Blockbuster's Super Bowl Ad Takes a Peek at Tech Envious Rodents

Let me begin by saying I hate Blockbuster with every fiber of my being. I seriously loathe and despise everything that is Blockbuster. Despite my slight bias against them, this commercial made me laugh out loud for real. I actually let out a guffaw, a real belly-aching roar. Ever since the advent of Netflix.com, Blockbuster has been given a run for its money and rightly so. I certainly felt like they deserved to share in the pain that they caused me and others like me.

I should provide a little background for my slanted bent against this movie rental company. A commonly heard story, the gist of my hatred stems from the fact that the evil monster that is Blockbuster bought out my local video store and took out all the good movies (my left eye twitch is starting to come back just talking about it). Havat you, Blockbuster!

But then they go and redeem themselves (think Dumb and Dumber tone of voice here) with this masterpiece of filmmaking! We enter, focused on a a bunny and a gerbil in a pet store while hearing a repetitive squeaky noise. What is that annoying sound? Why yes of course, it is a real live breathing mouse that the rabbit is trying to click! Genius, I tell you, sheer genius! Now that I know what is making the sound, I don't care! It's freaking hilarious!

When the clicking doesn't work, the wise gerbil suggests dragging the mouse. Then he prompts the rabbit to drag the poor mouse faster, all to no avail while the squeaking becomes desperately louder and quicker. And there you have the perfect example of a beautifully executed hook. Now you have me, the viewer, captured and ready to listen to what else you have to say. I never thought I would say this, but well done, Blockbuster, well done.

The ad continues to explain about movies through the mail or through the store. Then the gerbil realizes that the problem with the mouse must be because he didn't plug it in! Finally, the mouse retorts with "Don't even think about it!" This was a well-written and simply elegant piece of humor. The people who worked on this deserve like a gold star or one of those giant cookies with whip cream or something.