Advertisers, who normally use the Super Bowl to produce jaw-dropping commercials, were happy if they could get even a few smiles.
For the second year in a row, Madison Avenue relied on a big parade of celebrities to grab consumers' attention, often forgoing the social messages and dynamic creative concepts that have generated buzz in the past. Once the setting for Apple's still-talking “1984'' commercial and Procter & Gamble's clever inclusion of Tide in a series of ads, the Super Bowl is now a place for routine celebrity cameos. It has become.
“It's like a celebrity arms race,” says Simon Bruin, executive creative director at independent agency Mother. “It seems like having one celebrity isn’t enough.”
Super Bowl viewers saw Danny DeVito join Arnold Schwarzenegger at State Farm. Pete Davidson works with Kate McKinnon on Hellman's. Heidi Gardner and Dan Levy pair up on Homes.com. And Chris Pratt promotes Pringles. Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Aubrey Plaza and Ice Spice were also in attendance, as were “Saturday Night Live” cast members such as Homes.com's Heidi Gardner. Rising star Marcelo Hernández played a key role in the Nissan ad that aired on Univision's Spanish version of the Big Game.
There were certainly some surprises. Beyoncé appeared at Verizon in a dizzying variety of outfits, hinting at the possibility of new music being released. The super PAC backing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an outlier in the 2024 presidential election, is promoting his candidacy with a strong image linking him to the campaign run by his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy. A commercial was aired for the. The situation at the scene was unexpected. People familiar with the ad lineup initially said it would not include commercials for politicians.
“When it went off, the room went silent. We were all looking on both sides of the aisle,” says Jack Westerholt, creative director at Dallas-based independent agency TRG. “The art direction was overwhelmingly throwback to the '60s.”
Advertising executives were also impressed by a commercial for Hershey's Reese's peanut butter candy, which introduced a new caramel version. This spot relied on product flavor twists rather than celebrity visits or jokes. Sure, the ad was narrated by Will Arnett, but a group of expressive and loud consumer voices filled the screen, and the news about the new product was the focal point.
One of the ads that popped out was Dunkin's new commercial featuring Ben Affleck. The actor has appeared as a representative for the donut and coffee chain in the past, but on Sunday he barged into a recording session for the new singing group “Dunkings,” which includes Matt and is led by his wife Jennifer Lopez. raised his own status. Damon, Tom Brady, Fat Joe, Jack Harlow. Damon was spotted nibbling on a new product with donut pieces on a stick. “That's insane,” Bruin says.
But none of the ads had the impact of some of the most memorable Super Bowl commercials. Marketers appear to be mindful of the woes suffered by Anheuser-Busch InBev's Bud Light and are taking more steps to generate backlash on social media. The venerable beer saw sales decline in 2023 as transgender advocate Dylan Mulvaney sought to expand beyond its immediate customer base with a promotion where people could get customized beer cans.
“I feel like people are really just playing it safe,” Brin says. “There's so much concern right now, there's so much attention on something, and to make sure people don't start saying negative things on social, advertisers have to say, 'Okay, how do we show up?' But I get the impression that you're saying, “Let's not do too much.'''' Media. “
This year's NFL extravaganza does away with the two-minute ads that helped advertisers like Chrysler make a name for themselves in recent years with spots featuring Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. And while the list of first-time Super Bowl sponsors was often filled with the names of inexperienced digital startups, it was instead packed with experienced marketers, including online retailer Etsy and chocolatier Lindt. was.
Simply put, celebrity and humor tend to attract attention, Westerholt said. “It's a formula, but it's a formula that works.”
Some choose to test their own equations. DoorDash relied on a crazy code that allowed viewers to win everything advertised during this year's extravaganza. Toyota previously said it would not participate in Super Bowl LVIII, but in recent days it has reversed course and returned to advertising space. The commercial avoided celebrities and focused on the new Tacoma and passenger reactions when driving off-road. “We came down to a simple truth,” Mike Tripp, vice president of Toyota Marketing Group, said in a recent interview.
Most marketing executives felt they were giving consumers what they wanted. There are fewer reminders of national polarization and the state of the planet's environment, and more reasons to smile than frown. Ferrara Candy's first-ever Super Bowl ad proposal was “very light and positive,” said Greg Guidotti, the company's chief marketing officer. Ferrara ran an ad for Nerds Candy depicting animated jelly candies studded with crunchy Nerd creatures. Dance influencer Addison Rae expressed her approval in the final seconds of the ad.
In the current situation, this may be all that consumers can do.
