[singlepic id=279 w=320 h=240 float=right]2010 Geneva Motor Show – 2011 Lexus CT 200h: Usually, when it comes to hot hatch compacts like the Lexus CT 200h being debuted in Geneva, U.S. automotive fans are condemned to drooling on the sidelines over yet another vehicle that some number crunching genius deemed unmarketable to the U.S. Not so with the Lexus CT 200h five-door hatchback. Lexus says the CT 200h, a front wheel drive, five-door hatchback hybrid derived from the Lexus LF-Ch Premium Compact Hybrid Concept that debuted at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September, 2009 is “entering production at the end of 2010 for sale throughout the world.” Woohoo!
Top Ten Most Dangerous Drivers by Profession
Insure this!
Insurance.com announced their list of the Top Ten Most Dangerous Drivers by Profession this morning. Insurance.com found that professions that demand multi-tasking tend to rank higher on the list—a no-brainer there. We were, however, surprised to find out athletes and homemakers were among the safest. We guess athletes are too busy committing other crimes or adultery to… wait… do you think they know about Tiger?
Insurance.com did cite that homemakers tend to be off the road during peak traffic hours and that they typically have children in the car making them more cautious. Sadly, this means being a left lane bandit and driving slow enough to keep traffic from moving in order to make that right hand turn from the left lane are paying off.
We were also wondering why dog groomers came in at number six. Seriously? Is there some kind of dog grooming emergencies that occur that we are unaware of? Please tell us they are not multi-tasking and grooming our pets while they drive. It’s all the ammo we need to convince us to take our dog to the groomer, we don’t want them driving down our street no matter how badly Rover stinks!
But our favorite on the list, and the most dangerous drivers according to Insurance.com: judges and attorneys, with 44 percent claiming a prior accident. We didn’t think it possible, but our opinion of attorneys is even lower now. We’re guessing it has something to do with the BMWs that they drive as well. And that’s right, that guy you had to plead guilty for speeding in front of so you could go to traffic school, odds are he’s a worse driver than you. We don’t recommend using that as a defense next time you sign an invitation to appear, though.
The complete list of offenders is listed below. If your occupation is on it, you may want to consider switching careers, or at least ask about hazard pay. Good luck on those insurance rates!
- 1. Attorney/Judge
- 2. Financial professionals
- 3. Government worker (GS6)
- 4. Bartender or Waiter
- 5. Business Professionals
- 6. Dog Groomer
- 7. Marketing/Advertising professionals
- 8. Barber/Stylist
- 9. Coach
- 10. Nurse
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BrakingforCars.com’s Top Ten Super Bowl XLIV Car Commercials
Traveling companions in the 2011 Kia Sorrento Super Bowl ad
The Super Bowl is supposed to be “The Big Game.” A season of hard hits, impossibly accurate passes, and gravity defying leaps and catches boils down to one game where an undisputed champion is determined in a clash of Titans, Cowboys, Colts or Saints to name a few. However, more often than not, that champion is determined in the first quarter leaving fans with nothing to do during the remaining three quarters.
Super Bowl commercials have become the understudy for those lopsided games, but unlike most substitute entertainers, the ads during the Super Bowl hit the stage whether the headlining cast is present or not. For some, the ads are the highlight even if it is a good contest. For car guys, some of the best ads of the year will make their debut during that 60 minutes of play.
Based on how well the audience at a Super Bowl party we attended received this year’s commercials, we’ve ranked the ten most discussed Super Bowl car commercials. This is not all of the ads shown, only the ones that evoked some sort of response either for against the ad. If a spot didn’t make a big enough impression to warrant any impression, it was determined to be worse than bad, because after all, bad press is better than no press.
Circumstances during a game can be different than viewing the ads on-line. There are many distractions, and people losing their shirts may not see the humor in anything, let alone a Super Bowl commercial. So to be fair, we have also included their YouTube five star ranking.
We would however like to note one commercial that garnered no recognition whatsoever but we believe did deserve some: The Volkswagen ad featuring the game of Punch Dub starring Tracy Morgan and Stevie Wonder. This was a great ad and deserved to be on the list, but suffered the misfortune of following a New Orleans Saints touchdown on the first drive of the third quarter which started off with an onside kick. The excitement of the score was overwhelming and despite one editor’s own excitement about an ad featuring a blind man playing Punch Dub and pointing frantically at the TV to get party goers to pay attention so he could record some sort of reaction, his efforts were futile and the ad slipped away unnoticed. We hope it fared better at other gatherings.
So without further adieu, here they are; the good, the bad, and the overshadowed:
|
Rank |
Advertiser |
Ad |
YouTube |
| 1 | Bridgestone | “Whale of a Tale” | 4.5 |
| 2 | Hyundai | Starring Brett Favre | 4.5 |
| 3 | Dodge Charger | “Man’s Last Stand” | 4.0 |
| 4 | Kia | Road Trip | 5.0 |
| 5. | GoDaddy.com | Spa | 2.5 |
| 6. | Bridgestone | “Tires or Your Life” | 4.0 |
| 7. | GoDaddy.com | News | 2.0 |
| 8. | Honda Accord Crosstour | Squirrel | 3.5 |
| 9. | Audi | Green Police | 4.0 |
| 10. | Cars.com | Timothy Richman’s Confidence | 4.5 |
| Honorable Mention | Volkswagen | Punch Dub | 5.0 |
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Tagged ad, Bridgestone, commercial, Danica Patrick, GoDaddy.com, Honda, Hyundai, Sluggy Patterson, Vernon Heywood, Volkswagen, VW
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Super Bowl XLIV – Hyundai: Brett Favre
Super-Bowl-Hyundai-Brett-Furing Brett Favre
2. This commercial by Hyundai is our second favorite Super Bowl car ad.
Not only is it a car ad produced for viewing during the greatest came on the planet, but it features and pokes a little fun at arguably the greatest quarterback on the planet. What do Cheeseheads and Purple People Eaters know anyway? However, our hat is off to Brett Favre, cheese, horned or otherwise, for appearing in the commercial and being able to make fun of himself. See Favre 10 years from now in this Super Bowl ad from Hyundai:
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Super Bowl XLIV Ads – Cars.com
Super Bowl XLIV ad - Cars.com
10. The only car ad people hated more than Audi’s Green Police. You’ve never heard so many people complain about how long a minute is. Cars.com, people want that part of their lives back.
For their 2010 Super Bowl ad, Cars.com once again brought us a story of how an otherwise confident individual became terror stricken when it came to buying cars, but overcame that fear with the help of Cars.com.
We weren’t excited about the ad when we previewed it, and attendees of the Super Bowl bash we were attending unanimously agreed.
The premise is good, and it is a nice story, but the commercial is too long and without “pop.” Kudos to Cars.com for maximizing their platinum-laced air time and making a minute seem like an eternity to make sure they had all the time they needed to get their message across. We’re sure those who were able to stay awake through it will never forget that 60-seconds of their life and will remember who to see about getting them back.
Can’t we do something a little less excruciating instead, like watch Pete Townshend miss another high note?
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Super Bowl XLIV Ads – Dodge: Man’s Last Stand
Supber Bowl XLIV ad - Dodge: Man's Last Stand
3. What can we say? We’re suckers for horsepower!
Chrysler was the only one of the three Detroit automakers to buy air time during Super Bowl XLIV. Not only does buying an ad during the Super Bowl require a premium chunk of change, but we don’t imagine hiring Emmy Award winning actor Michael C. Hall can be done with too many discount coupons either.
However, the ad did well among our Super Bowl viewers. Everyone stopped, listened, and then made jokes about our tax dollars at work.
Once again, the spot was geared toward the men in the crowd and pointed out all the “sacrifices” us Neanderthals endure to keep our mates happy, including putting away dirty underwear and being nice to the mother-in-law. But more importantly it gave men ammo for the argument as to why are entitled to buy a cool car. And while not all of our Super Bowl revelers agreed with Dodge that they should buy a new Charger, a Challenger wasn’t necessarily out of the question either.
Witness here all that men have to endure and see if you don’t deserve to sit behind the wheel of something a little more manhood worthy than your current ride.
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Super Bowl XLIV Ads – Bridgestone: Your Tires or Your Life
Bridgestone Tires or Your Life from Super Bowl XLIV
6. We thought this one would score higher among our peeps, but they found it only mildly amusing.
Those wacky ad execs from Bridgestone got us again. In the second of two cliffhanger ads from Bridgestone for Super Bowl XLIV, we see a sports car being chased into a roadblock by a malevolent SUV.
At the road block, a leather clad woman gets out of the car and we expect her to have to fight off the baddies in order to keep her tires after they make the “Your tires or your life” ultimatum. That’s when what you think you know what is going to happen goes all wrong.
Funny how a little misunderstanding—a misheard word—can totally change a plot. All the men laughed at this commercial, but the women didn’t find it quite so amusing. That could be because unlike the first ad with the whale, this time the wife is the butt of the joke.
I’m not in too much trouble for laughing at this one, though. I mean she did let me have a blanket to sleep on the couch with this time.
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Super Bowl XLIV Ads – Bridgestone: Whale of a Tale
ridegstone "Whale of a Tale" ad from Super Bowl XLIV
1. The ad that garnered the most laughs at the Super Bowl party we attended.
Bridgestone has had a pretty consistent run of some of the best car related Super Bowl commercials year after year, and Super Bowl XLIV brings us two more winners. The first of the two ads by Bridgestone cashes in on the hilarity of last summer’s hit comedy, “The Hangover,” the spot picks up with three friends in a truck with a killer whale.
Before the big game, Bridgestone gave us a preview of the new spot but left us with a cliffhanger and no sense of where the plot was going other than the whale seemed to be in need of rescue.
The ending was well worth the wait as we find out why there is a killer whale in the back of the truck, and no they aren’t making a joke about the bride.
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Tagged ad, Avalanche, Bridgestone, Chevrolet, Chevy, commercial, Super Bowl, Vernon Heywood, whale
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Super Bowl XLIV Ads – GoDaddy.com in the News
GoDaddy.com's second Super Bowl XLIV ad
7. OK, so this one has Danica in it, too. But after the first one, people started to feel a little cheated.
In the second of two Super Bowl XLIV ads from GoDaddy.com, the lovely and fast Ms. Danica Patrick is in a newsroom where she is being questioned about the “hotness” of GoDaddy Super Bowl ads. Danica asks, “How hot is too hot?” and one of the reporters starts to show her what too hot for TV is when the screen… you guessed it… goes to the GoDaddy logo telling you to go to GoDaddy.com to see what happens next, just like they did to us in the first one.
We checked the internet version of this ad as well, and were just as disappointed in how not “too hot for TV” this spot was as we were in the first one. When GoDaddy.com lets us down and the only half time wardrobe malfunction we can count on is Roger Daltry’s belly button, what’s a football fan to do?
I guess we could watch the game.
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Super Bowl XLIV Ads – GoDaddy.com Spa
GoDaddy.com Super Bowl ad featuring Danica Patrick at a spa
5. It’s Danica Patrick. Sure, the commercial was kinda lame…but IT’S DANICA.
Great things come in threes—like fast cars, fast women and great Super Bowl commercials. With race car driver Danica Patrick you get all three in one superbly wrapped package. In the first of two ads from GoDaddy.com to appear in Super Bowl XLIV, our favorite racy female is at a spa to get a massage when she is recognized as the GoDaddy girl.
Really? She’s more recognizable as a spokesperson for a domain hosting company than she is as a representative for her chosen profession. OK, we’ll chalk it up to the blondeness of the masseuse who also wants to be a GoDaddy girl. But, just as she is about to show us…uh…we mean Ms. Patrick why she should be a GoDaddy girl, the GoDaddy logo pops up telling us if we want to see more, we need to go to GoDaddy.com.
So for strictly editorial purposes we did.
However, this piece is to cover commercials shown in the Super Bowl, so we will refrain from showing you what we had hoped… we mean expected… to be the usual level of GoDaddy debauchery we have come to know (and love). We’ll let you go to GoDaddy.com to view the internet version of this ad and you can decide if things were as… transparent… as should be expected from the normally controversial advertiser.
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Tagged ad, commercial, Danica Patrick, GoDaddy.com, Super Bowl, Vernon Heywood
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