Yes I Felt I Had to Write about Super Big Game Bowl Ads

You're welcome, or I'm sorry...or both

Hello Gobbledeers,

Yeah that’s right, it’s Monday. I was thinking about it over the weekend, and I realized that there’s exactly one time a year when people talk about marketing, and wouldn’t I be remiss if I didn’t get in on what has to be the, uh, Big Game (?) of Marketing.

So, I figured why-the-hell-not, let’s talk about the ads from last night.

Celebrities were everywhere, even if they had nothing to do with the product and the whole point seemed to be, “hey there so-and-so!” Generally you’d want your celebrity endorser to actually have some attributes that in some way - any way! - align with the attributes of your brand.

But Super Bowl ads don’t require that. Much of what we saw was, “oh look, some of the cast of 30 Rock is in that ad for Booking.com.” Or, “oh look, it’s 2 guys from Suits” and then a bit later in an ad for something else, “Oh look, it’s 2 women from Suits.”

Also - why did every ad have a dog barking in it?

(Wait. They didn’t have a dog barking? That was just the unbelievably anxiety-ridden dog at our friend’s house last night who barked for 3 1/2 straight hours? Poor Blue.)

But you can find people complaining about ads anywhere on the Internet - let’s start with the good stuff.

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Here Are a Few Ads I Thought Were Effective

“Kennedy”

It absolutely kills me that my favorite ad of the night was from a PAC supporting person-running-for-president-with-whom-I-have-no-agreement-on-any-issues Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The ad was a remake of an old JFK campaign commercial that included one of those old-timey campaign songs which have long disappeared from the political scene. Besides saying “Kennedy” quite a bit, the old song contains this:

Do you want a man for president
who's seasoned through and through?
But not so doggoned seasoned
that he won't try something new?
A man who's old enough to know
And young enough to do?

While I enjoy the current state of politics where everyone just accuses everyone else of being pure evil, this little ditty actually summed up JFK’s main selling point - he’s young, but he’s not inexperienced.

And doggoneit, if that isn’t exactly what the voters say they’re looking for this year, then I don’t know what is (no, I mean, I have no idea what the hell voters want).

In any case, RFK’s PAC re-created that ad, using some of those lyrics (cutting out the “doggoned seasoned” line, because perhaps you can’t say “doggoned” anymore?), and it was a striking departure from every other ad that aired during the game.

I’m not sure that convinced me to vote for RFK, but I think nostalgia is a really underused strategy in these big advertisements, and this really showed how it can be used effectively just by juxtaposing something old and fondly remembered with something new (that definitely will not be fondly remembered).

(Also, some members of the Kennedy family apparently hated it and RFK, Jr. apologized, saying, “The ad was created and aired by the American Values Super PAC without any involvement or approval from my campaign. FEC rules prohibit Super PACs from consulting with me or my staff. I love you all. God bless you,” which is an amazing non-apology.)

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Volkswagen - “I Am I Said”

Nostalgia was also used in this evocative, but not emotionally manipulative spot from Volkswagen.

The ad starts with images of the VW Beatle arriving in the US in 1949, and then short clips of the Beatle through different eras. (Editor’s note: It very specifically does NOT mention what the fine people at VW were up to prior to arriving in the US in 1949.)

Then other Volkswagen vehicles - the VW Bus at Woodstock, families in Beetles, the Rabbit and the Scirocco, intercut with those cars in different scenes from their time - being customized by city kids, and scenes with families in the cars.

Plus the best use of a celebrity in a commercial this year, with a short clip of Bart Simpson hitting Lisa Simpson, saying “Punchbuggy, red” - VW is young, and spirited, and part of our culture in a playful way like, you might say, The Simpsons.

It ends with a rollout of the new VW Bus, all under the music of Neil Diamond’s “I am, I said.”

Plus, the tagline is great - “We shape its metal, you shape its soul.”

A really smart, nostalgic, well-told story of this brand from the day it showed up in the US through to a new product today. I’m not sure I can think of another ad from this year that told the story of a brand so clearly.

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Disney+ - “Well Said”

Gobbledy is ostensibly (?) a newsletter about the language of marketing, which may be why I really appreciated this very Apple-like 30 second spot from Disney+, which is just a list of famous quotes from movies that are available under the Disney banner on their streaming service with some tinkly piano accompaniment.

When you wish upon a star
Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi
Why’d it have to be snakes
Wocka wocka
Hakuna Matata

And so on.

What does Disney+ have that no other streamer has? All of the film and TV memories you grew up with. They actually let the words speak for themselves, and when it’s the right words you don’t need anything else.

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Dunkin’ - “DunKings”

ETRADE - “Picklebabies”

When the Dunkin’ ad came on, I assumed I would hate it because I am incredibly judgmental and, apparently, humorless.

But dammit, Dunkin’, you somehow got the tone of this thing all right.

There are many mediocre-to-bad ways to use celebrity endorsements, and Dunkin’ has managed to avoid all of them with Ben Affleck. He’s (obviously) associated with Boston, which is also the home base of Dunkin’. He’s willing to poke fun at himself, while also kinda seeming like someone who does not like to be made fun of, which makes it all the more amusing when he’s poking fun at himself.

Super Bowl ads often try to be goofy with celebrities and it rarely works. This one did.

ETRADE has actually stuck with one idea - talking babies - for a bunch of years, which is a rarity among Super Bowl advertisers. When marketers talk about generating awareness with an ad, that’s very, very, very challenging to do with 1 piece of creative. But if you run ads for 20 years with the same characters, THAT builds awareness. And also allows you to do a silly trifle like one with babies talking smack about pickleball (“it’s basically tennis for babies…but for adults.”). And that silliness will create awareness, and because the characters have been around a long time, it ties back to the brand.

But also sometimes the lesson is - maybe don’t try to be funny if you’re not funny.

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Some Quick Thoughts on a Few Others

-It’s pronounced “teh-MU?” I always thought it was “TEE-mu.” That was the biggest shock of the evening for me.

- At some point I’ll gather my thoughts on the Jesus, He Gets Us campaign, because I think the group running it has done some excellent work trying to understand why people are drawn to religion, and to Christianity. If you think figuring out why someone should buy your AI SaaS product is difficult, good luck with figuring out why someone should feel invested in a religion. The one called “Second Language” (which didn’t run last night) is about as good a distillation of what I understand Christianity to be (the most difficult things to say are “I’m sorry,” “I forgive you,” and “Goodbye” and that your relationship with Jesus can help with those.). If you haven’t seen it:

They ran a different ad last night called “Foot Washing” that - as a Jewish guy - I’m certain I missed a lot of what they were going for, as I have only a glancing awareness of the symbolism of the washing of the feet. But I did want to mention it here because what they’re trying to do with this campaign is - for any of us in marketing - a fascinating challenge that we can all learn from.

-Imagine my surprise when I went to grab a slice of pizza (and shush the dog) and I turn back to the TV at, no joke, exactly the moment this is on the screen:

I assumed that was an ad for Twitter. But it was somehow an ad against anti-semitism. It took me a moment to get my bearings after that.

For marketers, again, what a challenge this is - how do you create a marketing campaign where the product is "hating people is bad” without it coming across as cringe, duh, or after school special. I’m not sure they’ve done it here. But also - what do I do with the fact that this year’s game had ads both for Jesus and for not hating Jews? And that the Super Bowl is the best place to get these messages across? As we once talked about here, the medium is the message.

-State Farm’s Schwarzenegger ad was basically, “Hey, that guy from Austria talks funny.”

-Oh Snapchat. “Less likes, more love. Less social media, more Snapchat.”

-In the Verizon ad, Beyonce plays Beyonce, while Tony Hale plays…her social media manager? Isn’t it odd to have a famous person being herself while another not-Beyonce-level-famous-but-still-kinda-famous person playing someone who isn’t themselves. For any of us who have watched Arrested Development and Veep (repeatedly), Tony Hale is Tony Hale, not “random social media manager type person for Beyonce.”

-I’m trying to figure out the logistics of Pete Davidson dating a cat.

I saved that for last since I think nothing sums up what a Super Bowl ad is more than “Hey, what if Pete Davidson were dating Kate McKinnon’s cat, who has become famous because when the cat says ‘meow’ it kinda sounds like ‘mayo’ and so you should buy more mayonnaise.”

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Any you liked? Hated? Any new religions you joined because you saw an ad? Have you dated any famous felines? Share in the comments. Or share someplace else. Or don’t share at all - I’m not going to tell you what to do.

(Thanks for letting me experiment with this week’s newsletter…it’s not like we get a Super Bowl every day.)