Should that have been you up there?
First of all, if you’re new to the site, welcome! We’ve been getting hundreds of new readers a day thanks to the Crash the Superbowl contest. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be covering the contest closely but we’ll also be doing our regular thing which is covering video contests of all sizes. If this year’s Crash the Superbowl contest was your first video contest experience I recommend that it not be your last. You may not have made it to the finals, but there are plenty of other big prizes out there waiting to be won. I personally have never won a big money prize but in the last two years I’ve won a total of $30,000 in smaller contests. And there are plenty of other folks on the web who have won a who lot more than that. So I hope you all enjoy both our Dortios and non-Doritos related posts and share your own opinions in the comments sections. If you’d like to be know whenever we put up a new post, just click the yellow RSS button to the right to subscribe to the blog.
Doritos announced their “Top 6” on Monday night and now that I’ve had a some time to let the finalists sink in, I’ve warmed up to them. All of them are at least decent. Unlike a lot of unhappy folks, I wouldn’t classify any of them as “sucking.” Are all of them good enough for the superbowl? Maybe not. We’re there better entries that got overlooked? Yes. I think the Doritos judges were just maybe 2 or 3 choices away from having a really awesome Top 6.
But not everyone thinks so. In fact, based on the e-mails and comments I’ve been getting and from what I’ve read on the Crash the Superbowl forum, a lot of you really, really, REALLY hate the choices Doritos made. I’ve read lots of theories. Including:
1. The judges intentionally picked bad finalists to ensure the company would not have to pay out 5 million bucks.
2. One finalist entry was picked solely for politically correct reasons.
3. The USAtoday article that revealed “Casket” as a finalist gave them an unfair advantage
4. The contest was “rigged” in some way for some reason
5. Doritos picked 2 videos from the makers of the commercial that won the first CTSB competition in 2007 because they know them and like them.
One disgruntled contestant went so far as to create a facebook group in protest of the judges decisions:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=search&gid=234804648719
Personally, I won’t be joining that particular group. I think that 3 of Doritos choices are funny and good enough for the game. And three good ones are all you need. I even think one of them has a shot at the top spot on the USAtoday ad meter. I’ll be listing my three personal choices as well as my three predictions in the next few days. In the meantime, why don’t you guys let us know what you think in the comments section? Did the judges blow it or did they nail it? What ads do you think were robbed of a finalist spot? Which commercials do you think suck and why? Which one will you be voting for?
And I am looking for an answer for a specific question. I didn’t enter or even pay attention really to the CTSB contest last year. After the last year’s Top 5 were announced, what was the reaction? Did people instantly love “Snowglobe?’ Were people claiming the contest was rigged or that the judges picked 6 awful entries? If you followed the contest last year and can fill me in on what the consensus was, lemme know in a comment.
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i think last year people complained that they were all TOO good. and too pro
David R. is right on. Last years spots were all had high production values and except for a few of the submissions, this year’s field doesn’t compare. Go to the Doritos YouTube page and check for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/user/CrashtheSuperBowl
I didn’t see last year’s results, but the JT Pepsi spot was in the Superbowl portion I saw. Then I googled Superbowl Doritos 2009 after my spot had about 600 hits & felt assured my stuff wouldn’t be deleted for having fun with this even, if a few fellow entrants took issue here or there with the gobs of stuff that crosses a blogger’s mind…
Having looked at the finalist page(s) without clicking on anything yet, my impression is that the judges wanted to include the look & feel of an amateur video contest. I hope my participation continues to fit in with this year’s “wavelengths” because the wealth of places to jump right in is still flowing steadily, including this site.
Jared C. says it best on his website. Doritos led people the wrong way. And I believe they don’t want to pony up cash either, because there were enough REALLY good spots to make a run at the 1-2-3 ad meter challenge, but by snubbing “doritos please” you can tell they want to keep their coins.
I say let the people judge. Pick 25-50 and let the people pick the 6 then the 3. This way its fair. How the 5 point boys got 2 spots is beyond comprehension with the competition out there. My guess is the DC brass said they wouldn’t consider any repeat finalists from last year. Three of last years finalists did some damn good work this year and shelled out major coin for a repeat.
Truth be told, they deserved it, especially the Goobanater and his band of merry dwarves. I’d never spend my hard earned money again for this.
Neem,
You have a very good point about the judges wanting to get the feel of an “amateur” video contest. I proposed they do just that in this post:
http://videocontestnews.com/2009/12/16/vcn%E2%80%99s-crash-the-superbowl-recommendations/
I recommended doritos pick spots that were “rough around the edges” otherwise, if the finalists were as slick as last year’s, people might not even bother to enter next time around. But I never expected they would pick commercials that had serious technical flaws or embarrassing mistakes.
Judge Dink,
I wrote about “Dortios Please” several times on this site. I predicted it would make the finals but I suggested Doritos NOT pick it. If they did, and if it aired, half the people who saw it would realize that it was a very fancy “most interesting man in the world” rip-off. It would have also seriously damaged future installments of The Crash since it would have showed that the “the bar” was far beyond the reach of 99.99% of filmmakers who would want to enter.
I really hope Doritos does the CTSB again next year but I pray to God they don’t let “the people” choose the finalist because the whole thing would become a popularity contest. If the Crash finalists are in any way picked by a public vote, I probably would not even waste my time.
Did you do an entry this year? If so, I’d like to check it out. And everyone should feel free to post links to any entries they think should have made the Top 6.
I was very disappointed with this contest. The judges let us down. Losing wouldn’t be so bad if the winners were actually good. Most of the winners are embarrassing. I believe the fix was in. The odds that the winner of the first crash the superbowl would get to the finals are pretty long. but the odds that he would get 2 spots in the finals is just horse sh-t. And some of the other ads have no place in the finals either. I agree that one choice was picked for PC reasons.
I have two titles for you. “Doritos Please” and “Dave.” Those videos were robbed.
lol. Again, I’m kind of happy doritos please didn’t make it. But if Dave is the one where the actor breaks his leg (or is it the one where the guy dies and meets eddie mcglurg in heaven?) I didn’t like that one either. The goal is to get a high score on the ad meter. A lot of people would see and HEAR that leg break and just go ewwwwww! It could never have made it to one of the Top Spots in the ad meter poll.