Ritz Crackers and the "Cracker Pals"

This is a great ad because this guy, Guy Fieri, is so creepy. He's holding this football like he's about to eat it, like it's a giant turkey leg. He looks dangerously overly-enthusiastic about these crackers he wants me to buy. And possibly eat right now.

But the QR code is the story and it's printed inside a clip art image of a football. And it's ugly. There's no pretense at trying to dress up the code like it was some 4:59 on a Friday afternoon idea, "Let's stick it on a football. Because it's quittin' time!"

The text around the ad is a car wreck, a massive pileup on the highway. First, we're told to visit one website to get a coupon for $1. Then we get a second paragraph in a different font to tell us to SCAN THIS to watch the turkey leg guy give us party tips. Then in the final line, another completely different website we're invited to "check out." How much free time do they think I have? Maybe if my diet consists entirely of crackers, probably a lot.

Okay, so let's scan the code and see what we get. It's awesome. It's a mobile site. The shortened URL http://qa.e.augme.com/1331 translates to http://big-game.g.aug.me/home?xeid=1508&xeid=1331.

Recipes scroll by and you can tap any one. And the recipes fit my screen and are easy to read and I can scroll through several without having to tap anything else.

If you're going to use a QR code, make my time worth your time. In this case, I get a lot of information without any unnecessary content or web pages that don't look right on my small screen. Good code. Good cracker.