My Surmise

My Favorite 5 commercials of Super Bowl 44:

1. Snickers - Betty White Plays Football (above)
2. Doritos - Kid Slaps Man
3. E*TRADE - Babies and the Ladies
4. CareerBuilder.com - Casual Fridays
5. Doritos - Tim's Locker

An honorable mention to KGB's Sumo Texting ad. It was very funny and I had trouble eliminating it.

Bud Light really disappointed me this year. For the last two years one of their ads had been my favorite, but this year they didn't even make the top 5.

I thought it was very interesting that Google placed an ad in this years super bowl. Not the funniest ad, but I though it was interesting and effective.

Something was definitely missing with Pepsi's decision to not run any ads and instead focus on their social media campaign. Hope they choose to advertise next year.

Had a wtf? moment when I saw the Sketchers Shape-Ups ad, which even aired twice. Those things look absolutely ridiculous! I also question how effective those can really be at getting you into shape.

Overall a good year for super bowl commercials, I had some trouble limiting my list down to just 5.

Labels: Advertisements, CBS, Commercials, Super Bowl

Garmin recently released Garmin Voice Studio, which allows you to record your own voice on your GPS. The problem is it is not compatible with my Nuvi 350. Fortunately, there is a free alternative, but unfortunately it is a lot more complicated and time consuming than Garmin's Voice Studio. Be warned, you will have to record about 110 sound clips. This took me over an hour. Also of note, this will only work with non-text to speech voices, so if you want to hear your own voice you will have to forgo hearing street names read to you. This guide assumes you are using a PC.

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Labels: Garmin, GPS, Hacks

On March 1st, a member of my family (who is a college student) was struck from behind by another driver. The other driver did not find it necessary to stop and just changed lanes and continued on their way. After stopping and calling the police, it was found that there was no damage to the car and no injuries. A police report was filed as a precaution, in case anyone became hurt or if damage to the car became evident later on. We also notified Geico, although we were not making any claim.

One month later on March 31st, we received a letter from Geico explaining that "as per our request" the vehicle involved in this accident was being moved to a new policy and the person driving when the accident occurred was being designated as the primary driver of this vehicle. Furthermore, the policy explains (incorrectly) that this vehicle is garaged out of state where the driver attends college. We did not contact Geico to make any such request and their changes to the primary driver and the location of the vehicle are both incorrect.

This change increases our premium by $2,600 per year!

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Labels: Car Insurance, Geico

My favorite 5 commercials of Super Bowl 43:
1. Bud Light - Budget Cuts (above)
2. Cash4Gold.com - Feat. Ed McMahon and MC Hammer
3. Careerbuilder.com - It May be Time
4. Coca-Cola - Brand Managers
5. Doritos - Crystal Ball

I really liked the commercials this year.

A Bud Light commercial topped my list for the second year in a row and as one of the first ads, it started the game off with a good laugh.

I was pleasantly surprised with the Cash4Gold commercial. I first read about it on The Consumerist and expected it to be a total train reck. It was actually very funny. Though, I wouldn't recommend sending them your gold.

I was really surprised to see some companies advertising this year. I did not expect to see ads from Hulu and Teleflora. I found their participation very interesting.

I was slightly impressed with the 3D ads. They were pretty cool, but nothing epic.

I should also mention that the game was excellent as well.

Labels: Advertisements, Commercials, NBC, Super Bowl

Watch out when buying a Subway sub under the $5 footlong deal. The regular prices on most subs (at least in my local store) are no more than $5.50. $5.50 minus the $1 off coupons, which I almost always receive in the mail, equals a price better than this heavily promoted "deal." Buyer beware.

Photo by Flickr user jetalone

Labels: Advertisements, Subway