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Google Airs Super Bowl Ad

Posted by kdawson on from the feeling-lucky dept.

theodp writes "CNET's hunch that Google might run a Super Bowl ad entitled 'Parisian Love' proved to be well-founded. The ad just ran (did you know that you can search the Internet using Google?), and Apple certainly doesn't have to worry about losing its claim to having produced the best Super Bowl ad ever. In fact, you might want to check out the spoof 'Parisian Love' apparently inspired — 'Is Tiger Feeling Lucky?' — if you want to see a better pitch for Google."

43 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. First Polanski by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 4, Funny
    Here are the searches from the commercial, in order:
    • "study abroad paris france"
    • "cafes near the louve"
    • "translate tu es tres mignon"
    • "impress a french girl"
    • "chocolate shops paris"
    • "what are truffles"
    • "who is traffaut"
    • "long distance relationship advice"
    • "jobs in paris"
    • "AA120"
    • "churches in paris
    • "how to assemble a crib"

    Did anybody else find that kinda...creepy? Like some Roman Polanski just met a possibly underage girl* in a chat room and now he's going to stalk her* while fantasizing about moving near her*, gettin married*, and having a kid* all while he dosen't even know French*.

    * the "girl", "AA 120" airline, "jobs", "church", "crib", and "translate" searches; respectively.

    1. Re:First Polanski by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I have been described as seriously cynical and highly lacking empathy. Hell, even my girlfriend calls me souless. But I nearly cried at the end.

      Brilliant ad.

    2. Re:First Polanski by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, actually. Would never have crossed my mind.

      I think you just have issues.

    3. Re:First Polanski by poormanjoe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No I didn't find it creepy. I was very impressed with the commercial. It instantly came to me near the end that they were illustrating they're long term commitment to excellent searches. Google has been in business now (if your a 20 something) for over half our lives, and this was a sped up version of what an "average" person may have Googled over their lifetime. It has always been there for you. It has always got you what you wanted to know. The top result is always what you wanted. All this was illustrated very elegantly and effectively. Unlike most technology commercials that have a very busy, and annoying feeling with people who are nothing like "you."

      --
      I want to be retired when I grow up.
    4. Re:First Polanski by sakdoctor · · Score: 5, Funny
      • Buy cafes near the louve on ebay
      • Buy impress a french girl on ebay
      • Buy long distance relationship on ebay
      • Buy churches in paris on ebay
    5. Re:First Polanski by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Funny

      I really do get a similar result for your 3rd example:

      Buy long-distance relationship at Amazon! Qualified orders over $25 ship free

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    6. Re:First Polanski by russotto · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's just you. Any idiot could see the story: An American guy went to study abroad in Paris, went to a cafe, met a French girl who told him he was cute, bought her some chocolate, found out about her favorite films, and eventually moved to Paris to be the handyman to her and her husband.

    7. Re:First Polanski by CecilPL · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's so touching knowing that a soulless, multinational, 100 billion dollar company thinks you should integrate it into every part of your life.

      But yeah, I almost cried too. Kinda scary how easy it is to manipulate our emotions for commercial gain.

    8. Re:First Polanski by Stiletto · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe they should have showed a big spinning clock, or a caption at the bottom of the screen that says "IN CASE YOU CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT, TIME WOULD ACTUALLY BE PASSING BETWEEN EACH SEARCH!! GET IT?"

    9. Re:First Polanski by Shin-LaC · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm a man and I find it hard to fathom that someone could be moved by that ad, let alone to tears. In fact, I'd say I felt nothing at all, unless cheese is an emotion.

    10. Re:First Polanski by u38cg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think most of /. will miss the point of this ad. We all treat Google like a very low transaction cost oracle: any time we have the stupidest of queries, we throw it in, no matter how inane or silly our question. A lot of people, however, treat a Google Search like something that requires capital letters and a cup of tea. I've seen people make notes of their search results before clicking on something. I think a large part of the intent of this ad (besides simple brand cementation for us lot) is to encourage that freewheeling approach.

      --
      [FUCK BETA]
    11. Re:First Polanski by VShael · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's just you. Any idiot could see the story: An American guy went to study abroad in Paris, went to a cafe, met a French girl who told him he was cute, bought her some chocolate, found out about her favorite films, and eventually moved to Paris to be the handyman to her and her husband.

      Ah to be the handyman in a Parisian family... you have all the sex with the Mrs, but none of the responsibility of raising/paying for the children.

    12. Re:First Polanski by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

    13. Re:First Polanski by Fractal+Dice · · Score: 4, Insightful

      hmm ... I thought the point of the ad was "hey advertisers/government agencies, we have peoples' whole lives encoded in our database of their searches, come get it".

  2. What? by stonecypher · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Major company runs television ad during profitable sports event.

    Gasp. Newsworthy indeed.

    --
    StoneCypher is Full of BS
    1. Re:What? by elashish14 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For a company that doesn't advertise very much (all that they have so far is that stupid Chrome browser commercial that still barely makes sense to me), and a company that's pretty closely tied to the /. community, I think it's pretty newsworthy. And let's not forget that they didn't just crawl into the advertising realm - their first major ad on TV airing during the Super Bowl? That's pretty significant. And besides, it suggests that Google is starting to acknowledge some competition from Bing. They never had any reason to advertise much before, but it shows that they acknowledge that things are starting to change.

      In any case, for a night full of silly car ads and tasteless beer commercials, I thought it was delightfully refreshing. I'm glad to see a story like this making waves.

      --
      I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
  3. I see how you might be confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This being Slashdot, I understand how this might seem confusing to some readers, but that's actually the way some romances happen. A guy meets a girl, likes her, tries to impress her, and amazingly, it works.

    1. Re:I see how you might be confused by nicknamenotavailable · · Score: 5, Funny

      That is utter nonsense.
      There must be some mathematical equation or perl or ruby script involved somewhere.

    2. Re:I see how you might be confused by sentientbeing · · Score: 4, Funny

      begin; while {tits36c} find tits; end;

      --

      ------
      beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
    3. Re:I see how you might be confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Be careful. Some of the male readers here might be caught by that.

  4. Even more interesting by rinoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    Try this in your Google Suggest enabled search field (Safari, Firefox, Google home page):
    Just type the word "Why" ...

    First suggested results:
    Why do men have nipples
    Why is the sky blue
    Why is my poop green
    Why are black people so loud


    Recently bumped off the top list of suggested search results: "Why does my vag smell"

    What would we do with out such an enormous cultural asset such as Google?

    1. Re:Even more interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why the hell are these not legitimate questions? What is wrong with trying to find out more about the world, as opposed to staying willfully ignorant of topics that might seem vaguely uncomfortable?

    2. Re:Even more interesting by JackieBrown · · Score: 4, Funny

      Are you sure that your results are not based on your personal search history :)

    3. Re:Even more interesting by bertoelcon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Boy, people here are more bizarrely weird than I thought.

      This is the internet, may I ask what it is that you were expecting?

      --
      Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
    4. Re:Even more interesting by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Informative

      What would we do with out such an enormous cultural asset such as Google?

      Why do men have nipples? is a humor book. It's a New York Times Bestseller.

      If you don't like that query, blame the New York Times, or blame the author of that book. Don't blame Google. The same goes for the rest of those queries, you can probably blame the rest of those queries on TV Quiz shows, or on people trying to game the system. In any case, "why" is a super-vague query, most people enter quite a few more meaningful keywords. Judging Google on that criterion alone just tells us more about you than anything it tells us about Google.

    5. Re:Even more interesting by selven · · Score: 4, Funny

      This is the internet, may I ask what it is that you were expecting?

      The Spanish Inquisition.

  5. Am I the only one...? by thatseattleguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...who thought this ad was pretty damn brilliant? Low-key, sure, but also sweet, memorable, and focused on the product/service itself rather than hype and glitz? I thought it promoted the both the company's values and the value of what they provide to their customers extraordinarily well.

    Maybe I'm just not cynical enough, but it sure gets my vote. /tsg/

    1. Re:Am I the only one...? by friedmud · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My wife and I thought it was well done as well. We've also recently gone to Paris... and it brought back good memories for us.

      I think it did a beautiful job of showing the service off... and reminding people that Google still works and is extremely efficient. It didn't need to be all in your face and loud... unlike other search engine adds. (Yaaaaaaaaaaahooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

      I'm sure it will get ripped apart here on Slashdot... but it definitely wasn't aimed at the Geek crowd.

    2. Re:Am I the only one...? by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you watch all the Super Bowl ads through Hulu (AdZone), they show the aggregate ratings people gave to each ad (like/dislike). The Google ad has the highest like rating so far.

  6. Actually, I liked it. by moosesocks · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, I thought it was simple and to the point (something you don't see very much in Super Bowl ads).

    I didn't watch the Superbowl (cable's out), and so far three friends have called me to tell me to watch this ad, while I haven't heard a peep about any of the other ads that aired. I'd qualify that as a pretty significant success.

    Also consider that the ad's simplistic nature can be thought of as a reflection of Google's products. Apple's used same strategy very successfully while marketing the iPhone, albeit from a somewhat different angle.

    I also wouldn't list Apple's '1984' as a particularly good ad. It was expensive, confusing, and made absolutely no mention of the product being advertised. My favorite super bowl ad is still the E-Trade monkey ad.

    --
    -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
  7. Best Ever? by fm6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple certainly doesn't have to worry about losing its claim to having produced the best Super Bowl ad ever.

    Oh gawd. That ad was based around a lame, confusing reference to a certain novel — a novel that the makers obviously had not read. It doesn't make sense to anybody who doesn't already think that Apple products are Destined to Save the World. Anybody who thinks this is "best ever" needs to get out more.

    1. Re:Best Ever? by fm6 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Jeez, I didn't expect to get modded up. Is everybody feeling OK?

  8. Holy shit, Google knows everything about him! by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 5, Funny

    So the ad is telling us that some horny dude knocked up some chick in Paris and was looking for a church to confess his sins, and they told him that he can't leave the country or Jesus will zap him, and that he better buy a crib, but he's so poor that he has to build it instead, and next he'll probably search for "best suicide method" ... so thank God for Google, the benign giant who knows every minute detail of his pathetic life.

  9. I Don't Get It by pipingguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is a super bowl some kind of large toilet?

    1. Re:I Don't Get It by biryokumaru · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, and all the major corporations throw their money into it.

      --
      When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
  10. Re:Why not Chrome? by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They weren't looking for more exposure. They were looking to get people to associate Google with warm fuzzies.

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  11. Re:Interested in something else. by nicknamenotavailable · · Score: 4, Informative

    Try google DNS.

    No, I'm not joking.

    I upgraded everything, but still found that it took very long to begin loading a page.
    A heavily 'ad-laden' page has to make many DNS queries before the page even starts to appear.
    Google DNS is an order of magnitude faster than the one provided with my Bell WiMax.

    But make sure you test it first. Your ISP's DNS might not be as bad as mine.

  12. Those who ask, receive! by fibrewire · · Score: 5, Funny

    Haven't you heard of Google TiSP?

    http://www.google.com/tisp/

    I wonder why they didn't advertise this - everyone already uses google search.

    And for those wondering, Clearwire is just a franchise of Google TiSP

  13. Re:Autocomplete Search Results by Sopmeone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sopmeone should compare

    Who the fuck is Sopmeone?

    Yeah, hi. Sopmeone here. I did compare the results but you won't be interested. Nice meeting you.

  14. More Search Stories by Paaskonijn · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are six more of them here: http://www.youtube.com/searchstories It's a really good campaign. Most of the videos have the awww factor and it shows off Google's services very effectively.

  15. Re:Perl and Ruby script by selven · · Score: 5, Funny

    Guy: Here's a python.

  16. Re:Mod parent funny/insightful by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 5, Funny

    at any point in this conversation were either of you ever thinking about tits?

    --
    (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
  17. Chuck Norris by ndavis · · Score: 5, Funny

    All these comments and no one noticed that when they did the search for Church one of the queries that came up when they had only typed 'Chu' was 'Chuck Norris' Which makes this the coolest ad and now the Google employees better watch out for roundhouse kick related incidents.