(Originally posted Monday, February 5th, 2007)
… I’ll tell you in a second. But first, Is anybody else confused as to why CBS is pushing the new David Spade/Patrick Warburton sitcom “Rules of Engagement” so hard and then putting it on at the same time as “24” and “Heroes”? I think David Spade is hilarious (though completely at fault for how bitingly sarcastic our culture is) and I would be likely to DVR the first few episodes to see if it’s any good. Now, there’s not a chance I will see it. I have a dual tuner DVR so I can record two things at once, but that’s it. And there is no way I’m missing an episode of “24” or “Heroes” just to see if David Spade is still funny.
So yeah, the Super Bowl was yesterday and whether or not you broke the law by watching it at a church party or just took it in at home I’m sure you had an opinion on the most important part of Super Bowl Sunday, the commercials. As far as I’m concerned, Coke was the clear winner this year. Not just that they had the best one commercial, but their entire ad campaign was genius. Choosing to be positive, fun, and happy in a sea of negative, rude, and dull commercials paid off big time. The coke spots were a breath of fresh air compared to everything else. Career Builder was comparing your job to the “Lord of the Flies”, Bud was encouraging rock throwing, wedding botching, hitchhiker hosting, and slapping each other, and GMC telling us that if we didn’t buy their product a robot would commit suicide (or something like that). The point is while everyone else was telling us life stinks, Coke said, life is happy. Their black history month spots were great, the “What happens inside the Coke machine?” spot was one of the most creative and fun spots I’ve ever seen, and the old guy zooming off to find new life experiences was joyous. But what really stole the show was the Grand Theft Auto spoof in which a presumed ne’er-do-well ends up changing his environment by doing random acts of kindness. It was a perfect encapsulation of what Coke was doing with their brand, turning the negative advertising on it’s head, and standing out by promoting positivity.
Way to go Coke, you nailed it.