Doritos Super Bowl Commercial: Dead Cat Bribe Makes For One Outstanding Ad

If you were scoring at home (and I was), Doritos won the 2012 Super Bowl of commercials.

How?

Because of their ingenious ad involving a dog and a dead cat.

Fluffy the cat is missing and the grey Great Dane knows where it’s at—buried six feet deep. So when the owner catches him burying the remaining evidence, the dog has to act quickly.

What better way to keep his owner quiet than offering him a bag of wonderfully delicious Doritos?

Problem solved.

The owner keeps his mouth shut after receiving a second bag of Doritos and everybody is happy, except for the wife who actually cares about Fluffy.

I love this commercial because the dog is in complete control of the situation. Like so many American-owned dogs, they truly do set the rules and the humans are at their mercy.

Think about the concept of picking up their poop when taking them for a walk. If an alien watched you get pulled around by your dog, not listening to you when you yell at it while having to clean up behind him…I think they’d be confused as to who was in charge.

And that’s the underlying point of this brilliant 30 seconds. The dog is smarter than the human and makes the rules in the companionship. That’s the case in countless American households, and it really hit home with a lot of people.

That’s the secret to a strong commercial—feature something the masses can relate to.

A dog outsmarting a human certainly qualifies.