Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Oh that isn’t a nice opening sentence for this review, but that surely caught the viewers attention on this Bridgestone Tire TV Ad. The element of surprise was there—a squirrel in the middle of the street screams after seeing a fast car approaching towards him. And a raccoon, an owl, a bunny, a mouse, a turtle, a deer, a grasshopper, and other squirrels in the forest all scream with him. Including the wife of the driver of the car. Good enough the squirrel is saved by Bridgestone Tires.

This Ad is a great example for the ‘animal magnetism’ I mentioned in the theme’s page. The use of talking or screaming animals in an ad acknowledge the man’s curiosity if animals converse or have feelings, thus he’ll watch the ad with amusement. However, the creative team has to make sure that product they are advertising would be remembered at the end of the Ad. To be effective it has to have a perfect execution, and a great copy. In this Bridgestone Tire commercial, the creative team did not fail. This commercial is one of the Top 10 Brand Commercials in Super Bowl 2008.

Here are the ten most-recalled TV commercials that were launched during the Super Bowl 2008. The survey was conducted by IAG Research. Please click the links to watch the commercials and read my reviews.

1. Using pigeons on shipping instead of FedEx

2. Budweiser with Thunder and his best bud dalmatian

3. eTrade baby who bought stock online

4. Doritos with the mouse trap

5. Bud Light enables the drinker to breathe fire

6. Bud Light on a wine and cheese party

7. Diet Pepsi with nodding people

8. eTrade baby’s savings account

9. Bud Light’s cavemen

10. Planters with the not-so-good-looking girl

Yeah, the pigeons are on the first spot in IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads. A company is shipping their products through extraordinary pigeons (or the carriers), pigeons that are equipped with GPS and night-vision. Unfortunately, his boss get disappointed on how the big pigeons are shipping their big products.

Well the message is, don’t use pigeons, use FedEx.

So earning the 2nd spot on IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ad is Thunder, with his bud Dalmatian dog. How touchy… Despite their differences—a dog and a horse—they were best friends.

Thunder almost got the job to become one of the main Budweiser horses, unfortunately, his boss changed his mind and his best friend came to the rescue. Thunder went training for a year, and his efforts paved off when he got the job a year after.

The creative team behind this commercial, really got excellent choices for background music to tell the mood of the story—a sad one, for being rejected; then a Rocky’s theme song while the horse was in training; and lastly, a victorious background music to tell Thunder was finally chosen as one of the main Budweiser’s horses.

In the whole ad, you wouldn’t see any Budweiser bottle, you just saw Thunder’s boss cap with Budweiser on it. And the Budweiser logo at the end of the ad. Sometimes, you don’t need to show the product especially if it is already known. You just have to reinforce the brand like in this case, they reinforced that Budweiser is ‘The Great American Lager’.

But I wouldn’t say that the horse training to become a capable main Budweiser horse wasn’t related to Budweiser beer itself. They were in fact related. Since a ‘lager beer’ is created by storing it for long time so it will taste better. In case of Thunder, his boss thought it was still not the right time, for him to become more capable as Budweiser’s horse. And his boss was right, Thunder still needed another year to become a great Budweiser horse.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this Doritos commercial featuring a guy trapping a mouse is on the 4th spot. Who’s attention wouldn’t be triggered, when you hear an opera-like background music and see a guy in suit holding a Doritos!? Then this guy is putting a piece of Doritos on a mouse trap. Isn’t he crazy? Well, maybe the advertisers want to say that Doritos tastes like real cheese that even a mouse would love its taste. That could be a nice tagline. Unfortunately, you should not eat a lot of Doritos in front of a mouse hole.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this version of Bud Light commercial is on the 5th spot. “Bud Light is brewed to give you everything you want in a beer: never-ending refreshment, superior drinkability…. and now the ability to breathe fire.”

I remember what my Advertising professor told the class, that in the in first 15 minutes seconds of the commercial, you should had already introduced the product to the viewers, but with this ad, Bud Light beer was already in the first 5 seconds and was presented elegantly. Then viewers would anticipate more of an elegance throughout the ad, but they were surprised to see that it turned out funny. Breathe fire? Wtf? oopss… sorry for that. I just thought how other viewers would react. But isn’t that impressive? You can lit the candle in a candle-light dinner, in a very special way. Too bad though if you got allergy, because your romantic date would end up a disaster.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this E*TRADE Ad featuring a talking baby was on the 3rd spot. The Ad perfectly expressed the company’s “tireless effort to challenge the old ways of doing business” by showing it is easy to buy stocks online since a baby can do it. With the use of E*TRADE of course.

The commercial offered the solution to a problem—most people are hesitant to invest in the market because of their young age. But these people really don’t need to worry because anyone can buy stocks, even if they are as young as a baby, which of course was just an exaggeration.

I love the baby’s facial expression when he said, “I just bought stock, you just saw me buy stock” and of course when he threw up and said “whooah”. Really funny. Such commercials are easily remembered and worth talking about with your friends.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this Bud Light commercial featuring bottles hidden in a ‘serious cheese’ is on the 6th spot. Upon showing sneaky husbands with Bud Light beer in a wine and cheese party, this ad cleverly captured the hearts of men. Simple but not cheesy.

Didn’t the wife of the guy who brought the cheese get curious why bring such big size of cheese? Well, it’s funny though how these ladies were enjoying a classy wine-and-cheese party, when their men were in the kitchen enjoying a Bud Light party, watching a football game.

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, the nodding people of Diet Pepsi’s ad is on the 7th spot. Its high recall among the viewers should be credited to the famous Haddaway’s song, “What Is Love?” and its parody of the Saturday Night Live sketch’s “A Night at the Roxbury.”

And because of the continuous showing of sleepy heads with the upbeat song in the background, this Ad was successful in telling to the viewers Pepsi’s message—that when they feel sleepy, all they have to do is drink the new Diet Pepsi Max which has Ginseng, and more caffeine. And they will surely move their heads like these people, well…. I mean they will be energetic again.

Watching the commercial, I could relate to this nodding people. I often have a sleepy head in public, and several times I had hit my sleepy head on the bus’s window pane. It hurt and to avoid the embarrassment in case someone noticed me, I just smiled as if nothing happened. I guess I have to bring Diet Pepsi Max now wherever I go.
Below are different videos related to this Diet Pepsi Max commercial:

The Saturday Night Live’s Sketch featuring Jim Carrey and 2 other men I am not familiar of.

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Haddaway’s Music Video of his ‘What is Love’ song.

DON’T FORGET PARODY

In IAG Top 10 Most-Recalled 2008 Super Bowl Ads, this E*TRADE Ad featuring a baby banking was on the 8th spot. The Ad suggests that if the target audience would open a savings account with E*TRADE, their earnings will be 8 times the national average. The humorous narrative of a baby doing banking was indeed a clever strategy to instill the message into our minds.

So what did the baby do with his extra money? He rented a clown.

I love the part when the baby was pointing the clown he rented behind him, and whoah… he underestimated the creepinees. Poor baby.