Our Top 5 Superbowl LIII Ads
As an AdTech company we love finding great ads. Some of the best come around this time of the year: SUPERBOWL SEASON. With the cost for a 30-second ad in the 5 million dollar range, you’re sure to see the crème de la crème of high-quality, witty, persuasive content. In this article, we’ll break down our top picks with some socio-market insights:
5. Gillette’s “The Best Men Can Be”
Now this isn’t strictly a Superbowl ad, more of a Superbowl season ad, but it embodies the socially aware re-branding efforts that are shaping the advertising landscape in 2019.
Consumers nowadays demand brands whose values that align with theirs. It’s not enough to have good products; 10 other shaving companies out there produce good razors at competitive prices. To stand out, you’ve got to know your consumers, and for Gillette, their consumer base is changing.
With each passing year, more and more Centennials are sprouting hair and out shopping for their first razor. More than likely, these young men and women don’t subscribe to the hyper-masculine image Gillette stood for for years. They grew up with an understanding of “toxic-masculinity” and “gender stereotypes”. For them, the definition of a man is not cut and dry. Gillette’s new slogan, “The Best Men Can Be”, is meant to be an optimistic take on a confusing coming of age for centennials.
In showing they’re not just a product aimed at chiseled cowboys and football stars, Gillette is attempting to communicate in a language their consumers speak. This ad is for the boy that’s been bullied, votes Democrat, plays computer games, and learnt in school that gender isn’t a binary. But it’s not just for him. It’s for the women who’ll applaud Gillette for getting behind the #MeToo movement, it’s for his Mom who’ll buy him his first razor and for his female friends who could become Gillette’s next Luna razor owners.
This ad was controversial: the most overt statement by a company that they’re behind the #MeToo movement. Many die-hard Gillette consumers didn’t like it. It was a risky move, and garnered so much controversy that Gillette is actively preparing for a dip in Q1 sales. A bit premature some might say, but here at HYGH, we think it could pay off. After all, people tend to stick to one razor brand their whole lives and its a simple fact that the American consumer base is becoming more socially liberal.
One thing’s for sure. Advertisers and brand strategists will be closely watching what happens to Gillette’s sales over the next year.
4. Budweiser’s “Wind Never Felt Better”
You might ask, what’s wind got to to with my beer? A lot more than you think, the folks at Budweiser would say. Well we think —we’ve never actually heard them say anything to us. What’s clear is that Budweiser is playing the same game Gillette is: socially aware re-branding.
It’s a simple statement Buddy’s trying to make here: we’re a company that cares about the environment, and if you do too, you should buy our beer. The company’s re-branding themselves as a modern, clean producer of beer that doesn’t sacrificing that good ‘ole taste and tradition.
See how much easier that was to explain than Gillette’s ad? Most everyone can get behind the environment, but tackling gender norms, well that’s opening up a can of worms.
3. Burger King’s #EatLikeAndy The Whole Whopper
It’s one of those iconic snippets of 80s pop culture that manages to confuse and engross viewers from every decade.
It’s a short called “Andy Warhol Eating a Hamburger” directed by JØrgen Leth for his 1982 film “66 Scenes from America.” Burger King secured the rights to use the footage for the Superbowl, and aired it just as it did in 1982 — in glorious uncomfortable silence. What money they saved on production costs we assume ended up in the purchasing rights fee.
Burger King’s strategy is running the dark horse in a crowded field of brilliant Superbowl ads. Any company can create a flawlessly witty star-studded commercial, but #EatLikeAndy isn’t a commercial: it’s a genuine film. Its original purpose wasn’t to sell you a whopper, it was to show Danish folks a scene from American life. Airing it unaltered makes it feel like you’re not really being sold something, almost like an uncommercial — which, conversely, makes it more likely you’ll end up buying it. We’re not sure uncommerical is a real term, but, well, now it is. You’re welcome.
In the world of high-quality Superbowl ads, different is good. This is not just a genuine film, but a genuinely weird one. It’s discomforting to watch, even for the unfamiliar viewer to whom questions invariably arise, like: Who’s that guy with a bleach bowl cut? Why’s he so fed up with eating a burger? And WHY ON EARTH does he open the patty and put the ketchup on the side?
We know Andy didn’t believe in eating protein, once famously stating, “all I ever want is sugar”, but we no idea why he dipped his hamburger into the ketchup instead of applying it on the bun he opened. Chalk it up to artistic entitlement. What is abundantly clear is that Andy’s having a burger his way. Well played BK.
Fun fact, Burger King wasn’t the only ad to invoke Andy Warhol in the Superbowl. Coke did it too in their “A Coke is a Coke” ad, which is an allusion to Warhol’s quote, “A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.”
2. Olay’s “Killer Skin”
Now this is just a straight forward ad. No social commentary, no green initiatives, no 1980s Andy Warhol. Just a good old (skin) scare. Watch at your own peril.
Nothing grabs your attention quite as well as fear, and this ad does it well. It’s instantly relatable, featuring a couple curled up on the sofa watching TV much like the 100 million viewers watching the Superbowl, when all of sudden they’re faced with a killer Georgie Denborough turned Jason Voorhees. What’s going to happen to them?! you might ask as you glance tentatively out the window.
Oh, just some life-saving skincare. Thanks Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Olay cleverly deploys their anti-aging product in a plot-twist, turning a nightmare scenario into a world-class pun. The icing on the cake comes when Georgie Voorhees tells Sarah Michelle Geller, “Your skin’s glowing. You could be a movie star.” Ha.
This ad also gets bonus points for being more heart-pounding than any of the plays run by Tom Brady or Jared Goff.
1. Amazon’s “Not Everything Makes the Cut”
True, not everything makes the cut, but with more academy award nominees than most movies and a laughable plot, this ad definitely does.
At 91 seconds, this ad cost at least $15 million to air, and boy did they make it worth it. It features Forest Whitaker failing to brush his teeth, Harrison Ford arguing with his French bulldog, comedians Abbi Jacobson and Illana Glazer being ejected from a hot-tub, and astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly rocking out to “Don’t Stop Me Now” on the ISS. What more could you want?
Everyone can relate to an Alexa fail. It’s just one of those trials that comes with having a semi-sentient living room speaker. Amazon cleverly commiserates with this by walking us through a collection of development fails that also shows off Alexa’s endless applications. It’s not easy to build a virtual assistant, but it’s almost harder to turn her into a cultural icon.
