As the world's biggest stage for marketers, we'd have to give Super Bowl XLVI, generously, a B-minus. While the game was compellingly competitive right until the last play, and Madonna acquitted herself pretty well for a 53-year-old halftime-show attraction, America's brand marketers barely held up their end of the extravaganza.

For one thing, there was no genuine stand-up-and-cheer advertising moment during NBC's telecast as there was last year, in Chrysler's spot featuring Eminem and its new Chrysler 200 "Imported from Detroit," although Clint Eastwood was a worthy successor.

In fact, stand-out moments in the ads were almost non-existent; the humor that carried most of the ads didn't come close to an outbreak of hilarity; and a few spots manifested jump-the-shark syndrome, such as an NBC promo that cameoed Betty White.Continue reading...

Victoria's Secret has been nominated as one of the top 10 brands on CBS's Greatest Super Bowl Commercials, and it's asking fans to vote at cbs.com/superbowl by January 31st — and then tune in on February 1st to see if Victoria's Secret won as Best Brand, and vote live for your favorite commercial. Other brands in the running include Bud Light, Budweiser, Careerbuilder.com, Coke, Doritos, E-Trade, FedEx, GoDaddy, and Pepsi.

Super Bowl XLV was a record-breaking platform for some brand marketers.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of mediocre advertisements among the five dozen national spots that appeared between kickoff of the Super Bowl and the game’s end.

The overall entertainment level and presumed effectiveness of the event's body of work was below par.

But several spots and brands sank even beneath that low mean. Here they are, in one correspondent’s view, in alphabetical order by brand.Continue reading...