Watch CBS News

Super Bowl Ad Review: Tide Commercial Cleans Up

DETROIT (WWJ) The morning after the Super Bowl, a lot of the talk wasn't about the game, but the commercials.

Michigan State University's Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing's rated the best and worst commercials.

MSU's team ranked the Tide detergent commercial in which a football jersey stain resembling San Francisco 49er great Joe Montana is washed out by a Baltimore Ravens' fan as the best.

Taking second place was a Skechers shoe commercial that featured a human and a gazelle teaming up to defeat a cheetah.

How much did all this time sparking watercooler conversation cost? A 30-second ad cost $4 million dollars.

This marked the 16th consecutive year the MSU faculty have rated the Super Bowl commercials, which has become a more important feature of the big day than the game itself for many people.

"It was a great game for ads," said Robert Kolt, MSU advertising instructor. "The ads generally scored higher this year. The Tide ad was cute and its timing perfect."

Third through tenth place included:
•E-trade baby
•Coca Cola chase
•Samsung Galaxy
•Audi prom
•Volkswagen Jamaican
•Budweiser baby horse
•Dodge Ram farmer
•Speedstick laundromat

The bottom five fumbles were Bridgestone; Pepsi Next; Iron Man III; GoDaddy; and MiO Fit.

Using a five-point grading scale, the 20 voting faculty members rated each commercial based on creativity, production and overall quality.

People just didn't like the Go Daddy ad -- but everyone is still taking about it. And University of Detroit-Mercy Marketing Professor Michael Bernacchi said that's the point.

'That's Go Daddy's trademark, and we remember the ads since they started," Bernacchi said. "This was the best of a bad bunch through the years. Having said that, we didn't like it from a competitive standpoint, but boy, we continue to remember it."

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.