TaxACT Super Bowl Commercial

When I first saw the TaxACT commercial with the little boy peeing in the pool, I was completely grossed out and couldn’t even figure out what it had to do with TaxACT. Now that I have watched it a couple of times, I have some more thoughts. How about you?

First, TaxACT may not even care if you remember the commercial was about them as long as there is enough buzz (like this blog post!) about them. Second, I guess I can sort of get the “totally free” connection to being able to do your taxes for free on TaxACT. It’s a stretch, but it’s creative. Third, TaxACT may not care if you remember their brand name the first time that you see the Super Bowl commercial because they plan on continuing to run it a lot between now and April 15 and eventually it will stick with you.

What are your thoughts on the commercial? Are you so grossed out that it makes you not want to use TaxACT or was it so creative that you might consider giving them a shot now? Did you even remember the brand name after you saw it? Did it make you curious about their free services? The “extended” version of the TaxACT Super Bowl commercial is below.

If you have kids under the age of 10, chances are pretty good that there is talk in your house about the new Toy Story 3 coming out this month. Personally, I loved the Toy Story movies, so I am excited about this one, too. The premise is that Andy is going off to college and the toys are being donated to a day care. Disney has been getting creative with their advertising, even making fake commercials for some of the new characters in the movie. But this new video that features the Toy Story toys using Google is really cute. It’s one of Google’s “Search Stories,” essentially a commercial that tells a story through the use of various Google searches.

Watch the video a few times to catch some of the more nuanced things like the fact that Andy needs extra long twin sheets for his college bed (I remember those days!). The voices are familiar and the video definitely appeals more to adults than kids. I love the end where they toys not-so-subtly encourage Andy by typing “bring your toys to college” into Google! What did you catch in the video that others may not? Does it make you more likely to want to see Toy Story 3?