the likes of "Shutter Island," "Alice in Wonderland" and, possibly, "The Prince of Persia" will be watched closely when the game kicks off momentarily. In the meantime, behold one of the 2009 gems. It's a low bar; someone, for the love of Peyton, please kick it over.