Whats Your Thoughts On The Google Suberbowl Ad?

 

by Jeremy Schoemaker on February 8, 2010 · 63 comments

I thought it was brilliant.

Well done Google. You told an amazing story without saying a word. Very powerful.

What did you think?

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– who has written 2473 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.

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{ 63 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Haucky February 8, 2010 at 4:04 pm

Not bad-liked the Audi commercial featuring the “Green Police” better.

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2 Rob February 8, 2010 at 4:06 pm

As big of a fan as I am of the Budweiser commercials every year, Google got most votes for best commercial from everyone at my SB party. Especially from all the women. It almost had some of them in tears.

I think it made a lot of people really associate the brand with something other than just searching – it told a story with emotions that will make people remember them.

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3 Michael Margolis February 8, 2010 at 4:06 pm

Loved the ad, especially how it tells a story, while asking us viewers to connect the dots, and tell the story alongside. Brilliant brand storytelling.

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4 Mikkel deMib Svendsen February 8, 2010 at 4:06 pm

> What did you think?

Let me just say that I think it may work best for the US Super Bowl audience :)

The story telling is very well done and the story is cute – but the “Google is your life” kind of attitude I don’t think would work here in Northern Europe.

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5 Kyle C. February 8, 2010 at 4:07 pm

I don’t remember seeing it during the game but I agree it was pretty darn clever. Of course my memory is clouded by beer, brats, and chili.

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6 Kev Strong February 8, 2010 at 4:07 pm

Being from the UK and not an american football fan I missed it, but that is indeed a fantastic advert.

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7 Justin M. February 8, 2010 at 4:07 pm

I really liked it, it definetly made me want to jump on Google and start exploring.

But did you notice how sexy an ad free google search is? Too bad that’s nothing what it’s like IRL. That poor bastard would have been stuck in a chocolate candy rebill offer if he was using the real google search.

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8 BizBuzz Online February 8, 2010 at 6:55 pm

LOL

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9 BizBuzz Online February 8, 2010 at 6:59 pm

LOL!

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10 hokie February 8, 2010 at 4:08 pm

I think it was very creative and a great to way to showcase their many features.

Furthermore, I’m curious to know how much they saved on production costs via polished screen capture…

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11 browie February 8, 2010 at 4:08 pm

One of the few that I saw since I was on the road for half of the game.

I thought it was pretty cool. I was watching and watching and was waiting for something but it made total sense at the end. Whoever thought of it found a winner.

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12 Andris February 8, 2010 at 4:10 pm

Wow, almost made me cry :P

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13 Daniel Lambert February 8, 2010 at 4:10 pm

Wow, that is an amazing video. Google sure knows how to do adverts.

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14 Shawn Collins February 8, 2010 at 4:13 pm

I was wondering if any affiliates mobilized after that ad to try and optimize for “how to assemble a crib”.

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15 Tom | Build That List February 8, 2010 at 4:23 pm

That is a really good point! I think the ad was ingenious, because it let the product do the talking!

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16 S Ahsan February 8, 2010 at 11:05 pm

lmao! the product does talk! I am impressed by this stuff! Sweeet!

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17 Jeremy Schoemaker February 8, 2010 at 4:44 pm

lol

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18 VikingBlogger February 8, 2010 at 4:14 pm

I like the ad, and it gets the message out there. Although it goes pretty fast, so I had to really focus to follow it. :)

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19 Trent February 8, 2010 at 4:15 pm

I honestly didn’t get it a first. I thought it was just a bunch of random searches. But after watching it again I realized there’s a full progression of events. Very genius!

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20 Andrew Stark February 8, 2010 at 4:19 pm

Being in the UK I didn’t stay up through the night to watch the game, and I’m not quite sure what the BBC did during the adverts?

Anyway I’m surprised that google targeted this market given the large number of american’s who never leave the states.

Perhaps it’s a subtle hint for all the students who want to impress a french chick online to look up google for some lines before hitting the chat rooms?

So overall it was good, but I wouldn’t call it value for money, just more brand recognition than anything else.

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21 Shawn Collins February 8, 2010 at 4:28 pm

It wasn’t about France – it was about Google playing a role in important moments in life.

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22 BeerMonies February 8, 2010 at 4:19 pm

Cute ad, interesting story at the end of it all. I was really hoping to catch some winners in the suggest but didn’t see anything horrible. Looks like they managed to keep them out by pre populating the search field when needed.

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23 Purple Martin Houses February 8, 2010 at 4:26 pm

As browie said, I was also unable to see it live. I did get a chance to see it this morning though as it was replayed by numerous television stations as being one of the best commercials. I also really like it. It told an amazing story and got across Google’s power of quality search results. Like you said, all without saying a single word.

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24 Barbara Winter February 8, 2010 at 4:27 pm

A thinking person’s ad. Or at least created by one. I thought it was brilliant and I got all teary at the end.

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25 jtGraphic February 8, 2010 at 4:28 pm

I was intrigued by it, but I’m not sure that it was up to Superbowl standards. Of course I prefer comedic ads.

It was definitely the best they’ve made so far though.

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26 Paul February 8, 2010 at 4:37 pm

I thought it was good for Google to a Superbowl commercial. I thought that the ad did a good job at showcasing Google’s search. They want to stop losing market share to Bing.

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27 Jorge Diaz February 8, 2010 at 5:16 pm

I didn’t watch it on the superbowl transmition (since i don’t live in the us) but i found it on the net and that’s and example of viral marketing.

You can read my opinion here

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28 Tech February 8, 2010 at 6:27 pm

This is why Google are so successful. They think outside the box even with their marketing campaigns.

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29 Jason Argall February 8, 2010 at 7:01 pm

Great commercial. Pulls emotions really well. I don’t think most Americans will pay attention to or care about the “Google knows you went to Paris and got that girl pregnant” message. :-D

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30 BC February 8, 2010 at 8:17 pm

Jason Argall
didn’t you see the church part? they got married, b4 they needed the crib!

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31 Jason Argall February 9, 2010 at 8:41 am

lol yeah you’re right… the point I was making was regarding the Big Brother aspect of the commercial not necessarily about the morality/immorality of the Google user.

The truth is Google gives us the best tools for “free” and all they ask for in return is that they know everything about us.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve decided to let Google be a huge part of my life too. From Gmail to Website Optimizer and my G1 to Google Reader…

But do you think if we all used Orkut instead of Facebook, they might know a little too much?

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32 Martin February 8, 2010 at 8:14 pm

I thought it was brilliant! Telling a story without saying a word while showing what your product can do = awesome.

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33 PPC Associates February 8, 2010 at 8:39 pm

I think this ad is going to finally put Google over the top in the race for search engine dominance.

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34 hackcorp February 8, 2010 at 9:59 pm

Yeah, good ad, interesting life story too… Google finally starts advertising, bing must be taking over some market share…

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35 Gamers Plaza February 8, 2010 at 10:02 pm

as usual Google always cool :D

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36 Mark Cancellieri February 8, 2010 at 11:07 pm

The Google ad was fantastic.

I also was amazed at well the person in the commercial could type. :-)

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37 Amalaki Juice February 8, 2010 at 11:31 pm

I think that Google did an amazing job with the ad. I am certain that most young boys were totally clueless, and most young girls were mezmerized but its short but effective story. And I think that they were really aiming their commercial towards the women that were forced to watch the game, to increase that demographic’s usership (is that a word yet?), and to portray the fact that google will be here FOREVER!

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38 Bharath Reddy February 9, 2010 at 1:18 am

Brilliant Ad!! Google always ROCKS!!!

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39 Jonclaude February 9, 2010 at 2:05 am

I guess so Google know about Ads more than us…

from Paris Jonclaude

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40 Martin February 9, 2010 at 2:18 am

Did anyone notice there weren’t any SEM results in this ad?
:-)

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41 Agent Deepak February 9, 2010 at 2:31 am

That was nice.

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42 Carpet Protective Film February 9, 2010 at 3:37 am

This is the first I visited your blog and i love it. Bookmarked it already. Keep up the good work.

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43 ways to make money online February 9, 2010 at 5:08 am

It was the music that got me.

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44 jpavery February 9, 2010 at 6:13 am

that was not a ‘super bowl’ ad, I saw that about a month ago! Aren’t super bowl ads meant to be new?

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45 jpavery February 9, 2010 at 6:14 am

and where were the adsWords in the results?

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46 Paul B February 9, 2010 at 7:57 am

Sublte way of showing that they are more than a search engine for finding websites. Liked it a lot.

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47 netmeg February 9, 2010 at 9:23 am

It *was* brilliant, and the best part was that they actually showed how to use the product.

However, I feel sorry in advance for all the French girls hit on by geeks who look up “how to impress a French girl” in Google. Let’s face it. The SERPs aren’t *that* good.

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48 oak cabinet February 9, 2010 at 1:00 pm

I thought it was great. I’m no advertising guru, but I can’t stand those ads where you don’t know what product is being talked about until the end of the commercial, if ever. G was in your face the entire time of this commercial, and I thought it was very effective.

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49 Mukul Verma February 9, 2010 at 3:21 pm

Great…started off slow, wondering what was happening, but ended very nicely. Love how they carried the diff tools and the story line.

Cheers,
Mukul

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50 wutupdogg February 9, 2010 at 3:26 pm

I thought it was really simple and effective…not trying to hard but still evoking an emotion. Best of the day…

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51 Mikey February 9, 2010 at 3:29 pm

I thought it was not very good. The Super Bowl ads sucked in general.

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52 Didier Zerdoun February 9, 2010 at 3:42 pm

What a fantastic ad ! Congratulations for the simplicity, the efficiency and the emotion !
Whether it’s new or not it not the question, as millions of people just discovered it.
As a Frenchman, I particularly appreciate the great love for France expressed by Google.
Paris est magnifique !

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53 fas February 9, 2010 at 3:57 pm

The Ad is awesome.

BING pressure on Google.

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54 Tom February 9, 2010 at 4:32 pm

Not sure if anyone touched on this, but did anyone catch this one…

http://consumerist.com/2010/02/google-doesnt-want-to-know-how-to-make-fiends-with-black-people.html

Looks like Google tweaked the ad a lil bit ;)

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55 Ken Montville February 12, 2010 at 10:18 am

I wasn’t that impressed with it. It kinda reminds me of the seminal Apple ad from many, many Super Bowls ago that was the “1984″ ad with the guy throwing a sledge hammer through a large screen of “Big Brother”.

There were lots of parodies of that ad, too. Not the least of which was one about Hillary Clinton during the primaries.

I guess I just don’t get it. Yeah, Google does search. Who didn’t know that?

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56 RayBurton February 13, 2010 at 7:41 am

I might be a sap but I thought that was AWESOME! I don’t know how many times, google has been my grandfather and father for advice and my mom for recipes and house tips since I’ve moved away from home.

You can say what you want about the “Big Brother” of google but IT IS there whenever I have a question.

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57 Mohamed February 13, 2010 at 1:23 pm

Loved the ad, especially how it tells a story, while asking us viewers to connect the dots, and tell the story alongside. Brilliant brand storytelling.

LinkedIn Marketing Strategy

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58 Chris February 13, 2010 at 9:35 pm

Not living in the US meant that I didn’t see it live. But it looks kinda cool

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59 affiliate marketing tips February 15, 2010 at 4:40 pm

Simple and sweet, I guess. Does Google really need to advertise during the SuperBowl.

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60 Mike February 17, 2010 at 11:33 am

The Google ad is brilliant. Slick and captivating. It keeps the viewer begging for more and holds the attention until the ad is played to the end. This is true genius which is recognised by many experts including Andy Jenkins of Video Boss.

Overall, very impressive.
Mike

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61 Tammy February 22, 2010 at 6:32 am

Loved this ad. While we were watching my friend thought it was weird the guy moved after finding out the woman was pregnant. She said “He’s just going to move cause she’s pregnant?” I had to rewind it to show her the part about the search. She was pretty bugged prior to that.

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62 Surface Protection Experts October 20, 2010 at 6:21 pm

I love this ad. It is so creative and integrates personal lives into technology. Google could have taken this ad in a lot of different directions but they went with clever and humorous which I thought was a really good choice.

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