Celebrities and Storylines in Super Bowl Commercials: Starry and Dunkin’
Written by Ash D. ‘27
The Starry Superbowl Commercial, featuring popular musician and online personality Ice Spice, uses a mix of celebrity star power, humorous dialogue, and a fun slogan in order to sell their drink in a way that appeals to younger audiences. Dunkin’ Superbowl Commercial employs a similar use of celebrity endorsement, product placement, and hilarious antics to make their ad stand out to viewers. Both commercials use ethos in order to establish credibility with the audience, using star-studded cast and humor in order to advertise. These ads are using social media, specifically celebrity appearances and merchandise, to leave a strong impression on viewers. Starry and Dunkin’ are also appealing to the emotions of the viewers, because they feature storylines that enrapture attention and invest the viewer into what’s being sold. By marketing their products with fun tricks and celebrity cameos, both the Starry and Dunkin’ created viral commercials that will surely help create a buzz and bring attention to the items that they’re selling.
Starry’s ad promoting their soda features Ice Spice and their mascots, Lem and Lime, interacting with each other on a date night. The key features that were really effective was the celebrity endorsement in a fun, relatable situation. They knew their audience, as their ad featured slang and a trendy Ice Spice song at the end. With such a prominent star like Ice Spice, her fans were already going to click in. However, they played into their younger audience by featuring her in a humorous situation that fits her online persona. So they gave the viewer an opportunity to become invested in the storyline, even though it was short. All of this combined with the ending scene of their advertisement being the drink and an Ice Spice song allowed for a very successful commercial. It went viral and had viewers talking, which brought it more eyes for the product. It even featured its own unique hashtag. Overall the whole ad was a hit, and even though it only lasted 30 seconds, got people hooked.
Dunkin’ came out with an ad that has a very similar technique of bringing in fans, with a notable cast of celebrities, and a hilarious storyline that featured merchandise as well. Continuing the Dunkin’ Cinematic Universe, the ad was named after “The DunKings,” which is a fictional group made up of Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Tom Brady. Since the commercial was continuing an already established story, it already had a strong emotional draw as loyal viewers wanted to see the long going saga continue. It also featured a few more celebrities, with Affleck’s wife, Jennifer Lopez, Jack Harlow, and Fat Joe. It features a story of beautiful friendship, as we see The DunKings have fun while dancing to their own original song. Throughout the entire ad, you can also see them in very aggressive, bright orange jumpsuits that represent Dunkin and are also sold online. The final scene featured Tom Brady walking into the distance in what feels like a scene straight out of a superhero movie. The whole video had a very inspirational message of following your dreams no matter how unrealistic they may be.
Both advertisements were made with the same purpose in mind: they wanted to go viral by using celebrity starpower and a touching storyline to hook the audience into buying their product. They essentially used the same technique; however, Dunkin’ had more of a lasting impression. They had more celebrities and a storyline that has been going on for over a year now. I feel like overall, both were effective because they got a lot of attention from the media and gave people a strong reason to go buy their products. However, I think that Dunkin’ was more successful as not only did they promote their coffee, but also a brand new line of clothes. Overall, however, they did a good job using these techniques to enhance the ad. From a viewer’s point of view, I would want to buy from both of these brands just from their Super Bowl commercial. In conclusion, I believe that both Starry and Dunkin perfectly used celebrity endorsement and catchy storylines in their commercials to draw in consumers.
