Even AI companies aim for fun instead of frowning
Madison Avenue pumped the brakes on most of the somber Super Bowl commercials Sunday night, with many trying to do something Big Game ads haven’t always done: make people feel good.
A dizzying array of places featured famous faces in frantic, frenetic scenarios, including Ben Stiller and Benson Boone trying to outdo each other for delivery service Instacart while dressed in surreal musician costumes. Andy Samberg made a splash on behalf of Hellmann’s mayonnaise, dressed as some crazy Neil Diamond wannabe. And a bevy of “SNL” cast members past and present appeared throughout the night – Ana Gasteyer and Kenan Thompson for Wegovy; Colin Jost and Michael Che for DraftKings; Heidi Gardner for Homes.com and Apartments.com. Meanwhile, Bowen Yang joined frequent “SNL” guests Scarlett Johansson and Jon Hamm for Ritz Crackers.
“The feeling is damn joyful,” says Ellie Bamford, chief strategy officer of North America for major advertising agency VML. She thought the commercials hit the right tone, distanced themselves from sad stories and radiated fun and nostalgia. In previous Super Bowls, “brands went with things that felt too heavy and too divisive,” she says. This year, she says advertisers “moved away” from moralizing and “told people what to think.”
“We can’t ignore the absurdity in the ads this year,” said Erin Sarro, creative director at Two Tango Collaborative, an advertising consortium based in Richmond. The Instacart ad, she says, “offered a fever dream,” with Stiller and Boone looking like “an Italian mustache-twirling New Wave duo.”
Other commercials played up the surreal. Liquid IV, a water hydration mix, unveiled a commercial filled with toilets and changing tables singing a cover of an old Phil Collins song. Budweiser struck a chord Sunday night with a spot that told the story of one of its Clydesdale horses growing up next to a bald eagle — all to the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s classic “Free Bird.” Ben Affleck returned for his fourth Super Bowl effort for Dunkin’, this time luring Jennifer Aniston, Tom Brady, Jason Alexander, Jasmine Guy, Tom Brady and Jaleel White to a venue reminiscent of 1990s sitcoms.
Certainly, several places tried to get people thinking about bigger issues. A commercial from Rocket Mortgage and Redfin showed viewers the story of two families — one white and one Latino — eyeing each other skeptically until the Latino family’s daughter found the white family’s lost dog. Advertising agency executives praised the intention and decision to commission Lady Gaga to sing the theme “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” from “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” But they also suggested that the spot skated past some difficult issues related to race and class.
The sheer abundance of cheerful ads can drown out some of the more serious or innovative creative choices. “We know what works in the Super Bowl,” said Omid Amidi, co-chief creative officer of McKinney, an agency based in Durham, NC. “It’s mainly celebrities, a music cover, animals and puppies. It feels like we’re really playing the hits, without making any fluctuations.”
Viewers were inundated with messages from a slew of AI companies. Amazon aimed for humor, with Chris Hemsworth expressing his fear of what his new Alexa assistant might do to him. Anthropic threw a sharp elbow at rival Open AI with a spot that poked fun at a decision to include commercials in a level of ChatGPT. In turn, Open AI tried to make people forget their concerns about the technology.
“They’re showing up like any industry that’s so young, and they’re starting to think about the different places they could take,” says Daniel Lobatón, chief creative officer, North America, of Miami agency David. “Some are more serious and serious.”
It’s tough to get a Super Bowl ad to hit all the high notes, says Rob Reilly, WPP’s Global Chief Creative Officer. “It’s hard to make these things. It’s really hard. There are a lot of people involved in the decision-making, and there are a lot of chefs in the kitchen.”
Some executives wondered whether the Dunkin’ ad, for all its celebrity appeal, missed the point. “It didn’t really produce any results,” Bamford says. In previous efforts, the company spent more time making sure its donuts and coffee got more screen time.
An unusual ad from Coinbase also sparked debate. The spot used very little glitzy production, instead giving viewers what looked like a karaoke screen in a bar, encouraging them to sing along to a Backstreet Boys song. In 2022, the cryptocurrency company made a similar attempt, putting a floating QR code on the screen – and nothing else. “It’s their tactic,” says Bamford.
More to come…
