Olympic Commercials Medal Count

The NYT chimes in with it's medal count on commercials from the Olympics and I've got a few bones to pick with their choices. Chime in with your thoughts in the comments.

First, a glaring mistake: They forgot to include Nike, which in my opinion had some of the best commercials that aired.

My favorite is "Courage"


There's also this one with Marvin Gaye's national anthem and the USA Basketball Team:


So on to the other companies:

Anheuser-Bush:
Justin's score: 2 (of 10) NYT "Tin" (as in worse than bronze, but not as bad as lead)
I don't want to see old Superbowl commercials eight months later. I'm also sick of the re-branding of Michelob. First it was low carbs, now it's craft brew. I still don't care.

AT&T:
Justin's score: 3, NYT: Tin
Mundane, ordinary ads. Nothing to remember. At least they were new, though.

Coca-Cola:
Justin's score: 8, NYT: Gold
The Coke side of life animated ads continue to impress me. I agree with the NYT on this one.



Exxon Mobil:
Justin's score: 0, NYT: Tin
I'm sorry, but corporations like this need to put their money where their mouth is before I'm going to listen to this crap. You know what would work better than these commercials? How about actually donating $1billion or more to curing diseases or how about developing an alternative to oil. Obsolete yourself before someone else does. There's a lesson to be learned there (look at Kodak if you need proof).

GE:
Justin's score: 5, NYT: Gold
This is a mixed bag. I hated the discus tossing Greek commercial (for the execution, not the message) and liked the clumsy Chinese romance spot.

GM:
Justin's score: 4, NYT: Gold
Without sidetracking onto a rant, I'll just say this: it's great that the Chevy Volt is coming out in 2010, but wouldn't it have been even better if GM had the foresight to push alternative vehicles before we demanded them? (*cough* Prius)

Lenovo:
Justin's score: 8, NYT: Gold
Funny stuff. And not re-run 500 million times. Good work.



McDonalds:
Justin's score: 0, NYT: Lead
Olympic athletes do not eat McDonalds on a regular basis. Find a new message or STFU.

United Airlines:
Justin's score: 4, NYT: Gold
Frickin' bizzare. I had no idea what I was watching the first time I saw the sea orchestra one. The commercials are OK, but honestly United is a shit airline. I'd be happier if they put that money to use reducing asinine fees.

Visa:
Justin's score: 9, NYT: Gold
These were great. A common gold-tint, fantastic VO by Morgan Freeman and a message we can get behind (Go World). Outside of the Nike ads (which really struck a chord with me) these were my favorite.


On a side note, why did the NYT only hand out gold, tin and lead medals? Why not stick with silver and bronze? At first I thought they added those two onto the existing Olympic medal progression, but no, they just changed them up.