The big game is over, so it’s time to call out the winners of the 2014 Super Bowl of car commercials.
Of course, which Super Bowl XLVIII car commercials were most effective for the $4 million automakers – and other advertisers – spent on every half-minute depends a lot on who’s doing the rating.
But with Super Bowl car commercials seemingly getting as much next-day attention as the blowout Seattle Seahawks win over the Denver Broncos, we looked online for ratings on the ads.
“Car companies were again in full force selling almost every kind of automobile to game viewers during commercial breaks,” wrote Chris Nagy at Automoblog.net, which provides links to nine “Super Car Commercials” of Super Bowl XLVIII. “Crossover utility vehicles, hybrid sedans, heavy-duty pickup trucks and exotic brands received the pomp of an expensive football game ad.”
Yahoo Sports for one offered their take on the competition, grading commercials from A to F.
Car commercials grading an A on the Yahoo Sports list were Hyundai: Dad’s Sixth Sense, about, well, you know; Chevrolet: Life about a cancer survivor, and Jaguar: Rendezvous, featuring British actors who play movie bad guys. Yahoo gave Bs to Audi: Doberhuahua and Honda: Hugfest with Bruce Willis and a real John McLane. (John McLane is the fictional protagonist of the “Die Hard” film series.)
Maserati: Strike rated a C from Yahoo Sports with its “mixed messages,” while Ds went to Chevy Silverado: Romance, about the romantic interests of a bull being put out to pasture, Volkswagen: Wings about when happens when a VW hits 100,000 miles, and Chrysler: America’s Import with Bob Dylan. Yahoo gave a failing grade to Kia: The Truth, featuring Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus from the movie series Matrix, not likely what the company had in mind in purchasing the TV time.
There are other rankings, of course. Ian Crouch at The New Yorker reported in “The Best and Worst Super Bowl Ads” rated Honda and Hyundai among the “best” commercials – and that Audi’s Doberhuahua got some traction on Twitter – with Maserati, Chevrolet and Chrysler among the “worst.”
News.com.au had an entirely different take on the best car commercials from the 2014 Super Bowl, listing Chrysler, Jeep Cherokee, Maserati, while CBCnews cited Toyota’s Big Game commercial featuring the Muppets, Jaguar’s commercial and Kia’s The Truth ad.
As we wrote earlier in this post, where a commercial rates often depends on who’s doing the rating. You can visit autoblog if you want to check out all the car commercials again and rate them for yourself.
Also, see our pre-Super Bowl post about car commercials on The Open Road blog at RoadLoans.com.
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