The Seinfeld ad is easy to explain: never hire Crispin, Porter and Bogusky to do your ads. I wish I could find the article right now to substantiate this, but IIRC they have been known make it contractual that you will accept their creative without any input. What could possibly go wrong? Ask Groupon.
Whatever the contractual situation, CPB is a train wreck for companies looking to be hip, and they've profited substantially from their image of being the hippest game in town. Ad associations keep giving them awards year after year.
Hey, don't go knocking CP+B. Their work for Domino's is top-notch, and their Volkswagen campaign remains some of my favorite advertising period. Meanwhile, while they've had the few early misfires for Microsoft, their work promoting Windows 7 was damn good, and they've done a lot for the Surface considering they don't have a whole lot to work with.
And the Groupon ads were hilarious. Terrible ads, and they should have expected the horrible PR they received, but they were among my favorite Superbowl advertisements to actually watch. More advertisers should be willing to risk PR flack in the service of making something memorable – CP+B's ratio of wins to losses is enormous, which is why they keep landing huge clients.
As for the "accept their creative without input", yeah, advertisers love to find clients willing to give them free range, because clients are often very good at fucking up smart ideas. They don't insist on that contract, though: Groupon's blog mentions that they "gave them a shot at pitching us concepts, and they came up with an idea we couldn’t resist blowing millions of dollars on." [https://blog.groupon.com/cities/groupon-super-bowl-ads/]
I worked at Groupon when they did the Superbowl ads for us. Sorry, I'm reserving that right to knock them. I would put a smiley if I could get my head out of my hands right now.
Oof. Well, in that case your dislike of them is wholly justified. Know at least that your company's partnership with them made one Superbowl ad-watcher happier for a couple of days.
Whatever the contractual situation, CPB is a train wreck for companies looking to be hip, and they've profited substantially from their image of being the hippest game in town. Ad associations keep giving them awards year after year.