RWRetailWire
Back to Discussions
DISCUSSION

Which commercial won the Super Bowl?

Written by George Anderson

Sources: Jeep, Amazon, P&G, SodaStream

Whether you are one of the 17.5 million people who stayed home from work today or are among the millions of others who showed up at your job ready to talk about yesterday’s game, welcome to the Super Monday version of RetailWire. While fans of the Kansas City Chiefs are happy today and San Francisco 49er faithful are not, we’re not going to talk about comeback victories, a head coach’s big game redemption or any of the other storylines around the Super Bowl. No, we’re here to discuss which brands cut through the Super Bowl party noise with commercials designed to win future purchases made by American consumers. In Adweek’s view, the top 10 spots were:
  1. Jeep’s “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray with co-stars Brian Doyle-Murray and Stephen Tobolowsky in an uplifting and creative take on the movie that served as its inspiration.
  2. “Loretta” from Google didn’t leave a dry eye in the house  — or bar or wherever millions viewed the commercial. The spot tells the story of a man remembering his life with his wife through the use of Google products. This spot is rated multiple tissues.
  3. Can’t remember what people did before they put Alexa devices in their homes? The answer to that question, courtesy of Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi and a cast of other characters through the ages, answers that with the #BeforeAlexa spot.
  4. Hyundai’s commercial for its self-parking feature has a Boston bent, with actors Rachel Dratch, Chris Evans and John Krasinski, along with Red Sox great David “Big Papi” Ortiz, using their very best Boston accents to talk about how to “smaht pahk” a car.
  5. Snickers’ “Fix the World” commercial is reminiscent of Coca-Cola’s iconic “Teach the World to Sing” ad, but with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
  6. Mountain Dew goes all “Shining” on the audience with Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and Tracee Ellis Ross of Black-ish playing it straight through the humorous spot.
  7. Procter & Gamble’s “Super Bowl Now, Laundry Later” mini-campaign lets viewers know that spills can wait, since Tide Power-Pods will be able to tackle them later. The original spot then morphs into mashups with Bud Knight and Wonder Woman as the complete story spins out across four spots and ends with the stain’s removal.
  8. Microsoft’s “Be the One: Katie Sowers” commercial tells the story of the offensive assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers who dreamed of being in the National Football League as a child and grew up to become the first female and openly gay coach in the Super Bowl.
  9. “The Heist” from Porsche is a high-speed chase of a spot. Think “Fast and Furious” but with an electric car — The Porsche Taycan.
  10. Jason Momoa gets “Comfortable” in a commercial from Rocket Mortgage. The spot shows the Aquaman actor in a decidedly different look from his usual action roles.
Ad Age ranked the commercials with footballs, with the very best spots receiving five. Three commercials earned that distinction: Jeep “Groundhog Day,” Microsoft’s “Be the One” and SodaStream’s “Water on Mars” commercial, in which astronauts find water on the red planet only to have one of the crew drink it mistakenly. (He thought the bottle read “Mark’s water”.)  CNN ranked spots as winners and losers. Among the winners not named in the Adweek and AdAge lists were the Doritos’ commercial with Sam Elliott and Lil Nas X in a dance-off to “Old Town Road” and Walmart’s science fiction-themed “Famous Visitors” spot for its same-day store pickup service. 

Discussion Thread0