USA TODAY International Edition
KIA HOOKS UP WITH MCCARTHY AT RIGHT TIME
Automaker captures top spot thanks to talent of comedian
David Angelo woke up Monday morning and found out he’d won the Super Bowl.
He’s the founder and chairman of David & Goliath, the ad agency that produced Kia’s Super Bowl commercial, the one featuring Melissa McCarthy trying to save the world. It is the winner of the 29th annual USA TODAY Ad Meter competition, decided by a consumer vote that closed in the wee hours of Monday morning.
Angelo had a feeling during the game, when the ad aired at his own Super Bowl party, that it was going to be a hit. “To see people’s natural reactions, who hadn’t seen it before, was priceless,” he says. McCarthy’s gift for physical comedy is on full display in the 60- second spot Kia used to launch its Niro crossover as her eco- warrior character traverses the globe trying to save the whales and the trees and the icecaps and the rhinos. Could the commercial have succeeded without her? Angelo starts to say it would not have been as good with someone else, then
“We had no idea she was going to be on ‘ SNL.’ And the universe just served us up a perfect volley.” David Angelo, founder and chairman of ad agency David & Goliath, on Melissa McCarthy
stops himself and says: “I’d say no.” McCarthy is having something of a moment. Her lacerating sendup of White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live went viral. Angelo figures that gave his ad some momentum on Super Sunday. “We had no idea she was going to be on SNL,” he says. “And the universe just served us up a perfect volley.”
Car humor won the day last year, too, when Hyundai took the prize for an ad starring Kevin Hart. This makes two years in a row for automakers after Anheuser- Busch InBev won it the three previous years.
Car companies drove off with Ad Meter’s second and third places, too. Honda scored for a 60- second spot called “Yearbooks.” Real photos of nine celebrities in their youth come to life and talk about the power of dreams. They are ( in alphabetical order) Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Viola Davis, Missy Elliott, Tina Fey, Magic Johnson, Jimmy Kimmel, Stan Lee and Robert Redford.
Audi offered “Daughter,” a powerful 60- second spot that shows a father watching his daughter weave her way down the course in a cart race. Her father worries about her place in the world as she drives to first place in the race. The ad fades to black as these words appear: “Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work. Progress is for everyone.”
Since 1989, USA TODAY’s Ad Meter has been one of the USA’s most closely watched symbols of advertising excellence. This year, more than 15,000 active voters weighed in on their favorites. For the first time, Ad Meter also introduced five days of early voting — from Wednesday through early Monday — and a daily Ad Meter Live show on Facebook.