So not only can consumers create great ads, they can win big-time awards. USA Today named Doritos’ consumer-generated Live the Flavor ad from last year’s Crash the Super Bowl contest the best ad of 2007.
Here's why USA Today selected it as the best ad:
Sorry, Madison Avenue. The best video ad of 2007 was created on a budget of 12 bucks by an amateur admaker who won Frito-Lay's contest to "make your own Doritos Super Bowl ad."
The romantic tale of two Doritos lovers who meet on the street beat more than 1,000 other homemade ads to air before the Super Bowl's huge audience in February. The promotion also got more than 1,000 consumers to buy chips, videotape themselves with them and upload video praise. Then, those Doritos-touting videos were viewed about 4 million times on the Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" website.
Meanwhile, a crush of media coverage of the novel contest, before and after the game, brought the brand free publicity worth millions of dollars more.
Marketing mission accomplished!
The ad also made Time Magazine's top 10 for the year.
"Live the Flavor" won Frito-Lay's user-generated Super Bowl ad contest by looking, frankly, a lot like a Madison Avenue product. The geeky Doritos cruncher in the ad is distracted by a pretty girl and crashes his car. They bond over their shared love of orangey tortilla chips. It's an old gag, but what freshens the homespun version is that, instead of Miss USA Ali Landry, this Doritos siren looks like someone who might actually give the guy a shot.
Incidentally, the winner of Time's top 10 list was also a Super Bowl ad. It was the CBS 15 second house ad featuring David Letterman and Oprah on a couch watching the game. Letterman stuffs popcorn in his mouth and says "You want the Bears, and I want the Colts, but we both win because we're in love". Even though you'd need to be familiar with the whole Letterman/Oprah backstory to appreciate the joke here, anybody will get a kick out of seeing these two spend a tender moment together.
Nationwide's Kevin Federline Super Bowl ad also made the top 10.
Other Super Bowl ads in the USA Today top 10 include Toyota Tundra ad for its special effects, and the Coca-Cola ad for is use of music in the ad.
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