Celebrating the Super Bowl at UT Tyler

Every year near the beginning of February, near 80,000 football fans crowd into a stadium in which the national championship game of the National Football League, or the Super Bowl, will be played.  In addition to those fans, over 100 million viewers will sit at a television and view the game.  However, not everyone watches the super bowl for the love of football.  Almost 23% of those who "watch" are only viewing the channel for the commercials shown during the game.



The super bowl has created a profitable opportunity for companies in the United States to buy some seriously over priced ad time.  In 2014, the average price of a 30 second commercial was 4 million dollars. Yes, that does say million.  In other words, companies are paying upwards of over 100,000 dollars per second for a commercial.  But now, enough with this intro stuff.  Let's take a look at my 3 favorite and least favorite commercials of the 2014 super bowl!

THE 3 WORST - 
I like to start with the worst because you then gain a special appreciation for the best.  2014 was a somewhat strange year for the commercials.  Good ads were a bit lacking, and those that were bad were just really bad.

#3 - Doritos Time Machine - 
Doritos has a tradition of having some of the funniest commercials during the super bowl, but this one really missed the mark.  The premise alone is confusing to me.  There's a young boy in want of Doritos, so he devises a plot to trick an adult into giving him a bag of Doritos to travel in his "time machine," which is really just a cardboard box with some bells and whistles attached to it.  The acting is also pretty corny.  

#2 - Maserati
This commercial is gorgeously produced.  However, it really does miss the mark in terms of what commercials should do.  Many people thought this was a commercial advertising a movie for the first 60 seconds.  It isn't until the 60 second mark that we even get a glimpse of what Maserati is advertising.

#1 - Chevy "A Man and His Truck"
This one is just weird.  This was my reaction while watching.  I am not sure who chose this commercial for Chevrolet's new truck, but they chose poorly.  I'll let the commercial speak for itself, but be warned, it's a bit suggestive... and weird.  Did I mention that I think it's weird?

THE BEST! 
Don't get me wrong, not all the commercials were bad.  There were definitely some diamonds in the rough. Thus, I present to you my top 3 favorite super bowl commercials of 2014!

#3 - Stephen Colbert and his pistachios
I think this commercial is genius.  The ad is in two separate 30 second slots.  One is shown, then a non-related ad is shown.  Then, the second part airs.  The first is a somewhat serious endorsement by Stephen Colbert to try and play off the "over the top" nature of many super bowl commercials.  However, that one 30 second slot is not enough to massively boost sales of pistachios, so Stephen Colbert must take special action!

#2 - Coca-Cola
This commercial is beautiful in every way.  It is brilliantly produced and the message is one of diversity and acceptance of what makes the United States great.  I'll leave it at that.

#1 - Morpheus Sings Nessun Dorma
The subject of this commercial should be enough to convince you of this commercial's brilliance.   There is a perfect balance of the humor of Morpheus singing and the beauty of the song in combination with a reminder that you are watching a car commercial.

There you have it! My favorite and least favorite commercials of the 2014 Super Bowl.  Did I leave out your favorite/least favorite commericial? Disagree with what I considered the best/worst? Let me know in the comments!