SUPER BOWL ADS TACKLE HUMOR
Expect to see a lot of familiar celebrity faces — and be prepared to laugh
At a time when any given weekday can bring all manner of startling, polarizing events, the advertising lineup for Sunday’s Super Bowl LIII telecast on CBS is more akin to comfort food, with advertisers opting for familiar faces and nonconfrontational strategies.
Celebrities, humor and animals have traditionally been tentpoles of Super Bowl advertising, and the celebrities are in ascent this year. As of midweek, at least two-thirds of the three dozen or so ad concepts that had been announced or released online feature celebrity endorsers.
While a few speak to a younger demographic — rappers Cardi B for Pepsi and 2 Chainz for Expensify, singer Maluma and actress Zoe Kravitz for Anheuser-Busch — many have a decidedly 20th-century vibe.
Topping that list, arguably, are the return of Sarah Jessica Parker as “Sex and the City’s” Carrie Bradshaw and Jeff Bridges’ The Dude from “The Big Lebowski” for A-B’s Stella Artois brew, and Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising a mix of her “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer” roles.
“Advertisers are using celebrities that are throwbacks to the 1990s and that offer a little bit of an escape back to what could be deemed simpler times,” said Steven Sottile, president of the video ad technology company Unruly. “It’s a walk down memory lane.”
Emphasis on women
While some advertisers remain willing to take risks by airing provocative ads, such as a recent Gillette ad that questioned the concept of “toxic masculinity,” Sottile said the steep economic stakes of the Super Bowl, for which CBS is charging more than $5 million for a 30-second ad, generally prompts advertisers to take a more cautious approach.
“The Super Bowl is being embraced for entertainment and a moment to take humor outside the world we live in now,” he said. “Brands are taking consumers on an escape to entertainment, with emotion at the center of that. There is humor, nostalgia, elements of surprise and a lot of warmth mixed in as well.”
Derek Rucker, a marketing professor at Northwestern University who cosponsors an academic analysis of Super Bowl ads, said one brand that has opted for a socially conscious ad is Anheuser-Busch InBev, which features the familiar Clydesdales and dalmatian for a spot touting the company’s use of wind technology to power its breweries.
Others are touting Super Bowl LIII’s ad lineup for an increased emphasis on women. Gellar’s ad for Olay is a rare entry by a women’s skin care product on Super Sunday. Toyota’s ad will feature a female prospective college football recruit, and Bumble, a social-network company geared toward women, features tennis champion Venus Williams.
As of midweek, with about half of the Sunday ad inventory available via YouTube and other online sites, the most popular ad thus far was Budweiser’s “Wind Never Felt Better” spot, with 20 million online views and 40 million online impressions, according to iSpot.TV.
The Stella Artois ad featuring Parker and Bridge, plus an earlier teaser featuring Bridges, had combined for about 9 million online views and 85 million online impressions, according to iSpot.TV. Exemplify’s teaser ad had 140 million online impressions, and a pair of dogthemed teaser from Avocados from Mexico had about 135 million.
Texas connection
With the Texans and Cowboys acting as spectators, as usual, on Super Bowl Sunday, Texas’ lone Super Bowl entrant is Preacher, an Austin advertising firm that is producing the first Super Bowl spot for SimpliSafe, which produces wireless home security equipment.
Greg Hunter, a creative director for the Austin firm, said Preacher has been working for six months on its ad campaign for SimpliSafe. The spot that will air Sunday, however, wasn’t originally intended to be a Super Bowl advertisement, he said.
“Once we landed on the idea for them, SimpliSafe was so excited that they were inspired to make the push for the Super Bowl,” Hunter said.
“Now it comes with a lot more pressure, for sure. The Super Bowl is the one time that people are actively looking forward to and watching ads and discussing them. Everybody is taking their biggest swing.”
Unlike more than a dozen Super Bowl advertisers, SimpliSafe opted not to release its ad before Sunday’s game. Hunter said company officials believe the value of an early release has dwindled, adding, “We decided to go with one big splash and one big unveiling.”
The SimpliSafe ad does not include a celebrity endorser, but Hunter said it does include elements of humor while remaining true to the brand and, in a subtle fashion, the tenor of the times.
“It’s humor that is based in reality,” Hunter said. “We have a topical message that hits on a culturally relevant note, but the message is true, insightful and entertaining. It’s not humor for its own sake, but humor based on reality.”
Burger King’s return
The best ads, according to most analysts, will be those that not only entertain or inspire but also inextricably link the advertisement and the sponsor.
“That’s the tricky thing,” Hunter said. “People try to make such a big splash that the company you’re doing the ad for can get overwhelmed. The key to avoid that is making sure that the spot is derived from what the brand does.”
And, increasingly, said Unruly’s Sottile, it involves the need to understand the nature of what Super Bowl Sunday has become for many viewers.
“This is a time to celebrate, to be entertained, to be with friends and family,” he said. “It’s risky for brands to make a strong statement or to take a politically charged stance. The backlash could outweigh the benefits.”
Other elements to watch for Sunday, said Northwestern’s Rucker, are the return of Burger King after not fielding a Super Bowl spot for more than a decade, and the impact of first-time advertisers like Expensify and Devour, the latter a frozen food company that attracted some pregame buzz for a “food porn” spot that likely will be toned down for air Sunday.
Rucker also is eager to see the Christina Applegate add for M&M’s, which he described as “the Tom Brady of Super Bowl advertisers.”
Although the game is in Atlanta, its hometown, Coca-Cola is sitting out this Super Bowl game telecast. The company will, however, air a 60-second spot before the national anthem titled “A Coke Is a Coke,” designed to promote CocaCola as a unifying brand in a fractured cultural landscape
Local ads
As for local advertising breaks, H-E-B will offer a “Castaway”-themed 60second spot in which a marooned Texan finds a cooler filled with the grocer’s Texas-themed goodies.
Yellow Tail, the Australian winery, will make an end run around Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Super Bowl exclusivity for alcohol marketing by purchasing local spots in 81 markets nationwide, including, presumably, Houston.
KHOU officials had no immediate comment on other Super Bowl-themed ad buys for its local advertising breaks Sunday.