From YouTube teasers to $3.8m 30-second game-day blockbusters, Super Bowl advertising is big business
For those who aren't rooting for the San Francisco 49ers or the Baltimore Ravens – or who aren't named Harbaugh – there is, thankfully, that other competition on Sunday: best Super Bowl commercial.
In what has now become the industry standard, advertisers no longer wait for game day to release their high-priced hilarity – $3.8m for 30 seconds this year – because there are so many eyeballs to be found online for free. Besides, why hold out for all the Monday morning quarterbacking when you can start the conversation during the 336-hour pre-game show?
Not that the early release strategy isn't without its pitfalls – one commercial, for Taco Bell, has already been pulled from the broadcast because it offended that key Super Bowl demographic: vegetarians. (Whiny bastards.)
So grab a six-pack of deer-antler extract, and let's preview a few of the new ads that are sure to be talked about – at least until the Westminster Dog Show.
*Volkswagen – 'Get In. Get Happy'*
Having established something of a Super Bowl dynasty with the little Darth Vader in 2011 and last year's The Bark Side, the expectations are high for Volkswagen. This year, VW has dropped the Star Wars theme and instead sought inspiration from Jamaica. And as I believe Bob Marley once sang, No Wookiee, No Cry.
In fact, that's the premise behind the ad for the new Beetle, in which a depressed office in Minnesota is told that "everyting will be all right" by a hyper-happy white co-worker who speaks with a heavy Jamaican accent. (And in case the point wasn't clear, Jimmy Cliff's new cover of the Partridge Family theme song, Get Happy, plays in the background.) Some say the ad is racist – "blackface with voices"– but even the Jamaican government said it had no problem with the commercial. In other words, those critics just need to roll a fatty and chill out.
*Coca-Cola – 'The Chase'*
One of the new ways by which advertisers have built pre-game buzz is by releasing a tease of the ad that will run during the Super Bowl. But this year some have gone a step further, by giving the audience a role in the creative process.
Coca-Cola, for instance, added a Choose Your Own Adventure element to its commercial. In a teaser called The Chase, three teams race across the desert in pursuit of a giant bottle of Coke – the public gets to vote on who gets the prize. The three choices are The Showgirls (think Priscilla Queen of the Desert, but with actual women), The Badlanders (think Mad Max, but without Mad Mel), and The Cowboys (think third place). The winner will be revealed during the game.
Gotta be The Showgirls, right?
*Audi – Prom*
Like Coca-Cola, Audi previewed its commercial for the new A6 with multiple endings that the audience could vote on. In the prom-themed ad, a teenager is getting ready to go to the big dance but he doesn't have a date. Then his father throws him the keys to the Audi and driving the car turns George McFly into James Bond. He speeds off, parks in the principal's spot, and then – well, why ruin the selected ending?
"Bravery," the tagline reads. "It's what defines us." Though for my money, the truly courageous one was the dad. Loaning your son the Audi on prom night? Please.
*Doritos – 'Crash the Super Bowl'*
Doritos not only crowd-sources its Super Bowl ads, it enlists amateur filmmakers to create them. This year, there are five finalists for the Crash the Super Bowl contest and while they're all pretty funny, the early favorite is Fashionista Daddy, in which a good-sport father plays "princess" with his daughter so he can have some chips.
Let's just say by the end of the game, there could be a lot of guys wearing wedding dresses.
*Axe*
In its first Super Bowl commercial, Axe is promoting its new Apollo scent with an ad that blends old-fashioned sexism (a lifeguard rescues a beautiful woman in a bikini), machismo (he also stabs a shark) and a sucker punch (he loses the girl to an astronaut). But if that doesn't work, the commercial preview also sends viewers to a website where they can enter a contest to be one of 22 winners chosen for a trip into space. That's one giant leap for fankind.
*Mercedes*
A sexist commercial from Axe, sure. But Mercedes? Putting the tease in teaser, the luxury car company released a preview of its Super Bowl commercial last week that promised to show Kate Upton washing the new CLA in slow motion. Using every cliché imaginable – dripping water, a spewing hose, and Upton blowing on soap suds – the ad delivers everything except what it promised.
And of course it's gone seriously viral, with more the five million views on YouTube by the middle of the week.
You stay classy, Mercedes.
*Fiat Abarth 500 Cabrio – 'Topless'*
If you're going to be sexist on Super Bowl Sunday, at least have a great sense of humor about it. The commercial for the Fiat Abarth 500 Cabrio has all of the wit that Mercedes lacks. (Italians understand sexy. Germans, not so much.)
Featuring a woman in a bikini and a mischievous scorpion (oh, and a convertible), the voiceover purrs that it's "small, wicked, and now… topless." Brava. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
For those who aren't rooting for the San Francisco 49ers or the Baltimore Ravens – or who aren't named Harbaugh – there is, thankfully, that other competition on Sunday: best Super Bowl commercial.
In what has now become the industry standard, advertisers no longer wait for game day to release their high-priced hilarity – $3.8m for 30 seconds this year – because there are so many eyeballs to be found online for free. Besides, why hold out for all the Monday morning quarterbacking when you can start the conversation during the 336-hour pre-game show?
Not that the early release strategy isn't without its pitfalls – one commercial, for Taco Bell, has already been pulled from the broadcast because it offended that key Super Bowl demographic: vegetarians. (Whiny bastards.)
So grab a six-pack of deer-antler extract, and let's preview a few of the new ads that are sure to be talked about – at least until the Westminster Dog Show.
*Volkswagen – 'Get In. Get Happy'*
Having established something of a Super Bowl dynasty with the little Darth Vader in 2011 and last year's The Bark Side, the expectations are high for Volkswagen. This year, VW has dropped the Star Wars theme and instead sought inspiration from Jamaica. And as I believe Bob Marley once sang, No Wookiee, No Cry.
In fact, that's the premise behind the ad for the new Beetle, in which a depressed office in Minnesota is told that "everyting will be all right" by a hyper-happy white co-worker who speaks with a heavy Jamaican accent. (And in case the point wasn't clear, Jimmy Cliff's new cover of the Partridge Family theme song, Get Happy, plays in the background.) Some say the ad is racist – "blackface with voices"– but even the Jamaican government said it had no problem with the commercial. In other words, those critics just need to roll a fatty and chill out.
*Coca-Cola – 'The Chase'*
One of the new ways by which advertisers have built pre-game buzz is by releasing a tease of the ad that will run during the Super Bowl. But this year some have gone a step further, by giving the audience a role in the creative process.
Coca-Cola, for instance, added a Choose Your Own Adventure element to its commercial. In a teaser called The Chase, three teams race across the desert in pursuit of a giant bottle of Coke – the public gets to vote on who gets the prize. The three choices are The Showgirls (think Priscilla Queen of the Desert, but with actual women), The Badlanders (think Mad Max, but without Mad Mel), and The Cowboys (think third place). The winner will be revealed during the game.
Gotta be The Showgirls, right?
*Audi – Prom*
Like Coca-Cola, Audi previewed its commercial for the new A6 with multiple endings that the audience could vote on. In the prom-themed ad, a teenager is getting ready to go to the big dance but he doesn't have a date. Then his father throws him the keys to the Audi and driving the car turns George McFly into James Bond. He speeds off, parks in the principal's spot, and then – well, why ruin the selected ending?
"Bravery," the tagline reads. "It's what defines us." Though for my money, the truly courageous one was the dad. Loaning your son the Audi on prom night? Please.
*Doritos – 'Crash the Super Bowl'*
Doritos not only crowd-sources its Super Bowl ads, it enlists amateur filmmakers to create them. This year, there are five finalists for the Crash the Super Bowl contest and while they're all pretty funny, the early favorite is Fashionista Daddy, in which a good-sport father plays "princess" with his daughter so he can have some chips.
Let's just say by the end of the game, there could be a lot of guys wearing wedding dresses.
*Axe*
In its first Super Bowl commercial, Axe is promoting its new Apollo scent with an ad that blends old-fashioned sexism (a lifeguard rescues a beautiful woman in a bikini), machismo (he also stabs a shark) and a sucker punch (he loses the girl to an astronaut). But if that doesn't work, the commercial preview also sends viewers to a website where they can enter a contest to be one of 22 winners chosen for a trip into space. That's one giant leap for fankind.
*Mercedes*
A sexist commercial from Axe, sure. But Mercedes? Putting the tease in teaser, the luxury car company released a preview of its Super Bowl commercial last week that promised to show Kate Upton washing the new CLA in slow motion. Using every cliché imaginable – dripping water, a spewing hose, and Upton blowing on soap suds – the ad delivers everything except what it promised.
And of course it's gone seriously viral, with more the five million views on YouTube by the middle of the week.
You stay classy, Mercedes.
*Fiat Abarth 500 Cabrio – 'Topless'*
If you're going to be sexist on Super Bowl Sunday, at least have a great sense of humor about it. The commercial for the Fiat Abarth 500 Cabrio has all of the wit that Mercedes lacks. (Italians understand sexy. Germans, not so much.)
Featuring a woman in a bikini and a mischievous scorpion (oh, and a convertible), the voiceover purrs that it's "small, wicked, and now… topless." Brava. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.