Hasta La Creative!

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Ad Age ad critic Bob Garfield disliked so many commercials in this year's Super Bowl that his report about them makes up his full seven-minute postgame video show. Looking beyond just creative quality or selling effectiveness, Garfield asks larger cultural questions about the TV spots. For instance, is it acceptable to use ad imagery likely to scare young children as Audi and CareerBuilder.com did in this year's Bowl? Is it right to turn cause marketing for AIDS or cancer cures into a hard sell for Dell or McDonald's products? Was the Victoria's Secret spot aimed at anything other than young males' fantasies? Was it appropriate for Pepsi to pitch its Diet Pepsi Max as if it were a drug rather than a soft drink? And was the joke that ended the Bridgestone tire commercial grounded in homophobia?