• by February 2, 2004

So, what'd you think of this year's crop of Super Bowl ads? So far, polling by America Online and USA Today shows Budweiser in the lead. Between the Clydesdales, a donkey aspiring to be a Clydesdale, bears, monkeys, and other creatures, last night was more like the animal fair ad bowl.

For my part, I thought Deutsch's turbo-charged spot for the Mitsubishi 2004 Galant GTS-V6 was edgy and exciting and most notably, it sent me and probably thousands of others to its website to see what happens in the crash test spot. The site not only offers an excellent primer on the Galant's new features, in addition to warranty and dealer information, but it also compares the Galant's safety features vis-à-vis its closest rivals the Honda Accord EX-V6 and the Toyota Camry XLE-V6. On the site, Mitsubishi allowed consumers to play its kick-ass Super Bowl ad online and tried to build anticipation for the new vehicle by inviting people to sign up to receive an email alert for a sneak peak of its next TV spot.

On another note -- Pepsi made a masterful spot highlighting its online music giveaway via Apple's iTunes Music Store. The ad's star was a little girl, one of several kids sued last year for illegally downloading music from the Web. She promoted Pepsi's plan to counter illegal downloads by printing winning codes on soda caps that will be redeemable for millions of digital downloads from the iTunes Music Store. The ad's soundtrack featured Green Day's version of "I Fought the Law" and was, no doubt, part of the appeal at least for me. But let's see whether Pepsi's plan flies or not. Meanwhile, our love affair with erectile dysfunction via Levitra and Cialis continued last night. The ads either got men into the proverbial game last night, or sent them running sheepishly from their Super Bowl party or neighborhood bar.

But what did you think?