WHAT ARE ALL MARKETERS AND ADVERTISERS TALKING ABOUT THIS WEEK?

Are you worn out with Super Bowl ad coverage? I sure hope not because I cannot refrain myself from opining. Why? First of all because I love watching TV commercials (almost as much as I love producing them).  I am that annoying person who will stop forwarding past commercial blocks if I see an intriguing spot. But secondly, as a marketer I always question a brands creative especially when it comes to spending millions of dollars on a spot or two in the Super Bowl (this year’s ad spend for the event is estimated to be $419 million despite a declining viewing audience). In my mind, the ones worth mentioning, break down into three major categories; the rest falling somewhere on the spectrum in between.
 
Great Ads – they not only are authentic to the brand’s positioning but are also cleaver and entertaining.
·      First let’s start with M&M’s | Super Bowl Human – it includes the brand’s iconic animated characters and their consistent fear of being eaten. And who doesn’t love Danny DeVito?
·      Tourism Australia | Dundee – the boring tourism ad reinvented. A character based on the movie icon, Crocodile Dundee, is involved in Australian adventures thinking he is in a movie trailer. Quite a novel approach.
·      Febreze | The Only Man Whose Bleep Don’t Stink – okay, for those of you who don’t appreciate potty humor, this may not be for you. But it clearly communicates the product benefits while being quite amusing. (Note that a hot category in toys being introduced this year are potty themed)
·      NFL | Touchdown Celebrations to Come – Not sure what this exactly says about the NFL but the recreation of the famous dance scene from the iconic movie Dirty Dancing by burly football players is downright hysterical!
·      Amazon | Alexa Loses Her Voice – thorough integration of the brand and product benefits combined with very funny cameos including Jeff Bezos himself (the latter being quite a brave move in my opinion).
 
Ads That Make You Say “What?” or “Why?” – ads that make me wonder what is being advertised or the creative is so off base I wonder why they would spend the money on a Super Bowl spot.
·      Diet Coke Twisted Mango | Groove – all I can say is “Huh?”. Not to mention my doubts of this new product extension.
·      Kia Stinger | Feel Something Again – kind of a corny premise but it completely bombs at the end showing a much younger Steven Tyler (who doesn’t look like him at all – younger or older).
·      Intuit | Super Bowl Commercial Giant Skip Ad – Skip the ad and enjoy the game? Still scratching my head at this one.
·      Squarespace | Make it Happen – If you don’t know what Squarespace is (I do, only because I am building my new web site on this platform) this ad tells you nothing about what the brand or product actually is.
·      Tide Ads (all three of them) – moderately amusing (okay the riff on the Old Spice ad with the horse did make me laugh). But this feels very off brand to me since Tide has never struck me as having values such as silly.
·      Wendy’s | Iceberg – I think this was an attempt to mimic the brand’s cheeky social media voice. But the execution falls flat.
 
Ads Addressing Social Issues. (Now we get to my favorite category of ads). This is where brands need to tread carefully. Unless the social issue being addressed is authentic to the brand’s core values things can (and do) go horribly wrong.
·      Ram Trucks | Dr. Martin Luther King Jr | Built to Serve – the obvious place to start. This ad gets the rating of epic fail for using the words of the late Dr. King in such a commercial and pandering way. (Their other ad, Icelandic Vikings | We Will Rock You, was another head scratcher.)
·      WeatherTech – works or doesn’t depending on your political leanings.
·      Toyota | One Team |Super Bowl Final – takes a second or two to figure out where this spot is going. But then its brilliance shines in a perfect balance of humor and religious tolerance. Bravo!
·      T-Mobile | #LittleOnes – beautiful way to express a message of racial diversity (and who doesn’t love cute babies of all races?). Not sure what it has to do with T-Mobile.
·      Coca-Cola | The Wonder of Us – subtly addressing issues of language in gender equality is a beautifully filmed spot. The brand shines throughout reminding me of the 1971 ad Hilltop | I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke.
·      Budweiser | Stand by You – this ad showing a Bud production line being changed out to can water for disaster victims may be the best of the best especially when you find out that this is a true story. (missing puppies and Clydesdales much?)
 
So, there you have it. My personal take on this year’s Super Bowl ads. Thanks to @AdWeek for having all of the commercials viewable in one place without having to watch the entire game!