Olympic TV Ads: The Gold Medals and the Insanity Awards

If you're like me, you've been spending quite a bit of time watching the Beijing Olympics, from the incredible opening ceremony to Michael Phelps amazing eight gold medals to Dana Torres (at 41) competing with swimmers half her age to the Dream Team to the Chinese gymnasts (some of those girls were definitely under age!) to the lightening fast Usain Bolt from Jamaica.  All this Olympic wonderfulness is brought to us courtesy of those wealthy companies with enough money to run their TV ads during the games.  And since my last blog was about the importance of brilliance if you're going to invest in TV ads, I thought it might be fun to take a few minutes to assess some of those ads we've all been watching during the games.

Gold Medal Winners

1. Audi:  They illustrate their "Progress is Beautiful" theme in a visually compelling way by transfixing us on a living room as it evolves and changes and grows more beautiful over the years.  The final touch that makes the ad brilliant is the pan to the driveway where a Mercedes "progresses" into a new Audi A4.  
2. Nationwide:  Their "Accident Forgiveness" message is cleverly reinforced by showing an older couple who are on the wrong end of a parking lot mishap being VERY unforgiving to the poor young guy who accidentally and gently side-swipes their old car.  The old lady beats the snot out of the guy with her purse while her husband eggs her on.  "Hit him in the head, Rose."  Too funny.  However, I have to give Nationwide serious style point deductions for over-running this one spot.  Way too much of a good thing.  Especially considering the core idea of this ad lends itself to so many other situations.
3. Budweiser:  They've been running lots of different spots but only one really stands out.  The Dalmation training the rejected Clydesdale so he can earn a spot on the team next year.  The Rocky theme music is used perfectly and the payoff is great.  Fantastically clever way to put their tried and true brand icons to work and generate a major warm & fuzzy feeling for the brand.  

Silver Medal Winners

1. Target:  Catchy spot with two college roommates decorating their dorm room with stuff bought at Target.  Cool music and both girls dance great.  Impossible to not watch.  Fun and the back-to-school timing of the Olympics is perfect for the message.
2. VISA:  Their understated but very elegant "Go World" spots do a great job of capturing the emotional specialness that is the Olympics.  They also have done a number of spots timed exactly to the events of that Olympic day.  The timeliness makes the spots all the more compelling.
3. Chevy/GM:  Like Bud, they've been running lots of ads and most are very mediocre and easily forgettable.   However, one truly stands out.  It's called "Progress" and it illustrates the evolution of a gas station (and the Chevy cars and trucks that use it) in a pristine mountain setting.  The spot ends where it starts - with no gas station and just the pristine setting.  The reason?  Chevy is developing a car for the future called the Volt that won't need gas.  More ads like this and GM might not be in such trouble.
4. GE:  I found three of their ads memorable and compelling.  The first was the "eco-imagination" ad that focused on GE's jet engines using amazing imagery of island birds, with the cute trick of having them lined up runway style waiting for a parade of baby sea turtles to cross on their way to the ocean.  The next two both had to do with GE's healthcare products.  One was a wonderful little love story between a young handsome Chinese street vendor and the pretty intern.  The second was another nice story featuring an Indian doctor delivering care to a remote village thanks to GE products.

The Insanity Award Winners (So Bad That Someone Needs to Lose Their Job)

1. Lenovo:  A series of spots that are utterly unrelated to their product.  The one that is the most interesting to watch features hundreds of sumo wrestlers coming together in the street, assuming the shape of a plane, picking up speed as they march down the street and then taking off.  Every time I see it, I'm thinking "what airline is this for" and then there's some inane Lenovo message at the end that I still haven't heard or understood.
2. Subway:  A promotion spot for their Scrabble game that shows people getting so excited that they spill their soft drinks on everyone else at the restaurant.  Yeah.  Right.  How dumb is this?  Nothing fun about this.  Just stupid.  

The Mediocrity Awards

There are lots of other Olympic advertisers who are spending seriously big bucks to get noticed and who are running ads that are plain vanilla - not awful but definitely not brilliant.  Just so middle of the road that it's sad.  It's a shame that all these smart companies couldn't do better. Here's my list:  McDonald's, J&J, AT&T, Nissan, Samsung, Coca-Cola, Panasonic, VW, ExxonMobil, Home Depot, United and Hilton.  

Brilliant athletic performance like we get to see during the Olympics ought to be supported by brilliant advertising performance, too.