I was watching the Super Bowl today, not really rooting for one team in particular (although I have some allegiance to the Colts simply because they’re an AFC team). And watching the commercials, of course.
I find some of them amusing (I just can’t get enough of that eTrade baby!), some of them dumb (how long can GoDaddy live on manufactured controversy?), when out of nowhere, a sublime Google ad appears.
Here it is, in case you didn’t watch the game:
It was the best advertisement I’ve seen in a long time, because it actually made me stop what I was doing and watch it with my full attention. It featured the advertised product extensively throughout the commercial, it tells a story, and it hits us where we’re most vulnerable: by showing us that Google isn’t some nameless brand that we buy into because of superior absorbency or better handling. It’s message is that Google is a part of the story of our lives.
And it does all of this with text and environmental music. It’s one minute of absolute genius. I don’t often feel like I’ve been blown away by something, but this really did a number on me.