Bowl Buzz: VW's Pipsqueak Dark Lord Steals Show

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When it comes to commercials, Volkswagen's wee Darth Vader is walking away with the Super Bowl trophy, according to early buzz.

"Right now, the Darth Vader spot is leading the voting on AdBowl," Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland in Albuquerque, and founder of the AdBowl, tells Marketing Daily. "It's a rare example of a commercial that is charming and thoughtful -- it's a really human spot, and people are responding to that."

VW's Black Betty spot, featuring a revved-up insect, is also coming on strong. And Chrysler, too, with its long Eminem spot celebrating Detroit's ups and downs, "really stole Chevy's thunder. Those two companies are leading in the car wars."

USA Today's Ad Meter, which tracks second-by-second reactions from a panel of viewers, has a tie for first place: A Bud Light ad, with a bunch of smart dogs catering a party, is in a dead heat with Dorito's door-crashing pug. In that ranking, VW's Darth Vader spot came in third.

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BrandBowl, which ranks ads on a combination of tweets and whether it generated positive or negative sentiments, is ranking the Chrysler Eminem spot in first place, followed by VW's Darth Vader, and then Doritos.

Other high points include a Budweiser ad with a saloon full of Wild West types bursting into an old Elton John tune; the brand's trademark Clydesdales make an appearance. And there's a heartfelt karmic connection between a driver with Bridgestone tires and a grateful Beaver.

Marketers were likely thrilled that the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers made it such a close match-up (Green Bay won, 31 to 25).

But overall, McKee says, he was struck by what he called "a maturity malfunction. Joan Rivers in the Go Daddy spot was dreadful, as were all the Go Daddy spots. And the Kardashian one for Sketchers was beyond bad. Even the PepsiMax, 'I wanna sleep with her, I wanna sleep with her' was in bad taste. I think companies forget that 110 million people are watching, and a lot of them are little kids."

Groupon's spots, he says, including Cuba Gooding Jr. making light of endangered whales and Timothy Hutton woofing on the plight of Tibetans, were also on the questionable side.

Meanwhile, Vitrue's Social Mentions Index named Ford, Groupon and Volt as the Top 3 leaders. "The auto brands really showed up in social mentions largely by connecting their Super Bowl campaigns socially," said Reggie Bradford, CEO of Vitrue, a social media software company. "And, of course, we think Volkswagen scored high (No. 13) due to its Darth Vader and the force commercial. Not a stretch to say it's probably a universal favorite and no doubt generated much buzz prior to the big game, during, and will most likely continue. Great creative concept that garnered tremendous buzz."

Others in its Top 10 were Teleflora, GM, Carmax, Bud Light, E*Trade, Audi and Chevy.

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