The Commercials That Really Made Us Wish We Could Have Those 30 Seconds Of Our Life Back
Some Super Bowl ads make us laugh. Others make us cry. And then there are the ones that leave us staring blankly at the screen wondering how on Earth a company could have so publicly, pathetically blundered millions of dollars. With ad agencies getting fat paychecks to create the best commercials in the world on Super Bowl Sunday, it sometimes defies logic to see just how fantastically they can miss the mark.
A word of warning to the 2016 Super Bowl Advertisers. Here’s what NOT to do!
5. Groupon’s “Save the Money - Tibet” (2011)
The only explanation we can think of is that no one actually WATCHED this commercial before it aired. Because if they did, and still decided to go ahead with it, we want to know what they were smoking! Offensive, absurd and random to boot, it would be interesting to know if there is even one person who felt compelled to use Groupon after seeing this.
4. AT&T Ad with Paul Reiser (1996)
AT&T didn’t need a full minute to convince us that this commercial sucked. I dare you to try and get through the whole thing. In fact, maybe this commercial is the whole reason that comedian Paul Reiser’s career kind of took a nose dive after its heyday with Mad About You back in the ‘90s.
3. Nationwide Insurance’s Ad on Childhood Death (2015)
This commercial was, in every sense of the word, an ad that we suffered through. For no apartment reason, Nationwide choose to air a heart-wrenching clip during the Super Bowl last year. They made us cry, they made us depressed and all in all it kinda made us mad. Childhood death was definitely not on our list of things to worry about during the Big Game.
2. SalesGenie’s “Pandas” (2008)
Nothing makes you want to support a company quite like blatant racism, right? In this moronic commercial for SalesGenie.com, two pandas named “Ling Ling” and “Chin Chan” try to make their bamboo furniture business grow. The only thing this ad does well is reinforce trite stereotypes.
1. Squarespace’s “A Better Web Awaits” (2014)
Squarespace promises to create a better web, but it seems we can’t even trust them to make a decent commercial. In their first Super Bowl attempt, Squarespace tried to present the Internet as a wild and crazy place in need of order. But it just kind of comes across as weird and creepy. You know, like clowns. While Squarespace claims that a better web starts with your new website, the giant scissors and puckering lips are so distracting that it takes a minute - or more - to figure out what the commercial is even talking about. If weird and creepy is your thing, however, you may want to check this out.
