Professionals like those at Richter7 weren't the only critics of Super Bowl ads. Soon-to-be-professionals in Weber State University's MBA program spent Sunday night determining which companies scored and which faltered worse than the Oakland Raiders in the first half.
But unlike a Super Bowl game, the contest finished in a tie.
AT&T Wireless' spoof of the "Antiques Roadshow," featuring a worthless wired phone, and the FedEx parody of "Cast Away," with the unopened box filled with rescue-enabling devices, earned the top spots in the Weber State poll.
The MBA and other business majors, evaluating creativity and impact, rounded out their top 10 with, in order:
Bud Light's "Sounds of the Sea," featuring a face-pinching crab.
Budweiser's Clydesdales replay with referee zebra.
H&R Block, with tax-owing Willie Nelson.
Sierra Mist, featuring a dog breaking open a fire hydrant.
Sierra Mist, with a swimming baboon.
Quizno's, whose founder forgets his pants.
Pepsi Twist, featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Donnie and Marie Osmond and Florence Henderson.
Budweiser, with a man hearing his girlfriend approve of his other woman.
"I thought, overall, the ads were pretty good," said Douglas Lemmons, who will graduate in March. "I thought a lot of them were unique and creative in grabbing your attention.
"Some of them, several of us thought, as far as an actual message or product they were trying to get across, were a bit obscure. The attention-getting was great, but trying to get an audience to remember what the product was, well, there wasn't a lot of information getting that across."
Lemmons, for one, was smitten by the Sierra Mist ads. "It was good because it was wanting people to know this is a product, it's new and come check it out," he said. "Those really came across well."
Lemmons overall enjoyed the humor in the ads as well as the opportunity for the group to do the rankings.
"Generally, you tend to glaze over when commercials come on at home, but it was neat to get together with folks of a common background and actually have a focus on evaluating commercials and paying attention to them. It was a lot of fun."
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com