Super Bowl's top
ad: Bud Light's 'Weego'
Media buyers name the spot the best of this year's commercials
By Toni Fitzgerald
Feb 9, 2012
Bud Light had only one funny Super Bowl ad this year, but that was all it needed to impress media people.
The company's "Weego" ad, in which a rescue dog is trained to retrieve Bud Lights, was the best ad of the big game, according to media buyers and planners.
They voted "Weego" tops in a poll posted Monday by Media Life asking readers to rate this year's Super Bowl crop.
Just over 20 percent voted "Weego" the best ad in the game. Volkswagen's "The Dog Strikes Back" placed second with 16.8 percent of the vote.
Honda's "Matthew's Day Off," an homage to the Ferris Bueller movies, placed third with 12 percent of the vote, followed by Doritos' "Sling Baby" (8.4 percent) and Chevy's "Happy Grad" (6.6 percent).
Chrysler's "Halftime in America," M&M's "It's That Kind of Party" and Doritos' "Man's Best Friend" tied for sixth at 5.4 percent.
Still, many media people thought Bud Light had erred by abandoning its traditional humorous approach. Media Life asked readers, "Do you think Anheuser-Busch was wise to go with mostly serious ads this year?"
Fifty-three percent of readers said no, the company should have stuck with its former approach, while 39 percent said the company made the right choice. Eight percent chose "other," with several saying they had no opinion on the matter.
As for the game's worst ad, it was a tie between CareerBuilder's chimp ad, which drew criticism from several readers for using live animals, and GoDaddy's racy ad starring Jillian Michaels and Danica Patrick. Both got 26 percent of the vote.
TAX Act's "Free to Pee," in which a little boy relieves himself in the swimming pool, took third place with 10.1 percent of the vote.
The Coca-Cola polar bears were fourth at 8.3 percent, with Pepsi's "X Factor" ad and Cars.com's "Confidence" tied for fifth at 7.7 percent.
Asked whether this year's ads were better, worse or about the same quality as last year, the greatest share of readers, 46 percent, chose the same as last year. Forty-five percent said they were worse than last year, and just 9 percent said better than last year.
Clearly readers were not all that impressed with the ads. Media Life asked them to rate this year's ads on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being terrible and 10 being great, and most chose the 4 to 6 range.
That may be because so much attention is paid to the ads in the run-up to the game that it's impossible to live up to the hype.
Media Life asked readers whether Super Bowl ads have become overhyped, and the vast majority, 76.3 percent, said they have.
Just 23.7 percent said they have not.
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