Anheuser-Busch still the king of Super Bowl advertising

Even in a year when Anheuser-Busch consciously avoided airing crude Super Bowl commercials, the beer giant bested the field, again, with one of its most potent advertising weapons: a silly sight gag.

For a record seventh year in a row, Anheuser-Busch has won USA Today’s exclusive Ad Meter consumer ranking of the top Super Bowl ads. In this year’s winner, when a reluctant skydiver refuses to jump, his buddy tosses out a six-pack of Bud Light. The guy still doesn’t jump, but the pilot does.

Once again, Anheuser-Busch made winning look easier than popping the top off a Bud. Besides the top-rated ad for the evening, it also logged three of the top seven and five of the top 12. The beermaker was the game’s single-largest advertiser, airing nine spots during the game. “Budweiser always has the perfect commercials,” says Elizabeth Prester, 53, a nurse from Ellicott City, Md.

Anheuser-Busch’s global marketing chief Bob Lachky agrees: “It’s an awesome feeling and a validation of the Bud Light (ad) strategy.”

Even then, Anheuser-Busch faced some surprising competition from two Super Bowl rookies: CareerBuilder.com, whose three chimp-as-office-worker ads all ranked among the top 10. And Ameriquest, whose ad about a store customer’s cellphone chat being misunderstood as a robbery, ranked No.2.

But the beermaker’s big win came during one of the more uptight ad evenings in years. Hanging heavy on the minds of advertisers was the uproar from last year’s Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction,” which spilled over on the commercials. Just one year ago, both the halftime show and the commercials pushed the edges of taste. This year, both the halftime show, with senior citizen Paul McCartney and the ads, with boomer-era celebrities, were unusually tame.

“A lot of good taste in these commercials,” says Arman Robii, 41, a project manager for an Austin sign company. “They’re not putting too much sex in to this year, which of course there used to be (a lot of).”

That may be a key reason two rookies scored so well. For CareerBuilder, an online job-hunting site owned partially by Gannett, owner of USA Today, it was a huge night: All three of its ads landed in the top 10 with an often-successful Super Bowl ad formula: chimps.

For Ameriquest, a first-time Super Bowl advertiser and sponsor of the halftime show, it was a big night, too. Both its ads finished in the top 10 — real estate typically occupied by Anheuser-Busch.

Most advertisers were unusually conservative in both subject and presentation. The only outwardly provocative ad was from GoDaddy.com, a little-known domain registry site.

The ad showed a buxom woman have a wardrobe malfunction while testifying before a congressional panel. It upset some viewers.

“I don’t get the one with the girl whose top was coming down,” says Robin Dodson, 26, a student from Austin. “It was degrading, almost.”

Even before the game, several controversial ads bit the dust. Anheuser-Busch opted not to air an ad that poked fun at the Jackson incident. And Ford Motor withdrew an ad for a Lincoln after an advocacy group charged that it made light of sex abuse.

The one exception to celebration of commerce: a touching tribute to U.S. troops by A-B that was No. 3.

When it came to selling stuff, however, subtlety failed to score for Super Bowl marketers in Ad Meter. In a Subway spot, viewers mostly failed to figure out that toasted buns will steam up windows like lovers in a parked car. In an ad for Tabasco, few caught the visual reverse sunburn that eating Tabasco sauce gave a bathing beauty. And the McDonald’s french fry shaped like Abe Lincoln’s head just didn’t register with viewers.