Saluting Beaver Favorite Super Bowl Ad

A national survey of commercials run during Sunday’s Super Bowl picked the Bridgestone Tires Saluting Beaver ad as the favorite, according to Mediacurves.com, a research company that tracked viewer responses during the game.  You can see the ad at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njwmfHKKURU.

According to the survey, the three most popular ads were the beaver, in which grateful beaver returns a favor by warning the motorist that barely missed hitting him that a bridge was out; an NFL commercial using a montage of classic television clips to salute fans; and a Bud Light commercial with dogs serving guests.

Sadly, a call for local fan reaction yielded no responses, but a Rutgers-Camden media and advertising professor said nearly a third of the country was watching the Super Bowl Sunday. That kind of audience is rare in a fractured media universe with niche programming, and she said the shared “watercooler” experience of the Super Bowl and its ads make it a phenomenon worth studying.

“I always use Super Bowl ads when I’m teaching an advertising class,” said Yuliya Strizhakova, an assistant professor of marketing at the Rutgers-Camden School of Business. “The beaver was a great ad. It was a continuation of some of their animated animal ads from last year. A lot of people of all ages can relate to it.”

Another popular ad that didn’t make the Mediacurve.com top list was the Volkswagen, Darth Passat commercial. A young child dressed in a Darth Vader outfit roams around the house fruitlessly trying to use his power until his father remotely starts the car to the amazement of the kid. That ad was also of note because it was viewed millions of times on YouTube before it was aired Sunday.

“At this point no one knows what the right strategy is for social media,” Strizhakova said. “Why pay so much for an ad during the game if millions of people are watching it online free?”

Among the least popular ads were the Doritos Cheese Licker, Go Daddy Joan Rivers and the Groupon Save Tibet commercial. 

See all the commercials and where they ranked at: http://superbowl.mediacurves.com.