Galago Blog

Ford Superduty – Build a Truck
Clever visuals with all the parts floating together.  No nonsense commercial focusing on the product rather than gimmicks.  Not very exciting though. 6 out of 10.

Pizza Hut – Jessica Simpson
Terrible commercial.  Jessica didn’t even look her best.  There was nothing clever about it.  We actually got excited when we saw the crowd chasing the Pizza Hut delivery car because we thought something interesting might happen.  On the contrary, Jessica jumped into her limo and then ate some pizza.  Boring.  4 out of 10.

Bud Light – Rock, Paper, Scissors
Great.  A little disappointing compared to some great Bud Light ads in the past, but still pretty good.  The element of surprise when the guy threw the rock got this one most of its points.  8 out of 10.

Doritos – Car Crash
Clever, but not exceptional.  We did chuckle a little when the girl hit her head on the side of the car.  This one was a fan-created commercial.  7 out of 10.

Blockbuster – The Mouse
Awesome.  We give this one a eight out of ten.  We loved this campaign a couple years ago.  There’s just something funny about small furry animals who talk.  We were a little sad they didn’t include a Galago, though.  Rubbing the mouse around to get on the Internet was quite clever, but our favorite part was the end where the guinea pig is holding the mouse by the tail.  8 out of 10.

Sierra Mist – Beard Comb Over
Gets points for two of the most disturbing visuals we’ve seen.  The comb-over is just plain frightening!  Doesn’t say much about the product, though.  8 out of 10.

SalesGenie.com – Good salesman
Not a very good debut by SalesGenie.com.  Way too elementary and not at all clever or interesting.  3 out of 10.

Sierra Mist – Self-Defense Class
Pretty good, but the comb-over was better.  7 out of 10.

Toyota Tundra – The Track
It illustrated its points well.  We just think it’s just barely better than a normal pick-up truck commercial.  6 out of 10.

FedEx – Moon Office
It’s clever, but not exceptionally creative.  The idea was relatively well executed.  We give it extra points because the subject matter actually had to do with the product.  7 out of 10.
Bud Light – Auction Wedding
Great ad.  Many men have fantasized about exactly that situation – a short wedding.  Very clever.  Well executed.  Funny.  7 out of 10.

Snickers – Mechanics Kissing
Funny.  Plays on homophobia.  Chest hair removal makes people squirm.  If the only category were whether it would be memorable, this one might win.  Not sure it really made me want to eat a Snickers bar, though.  7 out of 10.

Schick Quattro – Treadmill Girl
Didn’t really do it for us.  We liked the girl, liked the announcer, and liked the scientist, but overall the theme just didn’t have any kick.  Also, it was a little too fast.  If we didn’t have Tivo, we would have missed it.  5 out of 10.

Chevrolet – Chevy Songs
Decent commercial.  Good for branding.  Nothing really special, though.  6 out of 10.

Bud Light – English Class
This is one of our favorites.  Of course, we love Carlos Mencia.  The South-Asian guy saying “Gimme a Bud Light, Homes,” was classic.  8 out of 10.

Late Show – Couch Potatoes
Another of our favorites.  Letterman & Oprah on one couch?!?!?  Wow!  That may actually be the biggest event of Superbowl XLI.  We forgot that Dave is from Indiana.  Too funny.  We’re dying to know what Oprah got for doing the commercial.  We’d have given this one more points if it hadn’t been such an inside joke for Letterman fans.  7 out of 10.

GoDaddy.com – Marketing
Disappointing offering from a former top-ten finisher.  Could have been sexier.  Had no suspense.  All it really had to offer was one good line… “Everybody wants to work in Marketing.”  6 out of 10.

Coca-Cola – Video Game
In case you didn’t know, this one is old.  Although we like it, it gets no points.

Budweiser – Dirty Dalmatian
This one definitely gets the sympathy vote.  Felt sorry for the little white dog who had a bad day and ended up in the parade because he looked like a Dalmatian.  It was a disappointment after prior similar ads, but it’s still not bad.  7 out of 10. 

Garmin – Japanese Movie
We liked this one.  The map turns into a giant and attacks the neighborhood.  Then a guy grabs a Garmin navigation device and uses it to turn into a giant superhero.  Very creative.  Also, it plays into the theme that digital navigation systems are slowly replacing paper maps.  This one isn’t terribly memorable, but as ads go it’s pretty good.  7 out of 10.

CareerBuilder.com – Volunteers for Training Seminar
This one is a winner because anyone in the corporate world can totally sympathize.  Very clever, and very well executed.  8 out of 10.

Dorito’s – Grocery Clerk
This one was dumb.  Grocery check-out girl gets excited about different flavors of Doritos?  Dumb.  3 out of 10.

Chevrolet – Naked Car Wash
This one won the Chevy college ad competition.  That explains why it’s so good.  “Guys Can’t Keep Their Hands Off It,” is a great slogan.  7 out of 10.

Bud Light – Face Slap
Dumb.  Slapstick.  Little or no redeeming value.  4 out of 10.

King Pharmaceuticals/BeatYourRisk.com – Gotta have Heart
Very good commercial.  Very creative.  Kinda missed its opportunity, though, because they should have had a superhero come in and save the heart from all the bad guys.  Oh, well.  7 out of 10.

Chevrolet – Robot Nightmare
One of this year’s best.  Far and away the best Chevy ad this year.  You actually feel sorry for the little robot who drops the screw on the floor and gets fired.  Great theme, well executed.  9 out of 10.

Coca-Cola – Black History Month
Great idea.  The historical reflections were great.  The punch line was even better.  Extremely classy.  Won’t go down in the annals as one of the best TV commercials, but it was a great sentiment.  7 out of 10.

Sprint Broadband – Connectile Dysfunction
Reasonably funny.  Nothing special.  Decent campaign with the pitching of their expanded coverage area.  Could have done a better job with this one, though.  5 out of 10.

Coca-Cola – Rejuvenated Old Man
Old man drinks a Coke for the first time in his life, and then goes wild.  Very good commercial.  7 out of 10.

Foot Locker – Kevin Garnett
Relatively funny.  Good concept, but could have been done better.  6 out of 10.

Honda – Tron
Okay graphics.  We love Tron.  Problem is, they didn’t do anything with it.  5 out of 10.

E-Trade – Bank Robbery
Now that we’ve seen this, we’re surprised no one had done this one sooner.  The bank robbing the customers?  It’s classic.  Kudos to E-Trade for coming up with one of this year’s best themes for a commercial.  We’ll give it a 7 out of 10.
Coca-Cola – Coke Machine
Very creative animated commercial. 

Bud Light – Gorillas
Great concept.  Let us down at the end, though.  The Gorilla should have jumped.  Would have been much funnier.  6 out of 10.

Revlon Colorist – Cheryl Crow Not Fade Away
Very interesting take on the concept of having a celebrity endorse your product.  We give it an “A” for originality.  The choice of song is fabulous – great song that matches the product.  When we heard Cheryl would be singing Not Fade Away in a Superbowl ad, we had high hopes, and this one let us down.  Give us more singing and less announcing.  7 out of 10.

CareerBuilder.com – Survival of the Fittest
Employees fight for a promotion.  Excellent commercial.  One really strong point is that it is a variation on a theme they set up with their first ad.  8 out of 10.

Taco Bell – Carne Asada
Lions talking is always funny.  This one is particularly amusing, and the addition of Ricardo Montalban is a plus.  8 out of 10.

Van Heusen – Walking backwards
Not funny.  Not original.  4 out of 10.

Toyota – See Saw
Great commercial

Emerald Nuts – Robert Goulet

T-Mobile – Barkley & Wade
No points for this one because it’s old.  However, we love Barkley and we think this is a great commercial.

FedEx – Ground
Dumb commercial, but the Mr. Turkey

Nationwide – Federline
Surprise ending.  Haven’t seen one like this before.  We give extra points for any ad that makes fun of Kevin Federline or Brittny Spears.  7 out of 10.

Bud Light – Hitchhiker
I guess after a while you run out of ways to illustrate that people really want Bud Light.  This one’s one of the worst so far.  7 out of 10.

Jack in the Box – Jack’s Kid
Unusual use of the word vegetarian.  Had some promise, but they blew it pretty badly.  3 out of 10.

Budweiser – The Beach
Crabs steal a cooler of Budweiser, and then worship it as a deity.  Interesting, but not very effective at conveying a message.  6 out of 10.

Prudential – A Rock
Various examples of rocks and what they can do for you.  Nothing terribly memorable, but it was a solid commercial.  6 out of 10.

Honda – Disco CR-V
Not worthy of a Superbowl spot.  Just a car spinning with loud music and lights.  Boring.  3 out of 10.

HP – Motorcycle Creativity
Motorcycle designer rides his hog and explains that he uses his HP to design bikes.  Again, decent idea, could have been executed better.  4 out of 10.

IZOD – Vacation
Golfing and swimming.  Nice scenery, but nothing else.  4 out of 10.

Budweiser Select – Shula Plays Football
Pretty good commercial.  We would have thought this concept was lame, but this is an example of great execution of a poor concept.  8 out of 10.

E-Trade – One Finger
Great ad.  Lists things you can do with one finger.  Example of what the Prudential ad could have been.  E-Trade keeps its spot as the King of Superbowl Commercials.  8 out of 10.

CareerBuilder.com – Torture
Hot coals.  Wedgies.  Binder clip torture.  Another great commercial in the line of corporate drudgery ads by CareerBuilder.  8 out of 10.

Snapple – EGCG
Man climbs mountain in Tibet to learn what EGCG is.  This one’s okay, but it just doesn’t do much for us.  6 out of 10.

NFL – End of the Season
Fans are sad after the Superbowl is over.  Props to the NFL for putting Favre at the end of this commercial.  Great play, and he’s the story of the 2007 season, so it’s good to see they have picked up on it.  7 out of 10.