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Super game. Dull ads

As a passionate Giants fan it is safe to say that I had a good time yesterday.

But as an advertising professional I felt a bit underwhelmed by the caliber of the advertising.

Many were entertaining. But few possessed that intangible Super Bowl-ness...big, pop-cultural, fun. Even fewer seemed to have anything relevant to say about the brand, such as the Planters "uni-brow" spot. I loved the Bridgestone "screaming animals" spot, but it would have been a much better spot for the Saab featured in the spot than the tires the car rode upon. As for Bud, good spots, but I've seen the dog and horse thing before. Tide's talking stain was funny, but did it have Super Bowl-ness?

My fav? The Coke "balloon float" spot. It was classic Coke (for Coke Classic). Big. Entertaining. Unexpected twist. Utterly charming. And Charlie Brown finally won something. Coke is about smiles. And that spot was just that.

The Audi spot that I wrote about last week lived up to its billing. It was extremely dramatic and signaled a new era for Audi. The R8 is gorgeous. Although I think the spot itself will work better in other programming -- e.g., Academy Awards. Super Bowl fans like to laugh.