Too little, too late

Sorry that I've been out of commission a few days, so you've had to wait for my sort-of annual Super Bowl advertising write-up. This year was pretty uninspired, minus the couple of ads for job search web sites.

Three things stood out for me.

• I saw a pair of ads for Nerf swords. That led to a pretty obvious query: Nerf is still around? I can't remember the last time I saw a Nerf product. They should take that ad budget and rededicate it to product development. That plan would also give them a chance to quote from one of my favorite movies: "I had the boys down at R & D throw together this prototype so that our discussion here could have some focus."


• Danica Patrick is still shilling for the web registry firm Go Daddy. These ads have blown for a couple years now. It's over between Danica and me, and she'll soon get a full separate post dedicated to how annoying she's become.


• And speaking of stuff that greatly disappointed me, how about MacGruber. It went from being a clever SNL sketch that poked fun at MacGyver to a vehicle for selling Pepsi. It makes it even worse that the real MacGyver got involved. Shame on you, Richard Dean Anderson.