Words to live by

“You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does..."

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Favorite 2011 Super Bowl Ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsPfaR6Rm3o

It's hard enough for me to get through the Super Bowl as is. I don't do football. I don't do beer. I don't do drunken idiots screaming at the television and body slamming. The only thing I can do is the ads. And this year that was more painful than everything else combined. The lack of originality, creativity, and, well, smarts was astounding.
One of the few that I did manage to have some sort of appreciation for was Chrysler's "This is the Motor City" ad featuring Eminem. Clocking in at 2:00 minutes long, I instantly fell in love with this tough-love ad/short film. I loved the opening gritty, almost home-movie-ish video footage of the city. I loved the copy with it's hypothetical questions and heartfelt yet witty tone of voice. I loved the opening music and how it faded into Eminem's "Lose Yourself". And despite my indifference towards Eminem, I actually did not mind him in it either.
What I did mind was the fact that it was a car ad. I think that the ad would have been much more effective if it had just been for the city of Detroit and the car industry there in general on behalf of Chrysler. I found that the product shots were almost unnecessary and instead took away from ad. Just as I was falling into the allure of the advertisement, I was reminded once again that they were trying to sell me something, like all of that gushy, emotional copy was just a facade, which all advertisements obviously are but the best ones are the ones that have you thinking they are not.

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