Commercials that came from Columbus
For some, football comes second to commercials on Super Bowl Sunday.
How else would you see Michael Jordan and Larry Bird playing horse for a Mcdonald’s Big Mac? Or a kid dressed as Darth Vader trying to use the Force?
Over the years, a few memorable Super Bowl commercials have come from companies that are either headquartered or have a presence in Columbus and the surrounding area.
Although none of the Columbus-area companies are spending millions to get their message out this year, here’s a sampling of past Super Bowl ads with a local connection.
Scotts Miracle-gro
The first-ever Super Bowl commercial from the Marysville-based lawn and garden company featured big names like John Travolta and Martha Stewart. Actors Carl Weathers and Leslie Baker, NASCAR driver Kyle Busch and fitness instructor Emma Lovewell were also featured in the 45-second spot from 2021.
The varied bunch showcase all the fun things a yard can be used for, like gardening, lawncare, barbequing, working out, relaxing, or, in the case of Travolta and his daughter, Ella, making a Tiktok dance video.
Nationwide
The Columbus-based insurance giant has run a few Super Bowl commercials over the years, including two in 2015.
In the first, actress and author Mindy Kaling can be seen approaching life as if she’s invisible after a taxi cab driver ignores her for what can only be the umpteenth time. She plucks a pastry off someone’s plate, eats a gallon pail of ice cream in the grocery store and sunbathes nude in what looks to be Central Park. It’s only when Kaling takes a sniff of actor Matt Damon — yes, an actual sniff — that the fun come to an end.
The second Nationwide ad that aired during the 2015 Super Bowl was the “dead kid” commercial, where a young boy talks about all of the things he missed out on in life because he died in an accident. The ad shows an overflowing
bathtub and other hazards, while noting that accidents are the leading cause of preventable death among children.
Nationwide drew widespread criticism and the company’s chief marking officer resigned in the wake of the commercial’s airing.
Honda
Honda, which has a sprawling auto plant in Marysville and is spending billions on a battery plant in nearby Fayette County, had a Super Bowl ad in 2012 that was a clear homage to “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
In the commercial, Matthew Broderick, who played the titular character in the John Hughes classic, plays hooky from his acting job and instead spends the day driving around in his Honda CR-V.
“Hi, can I get my CR-V brought up please?” Broderick says into a telephone after duping his agent into believing he’s sick.
Victoria’s Secret
Over the years, the Reynoldsburgbased lingerie and beauty products retailer has aired at least three Super Bowl
ads, including one in 2015 that featured the brand’s now defunct “Angels.” In the commercial, models Adriana Lima, Doutzen Kroes, Candice Swanepoel, Lily Aldridge and Behati Prinsloo suit up and play a fumble-free football game. It closes with the message: “Don’t drop the ball. It’s not Valentine’s Day without Victoria’s Secret.”
A 2008 spot also featured Lima. She twirls a football before letting it fall to the ground. Captions that fill the screen read “Victoria’s Secret would like to remind you. This game will soon be over. Let the real games begin.”
The retailer’s first ad from 1999 was one of the first to show the power of a Tv-web tie-in, USA TODAY reported in 2015. It lured more than a million people (a big number back then) to the fashion show website, causing it to crash.
USA TODAY’S Gabe Lacques and Dispatch reporter Jim Weiker contributed to this report. mtrombly@dispatch.com @monroetrombly