February 3, 2009Superbowl XLIII (Audi A6) vs. Superbowl XLII (Audi R8)
While I generally enjoy sports, I really have no use for football other than the excuse it provides to drink during the day with friends, wear team paraphernalia, and cheer loudly. So, with no New York teams in last night’s Superbowl, I was far more into the Momofuku pork wraps being served where I was and the Bruce Springstein halftime show (I have a bit of a softspot for Glory Days) than I was into the actual game. Even the commercials, a habitual highlight of the Superbowl, were somewhat lackluster this year with movies, NBC TV shows and Budweiser dominating. The GoDaddy commercials were dumb, the E-trade commercial was okay, and the Coke and Pepsi commercials were pretty good but were hardly earth-shattering.
That said, one commercial stood out among the rest and, for me, made Superbowl XLIII worth watching…can you guess?
I don’t know if I have words for this year’s Audi commercial. It struck such a chord for me because it hit on so many of my favorite things all at once. The homage to Grand Theft Auto was so incredibly awesome…who thought of this? Did someone scan my brain while I was sleeping because this is the kind of thing I might have dreamt of. Specifically, the white suit sported by the driver, the ousted yuppie with the Zach Morris telephone in hand, and the “The Mousse is Loose” billboard made the Grand Theft Auto Vice City portion of the commercial some of the best thirteen seconds of visual media that I have ever seen. This commercial was a total winner for me. And the A6 is a knock-out. Audi’s head- and tail-lights are my favorite of any make.
But let’s not forget the great commercials of yesteryear. Remember the Audi commercial that aired during Superbowl XLII? The reinvented scene from the Godfather was memorable and the R8 was a wonder to look at and a delight to listen to (its roar as it tears down the driveway and out of the gates of the mansion gets the adrenaline going even when lazing on the couch).
And so, now for the MAIN EVENT: tonight, weighing in at 1 minute flat is the challenger, Audi commercial XLIII: Grand Theft Auto and in the opposite corner of the ring, registering at a whopping 1 minute and 3 seconds is the reigning champ, Audi commercial XLII: The Godfather. Ready, FIGHT (thank you NY Mag’s Chris Rovzar and Jessica Pressler for your Gossip Girl blogs which have inspired my scoring methods for this match up).
+1 to The Godfather because the R8 is (just a bit) cooler than the A6.
+1 to Grand Theft Auto because the A6 (unlike the R8) is in the realm of possibility and in these sad economic times, it’s nice when the (more) affordable option is made an object of desire.
+1 to Grand Theft Auto for the Zach Morris phone.
+1 to Grand Theft Auto for the Pilates reference in the final millennium scene (good call Audi advertisers for coming up with pilates as way of defining the period).
+1 to The Godfather for having John Woltz, the actual guy from the Godfather in the commercial — it would have translated anyway, but the extra mile was greatly appreciated.
+1 to Grand Theft Auto because, it’s true, none of the 90s auto options was particularly appealing (the driver/criminal/chasee was right to skip that decade)…for more on why the 90s were a sad time for auto design, see the Jan 28th post that links to the “10 Most Embarrassing Award Winners in Automotive History”.
+1 to The Godfather for that mansion, it was just right.
…AND the winner is: Grand Theft Auto (4-3)
