NFL

Super Bowl 58 Grins and Groans

Nader AshwayLeave a comment

Super Bowl 58 has come and gone, and two things are evident: Post Malone is a pretty darn good singer, and the Chiefs are apparently a very good football team. [Congratulations to them and their fans on being the first team to win back-to-back championships since the New England Patriots nearly 20 years ago.]

Speaking of back-to-back, it appears the advertising bowl was a repeat of last year as well. Nothing risky, nothing wildly interesting, nothing off the wall but really smart. You like to be WOWED with Super Bowl advertising, and – for the second year in a row – I suspect there were not a lot of “wows” being uttered in living rooms across the world.

Some themes that emerged last night:

Religion is apparently making a comeback. A total of five spots were dedicated to some form of religiosity: two spots for Jesus, a spot reminding us to stand up to Jewish hate (sad that we have to be reminded of that,) the annual pitch for Scientology, and Mark Wahlberg hawking Hallow, a new prayer app. (Sad that we need an app for that.)

Repetition was a theme last night as well. And this I like. If you’re trying to get some of the 115 million+ people (in the US) watching the game to REMEMBER you, repetition is a pretty strong tool. And if you can repeat creatively, all the better. A few brands managed to pull this off last night, some with more efficiency than others. Kate McKinnon’s cat meows over and over again, but it sounds like “mayo” for Hellmann’s; and Aubrey Plaza continually reminding us she’s having a “blast” for Mountain Dew; both were fairly effective. But Arnold Schwarzenegger using his own accent as a comic tool when he repeats the word “nay-bah” for State Farm and their “like a good neighbor” tagline was both effective AND funny. And Doordash really hit the repetition ball out of the park with their spot, continually repeating the word “dash” to great effect, while reminding viewers of the actual brand name in the process.

Meta, (the concept, not the company,) was also a theme. We saw a lot of spots using the “let’s make a commercial about making a commercial” theme. It’s a strong device, given that this is the biggest platform on the planet for commercial-making.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

BetMGM bet on Vince Vaughn doing Vince Vaughn things, and it worked. Throw in Tom Brady and Wayne Gretzky for the typical Super Bowl celebrity-stuffing and you get a pretty good spot.

Ken Jeong is just hilarious, and his turn as a recently-unfrozen-cryogenic-experiment was a laugh. When he’s told it’s Popeye’s, he asks “the sailor man?” Loved it, and sincerely hope that was ad-libbed.

Christopher Walken being hounded by people attempting Christopher Walken impersonations is always welcome. And BMW wrapped it up nicely with the line “the rest are just imitations.”

Reese’s probably gave us the most fun spot of the night with “big change.” Narrator having fun with a roomful of people having outsized reactions – classic fun, and pretty memorable.

Poppi soda made a nice, simple, smart statement about their soda being better than what we all think “soda” is. Less sugar, prebiotics, cool flavors. Nice.

PlutoTV did a nice job of growing couch potatoes in an entertaining spot for their streaming service. They had a good gag, and took it all the way to the farm.

And let’s face it. Chris Pratt kinda does look like the Pringles guy, right?

GRINS:

T-Mobile has been crushing it on Super Bowl ads the last couple of years, and they kept it up with two fun spots. They love singing in their commercials, and this year we got Jason Momoa showing off his pipes and some feats of acrobatics. And their “audition” spot, a Bradley-Cooper-and-his-mom spot, which featured cameos by Laura Dern, Patrick J. Adams and Gabriel Nacht of “Suits” fame, Common, and Jennifer Hudson was entertaining and smart to boot (the idea is no one has to “audition” to get T-Mobile’s Magenta Status VIP treatment.)

Last year, Dunkin’ went all in on the Ben Affleck/Jennifer Lopez thing, and they’ve continued the story this year with Ben trying to break into the pop music business with his group “The Dunkings,” which also features Tom Brady on keyboards. Probably not the best brand-building spot we’ve ever seen, (they’re going all in on the Boston thing,) but it’s cute, and the self-effacing turn from Matt Damon made it really funny.

Disney+ put in a surprisingly good turn this year with their “well said” spot. Just plain typewriter text (not quite Courier, but close,) on a white screen, scrolling through some of the more memorable phrases in Disney history, including “who’s the fairest of them all?” and “the Force will be with you…always” and “To infinity…and beyond.” Some might call this lazy. I saw it as a way to break through the clutter (and a noisy living room hosting a Super Bowl party) and deliver something powerful. Winner of the “sneaky good” category.

NFL made some important statements about bullying and mental health in two semi-PSAs/semi-self-congratulatory spots. But their full length spot, featuring Quesi, a young boy from Ghana with big NFL dreams, made a salient point: “it doesn’t matter where you’re born, as long as you’re born to play.” That line is delivered by Osi Umenyiora, a former NFL player of Nigerian descent. The NFL is committed to growing the game internationally, and this spot shed light on that initiative with warmth and fun and facts. Well done.

One of my favorites of the evening was this spot for CeraVe, another meta take on commercial-making, where quirky actor Michael Cera is pitching the dermatology board at CeraVe skin care to use him as their spokesman. The screen cuts to bold text (love that Din Pro font family,) that says “Developed with Dermatologists. Not Michael Cera.” It manages to deliver silliness, seriousness, a singular brand platform that their products are indeed developed by dermatologists, name recognition and memorability all at once. Exactly what a Super Bowl spot should do.

This spot from Verizon, featuring Beyonce trying to “break the Internet” was a masterclass in over the top advertising. First off, she’s wildly popular. Second, she pretty much HAS broken the Internet over her career. This spot features her going to outrageous lengths to TRY and break the Internet, but Verizon’s incredible coverage never wavers. A great performance by Beyonce, a hint of self-effacing humor shows she doesn’t take herself THAT seriously, and lots of smart and timely pop culture references. And that she’s using it as a platform to tease/drop new music is even cooler.

I think one of the best spots of the night was made by Bud Light. A return to form for this brand, (who has been in the news the last year or two for all the wrong reasons,) which is to be big, brash, unapologetically silly and fun. They take a simple concept, stretch it out as far as it can go, add a couple of big celebrities (Peyton Manning and Post Malone, with a cameo by Tyrannosaurus Rex,) and execute the heck out of it. The perfect recipe for really strong Super Bowl advertising.

MY WINNER:

Dove returns with another smart ad that’s tactfully and intelligently delivered. Using the “It’s a Hard Knock Life” song, we see a montage of girls flubbing it at sports from gymnastics to ice skating, basketball and softball. And even though they do, they smile and press on. The text on the ad reads “the knocks don’t stop girls playing sports…low body confidence does.” Wow. BANG. The ad gets quiet, and we get a peek at a young girl in a bathing suit looking at herself somewhat disapprovingly in a mirror. Text reads “45% of girls quit sports by age 14…together we can keep them in the game.” And we’re encouraged to “Join the Body Confident Sport program.” This brand hardly sells soap anymore – they sell esteem and female empowerment and tolerance and acceptance and…and..and…Great work as usual.

GROANS:

The Google Pixel ad was a good moment. Lovely story of a semi-blind man named Javier who is now able to capture photos on his phone with the help of the phone’s AI assistant. I liked it initially, and the final scene was touching. It’s also technically good advertising because it focuses on a singular feature. I just think that accessibility is about so much more than taking selfies, and I thought this ad undercut the mission a little bit.

The Nerds Gummy Clusters ad was just kind of confusing. It features Addison Rae, a Gen Z singer/influencer, and a blobby Nerd candy (I guess?) recreating the iconic scene from Flashdance. It just felt weirdly mistargeted, as I’m not sure how much of the Super Bowl audience under 40 would even know or remember Flashdance. Compare this with the Skechers ad using Mr.T as a conduit – at least those sneakers are targeted to an aging Gen X audience that would actually know who he is.

All of the Homes.com ads (there were three of them at least,) went too far into the gags without clearly making the points they were hoping to deliver. The ads say some really good things about the brand like “gathering up close and detailed information on neighborhoods, and hiring top experts to get you insider info on local schools…” All good stuff, but the core messaging gets blurred out in the outlandish mayhem designed to be funny. They further confused the point by introducing Jeff Goldblum into one of the ads – he’s the Apartments.com spokesman – for comedic effect. The only effect it had was an unclear value proposition, poorly delivered across several ads. The parent company, CoStar Group, reportedly spent $35 million on all their ad exposure. Yikes.

Oreo delivered a big-budget ad with big scenarios throughout history left to chance, with decision-makers deciding on which way to go by “twisting on it.” Yeah – they twist their Oreo cookies, and if the cream is on the left, homo sapiens split off from the dinosaurs and survive the asteroid hit that kicks off the ice age. If the twist reveals cream on the right, we get boy bands and the Kardashians. Ugh. I always like the let’s-show-the-product-in-action approach, so I’ll submit that as a plus. But “let’s twist on it” sounds forced, and it looked that way too.

I know it’s sacrilege, but is it okay if I didn’t like the Martin Scorsese-directed spot for Squarespace? It just seemed like more of a commentary on people’s obsession with smartphones, and made exactly ZERO mention of any brand benefits. Squarespace is a website that makes it easy to build websites, and it’s never mentioned. Not once. And the only ones who use it are aliens trying to get noticed? Then they end with the tagline “A website makes it real.” Makes WHAT real, exactly? Meh.

And probably my biggest groan of the night was Crowdstrike’s attempt at a “big” commercial for the Super Bowl. It’s set in the Wild West…in the past? Or is it a post-apocalpytic future? Hard to tell. Some people are dressed like it’s 1820. The spokeswoman is standard 2024 every-woman. What the what? And if you’re still watching, she tells the cyborg sheriff (not kidding) that she’s got it covered. Then she proceeds to digitally undress the invading virus-borgs (also not kidding) so they’re embarrassed and run away. I think I’ve got that right. What a confusing mess.

But hey, at least we didn’t have to watch any faux-patriotic spots from Weather Tech, right? What were your favorites? Let’s hear it in the comments.

Until next year!

The Law of Environment

Nader Ashway1 Comment

If you watched Super Bowl advertising this year, you saw a lot of big-budget, celebrity-filled laugh-fests during the broadcast. From Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman in a hip-hop lip sync battle for Doritos and Mountain Dew to Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. hilariously re-imagining “Dirty Dancing” as a touchdown celebration, there were some big hits during the ad breaks.

And you also saw some fumbles and outright clunkers. (Not to name names, but we’re talking to you Ram Trucks.)

Take a look at this Budweiser “Stand By You” commercial.

On the surface, this was an excellent commercial. There’s a strong narrative flow, very good performances, and a cinematic feel to how it’s filmed.

But this commercial was mis-run during the Super Bowl, precisely because it failed to maximize The Law of Environment, which I state here as:

Consumers are either open or closed – indeed available or not available – to your advertising message depending largely on the environment in which they find themselves when that message is presented.

Environment, as it’s used here, includes four important ingredients, which you can remember as the T-A-M-E scale:

Timing: What time of day or night is it? How long does the message last?  Does the viewer/reader have ample time to process the message in detail, or just in broad strokes, and general images?

Atmosphere: Is the viewer alone or with company? Is it loud or quiet? Is it indoors or outdoors? Up close or far away? If there is one, what size is the screen? What else is happening while the advertising appears?

Medium: Is the message itself in motion? Is it on a screen, on a surface, or delivered via audio? Does it use words, or just images? Can you hear sound? Is it interactive?

Emotion: How much emotion – and which one(s) – is included/embedded in the message?

If we review the Budweiser commercial against these qualifiers, we see that it demands the viewer to spend some attentive, even quiet, time with the spot to take it all in. The viewer can perceive the seriousness, and the smoldering heroics of the lead character. It’s perfect for a full-size screen to get a sense of scale and distance, and there is a swell of emotion, in the “going outside of oneself” or “doing good by doing for others” sense of service.

And while that’s all very positive, you can see how it’s a mismatch for the Super Bowl environment, based on the atmosphere.

To generalize, the “average” Super Bowl environment finds the consumer in a living room with a group of friends or family, with conversations going on, and it’s largely a social event with a lively atmosphere. When this ad comes on, it may immediately be perceived as “too serious” or “too quiet” or even too much of an intellectual investment. So it fails to connect. And that’s a shame, because it happens to be very good advertising.

Understanding your consumer is of course critical to advertising success. But when you go beyond demographics and psychographics to an understanding of these critical advertising receptivity parameters, you can “TAME” the environment to maximize your message’s efficiency, no matter where or when it runs.

Super Bowl 52 Grins and Groans

Nader Ashway2 Comments

SB52_logo

 

What an interesting paradox. In a game that saw dozens of records set, including an explosive offensive output by both teams, the advertising this year was entirely meh. (Following a big meh-burger last year.)  We thought we’d see some surprises. We didn’t.

We got a few laughs, a few headscratchers, and we saw a few commercials that just didn’t make much sense. Here are this year’s grins and groans. And if you want a spoiler, here it is: TIDE won the Super Bowl, and no one else even came close.

Honorable mentions to:

Jeep: their Jurassic-Park-themed spot with Jeff Goldblum was pretty good, and their “manifesto” spot was especially good. [Take note kids: this “manifesto” spot is what they mean when they say “show, don’t tell.”]

Australia Tourism: did a nice job of disguising an ad for tourism in a weeks-long fake promotion for a new fake Dundee movie preview. With Chris Hemsworth in his native accent. A win-win for the Aussies.

Also of note:
Amazon’s Alexa  “replacements” ad;
Hyundai’s tug at the heartstrings with personal “thank yous;”
Keegan Michael Key “translating” for Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans.

GRINS:

E-Trade was a delightful surprise with their riff on the Harry Belafonte song, “Day-O.” In it, they poke fun (in magnificent ways,) with the simple fact that “over 1/3 of Americans have no retirement savings. This is getting old.” A sad truth, a smart position, a deft turn of phrase, and refreshingly good advertising for a singular concept: their retirement account offering. And best couplet of the night: “just got a job as a lifeguard in Savannah / I’m dropping sick beats, they call me DJ Nana.”

NFL teased at “touchdown celebrations to come” with a hilarious and well-acted (for football players) riff on a “Dirty Dancing” moment. Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants rehearse a future touchdown celebration with a completely choreographed dance number that, um, climaxes with Eli lifting Odell high in the air. It’s quite a moment, and a smart way for the NFL to capitalize on an organic movement that seemed to peak this past season.

Sprint pokes massive fun at their competitor (Verizon,) by showing that you can “learn” to choose Sprint, based on the sheer facts. Evelyn, an AI robot, asks her scientist/creator why he’s still on Verizon. Doc doesn’t have an answer, and Evelyn, along with all the other robots, including prototypes and spare parts, begin laughing at the doc’s expense. He’s embarrassed, and in the next scene, we see him in a Sprint store, explaining that his “co-workers” were making fun of him. It’s a long way to go, but it’s done smartly.

Hands-down, the winner of the Super Bowl was Tide. First, they do a spectacular job of staying on their core message, which hasn’t changed in decades. (Kids scoring at home – they stay true to a simple and defensible competitive position: that Tide is best on removing stains, and gets clothes cleaner. Period. Stop.)

Second, and perhaps more importantly, they shatter the concept of what “advertising” is. Instead of making a new ad for their detergent, they go into other ads – including recent and famous and iconic Super Bowl ads – and with the addition of a simple phrase, turn them all into “a Tide ad.” We’re talking cars, fashion, beer, technology, consumer packaged goods. The Old Spice guy! A Clydesdale! OMG! Brilliant!

At various lengths, and without warning, Tide continued to delight and surprise, and by halftime, I was on the edge of my seat hoping for more. So well-conceived. So simple. So stinkin’ smart. And absolutely crushed by actor David Harbour. No contest here. Well done, Procter & Gamble, and way to out-do yourselves from a winner last year. (While the spots appeared at different times throughout the game, see all of them linked together in the clip below.)

—

GROANS:

On a night when you have to “go big or go home,” I was surprised at how many advertisers played it safe. Let’s also note that while we’re in the opening frames of the #metoo moment and the #timesup movement, that there were ZERO ads that featured the subjugation of women in any way. But weirdly, there were nearly the same number that featured women in ANY way.

Seriously. A quick shot of Cindy Crawford, and generally odd choices in Iggy Azalea and Tiffany Haddish were about your entire feature of female actors this year. Can you say “disproportionate response?”

Compare that to the preponderance of men in the ads last night:

Danny DeVito
Steven Tyler
Chris Pratt
David Harbour
Eli and OBJ and several New York Giants
Keegan Michael Key
Dr. Oz
Peter Dinklage
Morgan Freeman
Dwayne Johnson
Jeff Goldblum
Bill Hader
Keanu Reeves
Chris Hemsworth
Danny McBride
Peyton Manning
Matt Damon
(And that’s off the top of my head.)

So, an overall groan for a generally poor response to the cultural climate. Instead of just bringing an umbrella to deal with how it is outside, the advertising industry collectively decided to shut the doors, draw the shades, and hibernate until who-knows-when. I look forward to a time when brands can deal with this shit like grownups.

In general, almost ALL the car advertising was a collective groan. (Just like last year.) Hyundai tried something unconventional, which I like. And Kia’s ad featuring Steven Tyler was at least entertaining. But Toyota was all over the place with their mixed-messages-hidden-in-you-can’t-go-wrong-with-Olympics-promotion spots. Mercedes-Benz seemed to be content with running a speedster feature spot that could have (and perhaps should have) run in June. A far cry from their Tortoise-and-Hare fairy tale positioning spot from a few years ago, eh?

Where was Audi, who has killed it (except for last year) over the last several years in the Super Bowl? Where are the truck spots for Chevy or Ford? Where was the boldness of “It’s halftime in America,” or “Imported from Detroit” for Chrysler? And where were all these Fiat spots we were promised?

But Ram (my biggest GROAN of the night,) spent a bunch of money to run multiple spots that didn’t seem to hold together very well. First, an “oops-the-Vikings-aren’t-in-the-Super-Bowl” spot was just confusing. And later, the brand was waaaaay over-reaching with their MLK spot. [Attention advertisers: if you’re going to use any quotes (or in this case, recordings,) of the late great Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., do NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT use them to sell a bloody car. In fact, maybe don’t use them at all, mmkay? ESPECIALLY when one section of this important sermon actually goes on to undress advertisers as “gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion.”]

Turbo Tax. I don’t get it. You’ve got H&R Block throwing major shade at you with direct shots, and you can pretty much crush them by highlighting your core position (simplified online filing.) Instead, you go in a completely different direction with monsters under beds and ghosts in attics. This concept of bringing “monsters and other scary things” to life, including the dark shadows, is strategically on point, (people are terrified of doing taxes, so show other terrifying things…) but really seemed to fall flat in the execution phase.

T-Mobile just missed the mark (and essentially the year) for their “change starts now” manifesto about equality. I appreciate trying to make broad statements, but in a category that’s cluttered and centered on features and price promotions, you have a chance to distinguish yourself in so many ways. But pivoting to the “we are all equal” high ground seems like an odd choice, and just made for clunky advertising.  This is especially glaring, given that their advertising was SO good last year.

—

Overall, a blah year for ad geeks, and for laugh-seekers. And that’s two years in a row, now.  We’ve got to see something brighter next year, no?  Until then, congratulations to Eagles Nation on your first Super Bowl!