Surprise: Honda's 'Ferris Bueller' Ad Is Most-Watched on the Web

Now that a great many Super Bowl advertisers are putting their spots on the web early to generate buzz, it means its even harder to break through the clutter. But Honda managed to claim the element of surprise with its "Ferris Bueller"-themed teaser, which collected 4.4 million views last week, more than any other Super Bowl ad, according to Visible Measures. The spot by RPA features Matthew Broderick delivering a middle-aged man's rendition of the first line by his iconic '80s character -- "How can I handle work on a day like today?" -- leading to rampant speculation about a sequel before Honda was revealed to be behind it. The full version of the ad was then released on Monday. With dozens of ads already released, threshold to make the top-10 is much higher this year than last, when Doritos' "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign consisting of viewer submissions vying for cash prizes and placement in the game topped the chart this week last year with just 1.44 million views. Starcom MediaVest Group and Bluefin Labs projects that by game time 25% of social conversations related to the game will be about ads, compared to 75% about what's happening on the field. (That's a shift from a 97%/3% split in conversation about games vs. ads from the period after the NFL playoffs ended to Tuesday of this week.) Three other Super Bowl entries made the list this week, including a minute-long teaser for Volkswagen's "The Bark Side," by Deutsch, Los Angeles, in second place with 3.1 million views. It features a chorus of dogs barking out Darth Vader's theme and represents a continuation of last year's play on "Star Wars" from the viral smash "The Force," which centered on a little boy dressed up as Darth Vader. The full spot won't appear until the game. In sixth place is the Super Bowl campaign for the tire brand Bridgestone with 1.5 million views. It includes various spots, but the most-viewed is a minute-long Super Bowl teaser featuring Tim Duncan, Deion Sanders and Troy Aikman. And debuting in ninth place is Audi's "Vampire Party," showing a vampire man packing a cooler of blood to meet his friends for a night-time barbecue in the woods... and then killing them all with his bright LED headlights.

Surprise: Honda's 'Ferris Bueller' Ad Is Most-Watched on the Web

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