Americans rate Volkswagen ‘The Force’ Super Bowl spot best; homeaway.com rated worst

A special Roy Morgan ad test over the last 24 hours shows that Volkswagen’s Super Bowl advertising campaign was a success, with ‘The Force’ having the strongest positive reaction amongst both male and female viewers.

Its other spot, ‘Black Beetle’, also received strong positive reactions – according to The Reactor, Roy Morgan’s online real time reaction device with a sample of over 200 viewers across America testing ten of the best Super Bowl ads.

The dramatic Coca-Cola ‘Siege’ ad, with the dragon that drinks Coca-Cola resulting in fireworks coming from his mouth, generated a more positive reaction from male viewers than female viewers. Female viewers only reacted positively after the Coca-Cola bottle was revealed in the ice. Male respondents on the other hand, liked the war scene from the start.

The HomeAway.com ‘De Tourism’ ad was the worst performing ad, receiving a neutral response from all viewers. Advocating HomeAway.com accommodation to families instead of hotels, the ad engaged neither female nor male viewers. The female viewers’ reaction dropped sharply when the baby splattered on the window.

Doritos ‘Best Part’ incited a weak positive reaction from male viewers and a negative reaction from female viewers, who reacted negatively to the Dorito eater sucking his work colleague’s finger and pulling the pants from another colleague.

Female viewers were reacting positively to Cars.Com, including to the suggestive jokes to the female car, however their reaction turned negative when the female car buyer commented about a car: “…Just like the review said, big rear end.”

Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan International, says: “The result for the Doritos ‘Best Part’ and HomeAway.com ‘De Tourism’ is not surprising given their dark and unusual humour. This, coupled with the drop from females when a negative comment is made in Cars.com, is consistent with other Reactor tests which show that viewers react more positively to positive themes. The reaction to Volkswagen ‘The Force’ and eTrade ‘Baby Tailor’ show that children are always a winner, as are animals, with CareerBuilder ‘Parking’ and Volkswagen ‘Black Beetle’ also generating positive reactions.”