Yesterday during new media,we were tasked with finding the best and worst Superbowl commercials from this year and of all time.  Kevin Gangi, Kristen Conrad and I came up with the following results!

Best Ad of 2013:

Budweiser Clydesdale Commercial

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2prAccclXs]

I can’t watch this without crying.  Seriously.  I’m an emotional wreck.  If I watch this again I am going to have to book a counseling appointment.  The concept is friendship and camaraderie and it does a bang up job of tugging at those heartstrings.  The audience has a wide appeal.  Man or woman, if you don’t cry at this, you are actually a robot and not a human being.  It brings people together.  It reaches a huge audience, including children, which is great because we all know kids go nuts for Budweiser.  You and your significant other of any age can cuddle up under a throw blanket and watch this and cry into a super-absorbant paper towel together and you will never need marriage counseling again.  What more do you want?  The force is strong with this one.  In my books it won by, as the song says, a landslide.  (Get it?  Cause the song they played was Landslide?  Get it?  Booyah.)

Worst Ad of 2013:

Kia “Hotbots”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QFuIP0HeiTA]

WHAT.  THE…… Now, I had a long list of worst ads this year, but what the hell was that?  I don’t understand what Kia was going for as far as concept is concerned.  I dunno, that if you kick the tire of their car you will be brutally assaulted?  Don’t people kick the tires of cars all the time?  I’m confused.  Was the underwear over the head thing supposed to be funny?  I don’t understand how this appeals to ANYONE of any age or gender.  Maybe space aliens might like it because that’s what robot women do on their planet.  Also, maybe 13-year-old boys.  Maybe it will encourage them to save their grass-trimming earnings and in a few years they could  buy their very own Kia.  Maybe.

Best Ads of all time

I had a lot of favorites, but I think these are my top three:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcroQsUN60s]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBCzT-CZ4mE]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xffOCZYX6F8]

I chose these ads as my favorites because after all these years I still remember them.  As a kid, I found these ads exciting, and they made me want to drink Coke and eat McDonalds and turn into a fat kid.  I also played basketball.  I still love McDonalds food.  The 90s were so great.

In my research of superbowl ads, two things that were common was slapstick humor and sentimentality.  I think companies commonly use these techniques because they appeal to a broader audience.  I’m not crazy about slapstick, I think it’s kinda stupid, but even I would laugh at some of the antics in spite of myself.  A lot of the ads that I viewed I thought were too violent, but I guess football is a violent sport, so there ya go.

I like how some people get their cheezies and their chips and dips ready just watch the half time show and the commercials.  That kinda cracks me up.  This is a terrific case where the ads have nearly equal importance as the show itself.  Ads, especially superbowl ads, are no longer just about the 30 seconds.  They are about giving the viewer an experience and companies finding unique ways to administer their message.  Pretty cool stuff.

And no blog posting would be complete without a little cat herding.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmgLtg1Izw]

But these bugs are pretty cool.  Adam Gale does graphic illustrations of insects.

Check out and buy his work here:

https://www.artfinder.com/artist/adam-gale/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=20130202-promo-graphicgale-fbook-post

So another new media module is coming to a close.  I had fun with photography module, although I found it extremely challenging.  I used Nikita as a model for my window light pictures.  The first two are from the day when she dressed up in a banana costume!

We will be starting video module this week.  I am pretty nervous about that, but I think it will be fun!

This is pretty cool!  A typeface where every letter is an optical illusion!!

Ryan Larkin is an acclaimed Canadian artist who in later years lived on the streets of Montreal following a history of drug and alcohol abuse. He was the subject of Oscar-winning film Ryan.  I cannot remember how I ran across the film in the first place but a couple of funny things happened after I watched it.  For one, I wanted to watch all of his other stuff, which was pretty brilliant.  But on the creepier side, my brother’s computer which I was using to watch it on, after dinner, started playing the loud city noises from the film all by itself!  It was really creepy and we got scared.  Here’s Ryan:

Ryan by Chris Landreth, National Film Board of Canada

Larkin worked at the National Film Board of Canada, where he learned animation.  Probably his most famous short film was Walking (1969), which used a variety of techniques to illustrate people walking:

Walking by Ryan Larkin, National Film Board of Canada

I hope you take some time to watch his other work here.  It’s all amazing!

http://www.nfb.ca/explore-all-directors/ryan-larkin

This is a terrific video about logo design.  I am always fascinated by the branding for companies such as Coca-Cola, which has changed very little over the years.  I guess the more effective the logo and brand design is, the more timeless it is.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3jTSB2ez-g&w=560&h=315]