Chevy Sonic’s Super Pointless Ad

Here is an ad from Chevy that aired during the Super Bowl:

Even though there is fine print that was very obvious and deliberate in the beginning, the smaller one later caught my eye:

The car in the ad is not even the car you can buy, but modified for the ridiculous stunts. While it is refreshing to see real stunts instead of computer generated graphics, the fact that the stunts are real does not detract from the pointlessness of the ad. No one is going to take their new Chevy kick-flipping, bungee-jumping, or sky-diving, so why even bother? You can throw any car out of a plane with a parachute to show it can fall with style. While over the top Super Bowl Ads that do not sell the product are nothing new, this one probably cost millions to show no capabilities over a Ford Fiesta or Honda Fit.

Groupon's Expiring Ad Campaign

Among the most memorable commercials from the Super Bowl was from GroupOn:

While the discussion was about Timothy Hutton misleading the viewers about Tibet’s troubles, I of course noticed the fine print:

(If you can't read it, "Actual deal ended on 10/23/10")

While it is common to see expiration dates in the fine print, they are not usually three months expired. Oddly enough, people who know about GroupOn know that their deals are only for one day and in the city you signed up for, so the fine print is for people who actually wanted the deal at that restaurant. Maybe Groupon is just trying to avoid getting sued, oops, too late. At least Conan got some laughs out of it.