poltr1 | Feb. 2nd, 2004

Like most men here in the US, I watched the Big Game last night. I wasn't rooting for either team, so once again, the main reason was to watch the commercials. I rate them on a 0-5 scale:

5 is ROTFL / "Holy Sh--!" / a commercial that's remembered for years
(Examples: Apple "1984", EDS "Cat Herding")
4 is LOL / "Whoa!" / a commercial that's remembered the next day
(Examples: Budweiser "Bud Bowl" series, monster.com "Kids")
3 is chuckle / "Cool!" / a clever commercial
(Examples: Most Anheuser-Busch and Pepsi commercials)
2 is no reaction / "OK" / Typical Super Bowl commercial
(Examples: Schick, Gillette, Master Lock "Bullet through the padlock")
1 is bored / "Ho-hum" / I've seen it before
(Examples: Ads for the NFL or other network programs)
0 is offended / "WTF?"

There weren't any 5s this year. Three commercials rated a 4: Budweiser "Fergus the Dog", Budweiser "Sleigh Ride", and H&R Block "Willie Nelson Advice Doll". (Halfway through the commercial, I remembered that Willie was being pursured by the IRS for tax evasion several years ago.) Yeah, those two Bud commercials seemed sophmoroic and juvenile in retrospect, but they made me laugh out loud. The Budweiser "Clydesdale Donkey", Pepsi's "Bears", and Staples "Supply Clerk" commercials rated a high 3. One rated a 0: the AOL "Top Speed - Wheelchair", where a souped-up wheelchair takes off upward instead of forward.

Read the USA Today article about the Super Bowl ads.

And here are their Ad Meter stats.

( And at halftime, Justin Timberlake gets nasty with Miss Jackson. )

Oh yeah....Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow again today. No big surprise. I still think groundhogs are cute and cuddly, but I wouldn't want them as pets. I'm surprised he hasn't bitten his handlers yet for rousing him out of a nice winter's hibernation.