2010 Super Bowl Commercials - No Winners

But the Super Bowl Commercials this year looked like they could have had their debut any time during the year. There was nothing special about any of them - but maybe I missed one or two.

I enjoyed the tag football game featuring Bette White and Abe Vigoda of past Barney Miller fame. Well done but for people under 40 (or 45) who don't know Bette White or Abe Vigoda it's like - what are they doing out there?And toward the end of the game I started saying two things: hey, have their been any blitzes by either defensive team and where are the Clydesdales?!

With about four minutes to go, the Clydesdales showed up in a nicely sentimental ad, although not terribly ingenious, from Budweiser that showed the friendship between a Clydesdale and a long horn-my apologies for not knowing the exact breed.

Okay, what about the Budweiser truck driving over a human bridge? Yeah, okay.

Certainly the ad about Internet apps featuring Flickr did absolutely nothing for me, either.

What about casual Friday? Yeah, okay . . . it was funny . . . I can't remember the product.

The human Sea World show for almonds? Yeah, okay, clever. But it still didn't grab me.

Brett Favre accepting the MVP in 2020? Yeah, okay. Mike Ditka and Jim McMahon? Yeah, okay.

How about E-trade with the babies? Yeah, but I see funny ones throughout the year.

And the men walking through the field in their underwear and the man sleepwalking for Coke didn't grab me, either. They just weren't real.

And I feel like Go Daddy is trying to exploit me with Danica Patrick. I'm tired of her.

And herein lies my problem with Super Bowl Commercials today: they try too damn hard to be funny and say "hey, aren't we clever?" So I'm left with "yeah, okay."

My answer is, "No, you're not. We've seen clever and we see it in commercials released throughout the year."

But more importantly, clever and memorable (whether funny or sentimental) requires context with situations where the viewer identifies with the characters or understands what's going on.

It's called context. Comedy and memorable scenes require context. Years ago, I took a comedy writing class with Danny Simon (brother of playwright Neil Simon). He did a terrific job pointing out that comedy comes from real life situations and rises out of organic dilemmas. And, yes, that can be communicated in a television spot - whether 10 seconds, 15 seconds or 30 seconds.

Louie the Lizard was a great spot series for Budweiser. He had dreams and he was trying to accomplish something and conflict arose and his character and personality traits were made obvious. The story line also cut across age differences.

But for the 2010 Super Bowl Commercials, I say "no." Thankfully, there was a game to watch.