by Jonathan Marshall
Depending on where you live, yesterday’s Superbowl was more about watching an exciting football game and some great commercials than it was about the Colts vs. the Saints. Nobody in San Diego has really cared for a couple of weeks, although I must say – happy to see ex-Charger Drew Breeze get his first Superbowl.
While there were many memorable, funny and entertaining commercials from yesterday, my favorite was the one with the Green Police, and the Audi A3 TDI clean diesel. Audi recently received Green Car Journals 2010 Green Car of the Year, which provided the creative foundation for their million-dollar-plus Superbowl commercial.
The Audi commercial was clever and sharp on many different levels, and ultimately it probably provoked more than laughs because it dared to satirize what is typically a taboo subject: the environmental movement.
Most would say that is sensitive and unfamiliar ground for an automaker to tread, but Audi – and its advertising agency, Venables Bell & Partners – pulled it off in a skillful and light-hearted manner. Their creative agency convinced them to spend all or most of their Super Bowl budget on an ad campaign that would spoof the same environmental ideas that many Americans are beginning to deal with today: the paper-or-plastic grocery-store guilt and even whether we should be allowed to choose the temperature of our own hot tubs. I would definitely get in trouble for that last one…
Anyway, what was your favorite commercial? And why? Let us know…