As quickly as possible, try and recall the last beer commercial you saw on TV (domestic brands only). You know what, it doesn’t even have to be recently, just pull one from the depths of your memory and dust it off. OK, now that you’ve got it loaded up what do you see? Bikini-clad women? Moronic guys doing stupid stuff? Talking animals? Surely I got at least one right.

Basically, it didn’t look like this:

That’s just a random Sam Adams spot, and I love them all. I’m not a big Sam Adams drinker, but I applaud their diversity. Sam Adams spots don’t need beautiful models, slapstick humor, or any of the cliches you’ve seen time and time again. Did you get the irony at the end there?

The spots are filled with the appreciation of the passion that goes into making distinctive, great beer. Plus, Jim Koch is a staple of the creative and I feel that is the heart and soul of the execution.

To take a look at other Sam Adams spots, click here.

The all-new Suzuki Kizashi looks pretty hot. I can’t think of the last time I’ve given a second look at a Suzuki vehicle, but this time, I’m doing a triple take.

I’ve seen two national Suzuki spots for the Kizashi so far, and they are so different. Before I comment, take a look for yourself:

One of these spots has all of the generic necessities of your “me too” car spot. Yes, I’m referring to the “,” spot. Stylized interior/exterior shots? Check. Car shown driving across terrain not encountered by 98.9% of the population on a daily basis (in this case, that would be the desert)? Check. More stylized interior/exterior shots of the car with witty banter being read in the background. Check. Basically, The “Rich Guys” spot is one Led Zeppelin song away from looking like your typical Cadillac spot.

Now, take “Wicked Weather,” and that’s some creative that I can get behind. While it does have some familiar elements from your day-to-day car spot, it adds something new to the mix — evil snowmen that appear birthed from the imagination of Tim Burton. Hey, sue me. I like different; especially in an industry filled with creative doppelgangers.

Plus, it shows a person driving within the first five seconds. It took about 25 seconds in the “Rich Guys” ad. I want to see your average Joe behind the wheel, not distant shots of a stunt driver the whole time. I want to picture myself behind the wheel, so I appreciate the extra driver footage in the “Wicked Weather” creative. Also, I think the snow environment is a much better showcase for the all-wheel drive availability.

In the US, I’ll go out on a limb and say that the average American sees more snow in a year than sand. So, “Rich Guys” spot (and every other spot that uses a desert locale), please take notice.

If you’re a grammar hound like I am, your alarm bell just went off when you read the title of this post. If your grammar skills are a little rusty, allow me to shed some light on the problem: there’s no such word as “their’s.” The apostrophe isn’t needed because the pronoun “theirs” is already possessive. It’s still wrong, because the correct word in the title should be “there’s,” the contraction “there is.”

Now that we’ve covered that, take a look a this ad:

That is an actual ad that I came across while reading the latest issue of Advertising Age magazine (February 22, 2010 issue, page 35). I spend most of my time writing copy, so when I saw the ad, my heart sank a little. Hey, mistakes happen, that’s why you want to make sure you proof, proof, and proof again. When possible, let others proof your work because sometimes you’re so close to a project, it’s hard to step back and notice certain details.

Most goofs I come across are buried deep in the copy…not in huge letters within the header of an ad. Not sure exactly how something like that could go to print without someone catching it, especially since any decent spell-checker would have caught it. I’m sure some people read right past it and didn’t even notice, but mistakes like these should be learned from so they aren’t repeated in the future.

If you’ve caught similar errors, or if you were responsible for a goof of your own, I’d love to hear about them!

If you’re a fan of truTV’s show Forensic Files, then the Burger King TV spots might weird you out a little bit. They sure do for me. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, the same voice talent that narrates the Forensic File program also narrates recent Burger King spots.

Here’s an  example:

That same voice talent, Peter Thomas, has been used by truTV to explain horrific murders and crimes on the long-running show Forensic Files. I remember the first time I saw one of those Burger King spots, I was reading a magazine with the TV on in the background…then I heard that voice and I looked up, wondering if the channel changed to truTV on its own. Then I realized it was a Burger King commercial and thought it was a very odd choice to use that voice talent. Not bad, just odd. I don’t think it casts Burger King in a negative light, and I don’t see it firing any subliminal pistons across the nation associating a Whopper with murders and forensic science.

Every time I hear that voice, I look to see if it’s a new Burger King spot or one I’ve already seen. I’ve almost become obsessed with the fact that Burger King chose Peter Thomas for the ads (surely someone at Burger King’s agency was familiar with Forensic Files!). I know that Peter Thomas has voiced many other shows and commercials, but he will always be the voice of Forensic Files to me.

Burger King isn’t known for sticking to the “norm” when it comes to advertising, and if you’ve seen the “Whopper Virgins” and “SpongeBob Square Butt” spots, you already know this. The company is going after its “superfan” and that moniker doesn’t just include 18-to-34-year-old males. “Superfan” is a term coined by Burger King to describe the fast-food hamburger-restaurant industry’s most frequent user: all ages, and all household demographics, with over half of them having children. According to Advertising Age magazine, over 29% are 50 years of age or older.

If you eat fast-food nine or 10 times times per month, you just might be a “superfan.”

Someone forwarded me this story from theonion.com:

DETROIT—-Ford officials issued a massive recall of the entire 2010 Mustang line Tuesday, apologizing for a quality-control oversight that led to the company manufacturing a badass muscle car that was way too awesome for the American public.

“We deeply regret this lapse in judgment and accept full responsibility for the mistake,” Ford CEO Alan R. Mulally said standing beside a gorgeous, cherry-red vehicle recalled for being “way too smoking.” “After numerous road tests, we’ve found the car to be a mean, mean ride that Americans are simply not cool enough to handle, and it would be irresponsible of us to allow anyone to get behind the wheel of this killer car. It’s truly frightening how sweet the Mustang is.”

According to Mulally, Ford has canceled production on the 2011 Mustang, and will instead release a line of fuel-efficient vehicles in an effort to appeal to boring old Americans.

While not true, it did get me thinking…how great would it have been if Ford would have released this (minus the “boring old Americans” line, of course)? It’s no secret that Toyota has taken a major hit with their recall and their subsequent negligence on informing the public about the real problems with the vehicles. Silence, followed by a recall, followed by more silence is a recipe for PR disaster.

Also, other companies have jumped on the opportunity to tout how safe their cars are. Some even offer more money to car buyers if they bring their Toyotas to their dealerships.

If Ford would have released the above press release, would it have been in bad taste? Yeah, maybe. But, on the other hand, it isn’t a direct attack against Toyota, and the comedic style of it is far from venomous. Ford even has an icon on their fordvehicles.com site that mentions: Learn more about why Ford quality can’t be beat by Honda or Toyota. Sure, throw Honda under the bus, too!

Product placements, also known as “product integration.” You’ve seen them countless times, and when done correctly, you might not have even noticed. From movies to TV shows, advertisers sneak in products like soft drinks and snacks, or even bigger products like cars and so on. The possibilities are endless and can be effective, assuming you use a little tact and not shine a spotlight on what’s really going on.

Some 30-second spots for the upcoming Dreamworks film How To Train Your Dragon have been integrated into live coverage of the Olympics, and some viewers aren’t happy about it. Recently, Bob Costas went from talking about Bode Miller’s performance to what sounded like a segue about the snowboarding competition. Then something very strange happened — here’s what Costas said:

Still to come, the first day of snowboarding competition at Cypress. Though the sport has only been in the Olympics for about a decade, it has a much longer history. In fact, the people of Dreamworks have imagined what it would have been like in the times of the Vikings of old. So old we’re not talking about Brett Faver or even Fran Tarkenton, take a look.

A 30-second spot that was made specially for the Olympics came next. It was narrated by Craig Ferguson, and he explained how viking snowboarding was created in 1010 by a young man who just happens to be the main character of How To Train Your Dragon.

I’m all for product placements, but I like them confined to entertainment platforms like movies and TV shows. When you start putting product placements in news programs, and you make it so painfully obvious, that’s where the trouble starts. The viewers will know what’s happening and I don’t think they’ll appreciate it. “Angry” is not the mindset you really want your advertising targets to have.

When I think of product placements, there’s one Wayne’s World clip that always comes to mind:

If you checked out the link to the Super Bowl spots, or if you watched the game and remember the CareerBuilder spots, you might want to take a look at this one. It’s called “Another Language” and it was labeled “too hot” to air during the Super Bowl.

Fairly amusing, and if you haven’t had the pleasure of working with similar coworkers, believe me, they’re out there. If that spot made you snicker, then you might like “Worst Seat” (assuming you’re like me and have the sense of humor of a 5 year old):

For the rest of the CareerBuilder spots, you can take a look at them here.

There’s no way around it: Toyota has been in some hot water lately. I thought it would have been a long time before I would have seen an amusing Toyota commercial, but I forgot about Toyota Racing and NASCAR. I was flipping through the Daytona 500 today and I ran across this:

The pink car with the cute animals is great, but the “I love you” at the end just seals the deal. Granted, once Toyota figures out how to dig out of the mess they’ve gotten themselves into, I don’t think we’ll be seeing too many “haha” spots. But, this one’s good enough to tide me over.

OK, that might not be 100% true. I’m a fan of some of their programming, but I haven’t found myself on rooftops declaring that “I want my MTV” recently, if ever.

I liked MTV in the late ’80s and early ’90s, back before they traded music videos for reality programming. They’ve gone through a lot of changes since those days, and I can’t believe that The Real World is still going strong in its 23rd season (with season 24 in pre-production). Then there was Total Request Live hosted by Carson Daly, one of the programs intended on bringing music videos back to MTV after some criticism for abandoning the “Music” in Music Television.

The newest change from MTV is their new logo:

As you can see, “music television” is gone from the logo. If you take a look at their programming with shows like Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, and My Life as Liz, it seems like the removal of “music television” was the right move. A spokesperson for MTV’s marketing team, Tina Exarhos, commented on the logo revision to The New York Daily News:

If you watch the channel, you’ve seen that it’s definitely going in a new direction. We really wanted to see the logo featured in a new way, and this was really meant to be able to house all the great things that are happening at MTV at any given time.

To paraphrase, out with music videos and in with reality programming. Also, according to Ad Age, MTV is looking into developing a new tagline to match their new logo.

Super Bowl XLIV featured some great entertainment on the field, both with the game and the halftime show featuring The Who. OK, maybe not so much with The Who, but the game was definitely amazing to watch. Kudos and congratulations to the Saints for pulling off their victory with some very gutsy moves.

I was really looking forward to the ads, obviously, but they just didn’t do much for me. After several of the spots, it left me asking, “OK, so what’s the point?” If you’re spending about $3 million per spot, and you’re on the one night that you know your audience is huge and actually looking forward to advertisements, you need to bring it. Sure, there were some gems, but over all I was underwhelmed.

Instead of loading them all up here and draining bandwidth, you can click here to view the spots.

Several of my friends were entertained with Bud Light’s spots, but I just didn’t care for them. Some were amusing, but the “Here We Go” tagline was lost on me. Here we go…what? There are a lot of options when choosing a domestic light beer, and it’s arguable if there’s even a difference between them regarding taste. So, maybe if you entertain with your commercials, the beer-drinking public will laugh all the way to the local store to pick up a 6-pack of your brand. If you find the spots funny, that is.

Doritos on the other hand, their spots were pretty entertaining to me. They seemed to be the most consistent among the other humor-themed spots (I would have to say the dog with the shock collar was my favorite of the Doritos spots, but the relationship I have with my dog might make me bias on that one).

Car ads seemed mixed; I liked the Kia Sorento spot with the old toys in the back seat, but the Dodge Charger spot left me scratching my head. I got what they were trying to do, but I guess I expected more from the struggling company, especially when you take into account the pre-game buzz Dodge received from opponents of their spending government bailout money for a Super Bowl spot.

My favorite ad of the night had to be the David Letterman/Oprah/Jay Leno creative. That was the only ad that really surprised me when the camera panned back to reveal Oprah, and then Leno. I had to rewind the DVR to make sure I saw what I thought I saw. The only thing that would have made it an absolute classic would have been the inclusion of Conan O’Brien (which was on the table, but just didn’t happen. Read here for more about that).

That’s just my take on the Super Bowl spots, and it’s all subjective, really. I’d love to get some feedback on ads you loved, hated, or didn’t care about one way or the other.