After the Crash the Super Bowl deadline passed on November 16th, I checked Doritos’ facebook page and saw a strange announcement. It said something like “come back on November 28th for some exciting awards news.” The official set of finalists weren’t going to be revealed until January 4th so I had no idea what was going to be announced on Nov 28. Well it turns out that for the first time ever, Doritos will be awarding bonus prizes to some entries as part of something they are calling the “Nacho Average Ad Awards.” Five videos have been nominated by Doritos’ judges in eight different categories. The commercial that gets the most votes in each category wins a special prize. Here are the different categories:
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Now I can appreciate a hot “babe” as much as the next guy but just for the record, it is 2012, right? Having a “Best Supporting Babe” category seems so 1988. There’s a surprising amount of T & A in the five videos in that category which is kind of weird because the Crash the Super Bowl contest has never really been about “sexy” humor. I think the folks at Fritolay probably understand that some of these ads (like the one that features a triple-boobed woman) are probably too hot for TV. But at least they can use them to get some extra hits on facebook. Personally I’ve got nothing against tri-boobs but I think that if Doritos wanted to have a category that objectified women they should have balanced things out by also adding a “Hottest Hunks” category.
Facebook users can vote for their favorite Nacho nominees once a day until December 17th. The Crash the Super Bowl page is kind of unclear what the winning filmmakers will receive but here’s what the the official rules say:
Each Nacho Average Ad Award winner will be awarded a Nacho Average Ad Awards trophy and a one (1) year supply of Doritos awarded in the form of 52 free product coupons each valid for one (1) bag of DORITOS® brand Tortilla Chips (up to 11.5 ounces) up to $4.29 each. Approximate Retail Value of each Category Nacho Average Ad Award is $523.08. Such Nacho Average Ad Awards are unrelated to the Judging Criteria, and will not be considered in and have no bearing upon Finalist selection.
So if you win you basically get a ton of Doritos. I don’t think it would be very wise for a single human being to try and consume one full bag of Doritos a week for 52 weeks straight. So if you actually manage to win this prize I suggest you give a lot of those coupons to friends or maybe a food pantry.
My friend and VCN reader Shane F. actually was nominated for a “Nacho” award in the “Most Powerful Doritos” category. You can check out his entry and give him a vote by clicking on the image below:
Click to view and vote
Shane’s commercial is pretty good but actually, a lot of the nominees are surprisingly funny and well made. There are a few nominees that I think will make the final 5 and there is one entry that I would call a sure thing. I really thought that Doritos would keep the best entries hidden until they revealed the actual finalists in January. But if your entry didn’t get nominated for a Nacho award I still think you have a chance of making the top 5. A few Nacho nominees will probably make it but I’m sure that some of the big winners will be a surprise. After all, Doritos received almost 3,000 entries this year. I doubt that the judges have even had a chance to watch them all yet.
QUICK NOTE: I wanted to say thanks to all you Crash the Super Bowl fans that have been visiting VCN over the last few weeks. We had almost 18,000 unique visitors this month which means November was our busiest month ever!
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Beardy:
I agree with most of what you said. I explored the rules and neither Doritos, or Facebook, give an explanation of how these 40 commercials were to be picked for the “Nacho” awards from among the (3,000?) that were submitted for the competition. I think it is fair to say that they have reiterated more than once that these votes are for entertainment purposes only, and have no direct effect on their judging of the final five. (You mention that you believe one of them for sure is going to be a finalist. Have you seen all 3,000 spots?) Judging some of these spots will be like judging a beauty pageant… some look good, some sound good, some mean well, and others are just plain fun! I wouldn’t want to be a judge, but it is fun watching!
Well alright, if it’s just winning nachos for a year, I can live without that
I’m actually glad they did this because I saw some really good ones that I missed throughout the last couple of weeks. I definitely see some potential finalists in these.
All I know is mine didn’t qualify for any categories… and I’m ok with that!
If you click on the newewt page and click the top one its ID is 4707 (by clicking the twitter link) so I think that is the count for this year.
Chad,
I checked at the numbering of the entries is inconsistent. The last one was 4707 but the one before that was 4704. After that the numbers are kind of random. I scrolled through all the entries the other day and estimated there were like 2,800 entries. I lost the actual number though so I’ll probably do a recount this week.
beardy, which are your favorite spots in the Doritos Nacho Awards (each catagory). You said you thought a few of them could make the finals.
Of at least a dozen videos that I have favored so far, THIS little gem goes to my personal top *three*.
Can you guess how the monster was done?
..