Like many of you, I watched the Super Bowl. The game was a dud. The Eagles manhandled the Chiefs and by halftime, the game was pretty much in the bag. The ads? Perhaps even worse. Maybe some (or many of you) disagree with the latter statement. But to me, the best of our creativity as an industry should be on display. And instead, I thought we got weird and more weird. For example, how many of you can remember the great Super Bowl ads of the past:
You could probably rattle off so many more yourself, the many Budweiser Clydesdales ads, Volkswagen’s The Force ad (which was great too) or any others that you remember from the past.
Typically, I don’t talk about commercials for the Super Bowl as it’s a bit like judging a beauty contest for which the criteria sometimes aren’t all that clear. But I do know one thing: The idea of just trying to get attention for attention’s sake, which many of the commercials did, doesn’t exactly speak highly of the current state of advertising and the creativity that could be tapped into at the various agencies that came up with these.
Let me explain.
Creativity Is Really About Connection
When I teach marketing at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies, one of the things we often discuss is: “What is creativity?” What made the ads I listed above great? All of them tapped into some sort of shared understanding between the advertisers and their audience. It’s a twist on that shared understanding that makes something really creative. In the Wendy’s ad, for example, it’s the shared understanding that back in 1984, many fast food companies made beef patties smaller, which many people complained about. Wendy’s did its take on that rather brilliantly.
This past Super Bowl, we got the singer Seal as a seal, promoting an old song with new lyrics.
We got Weather Tech’s Born to Be Wild, featuring flashing grandmothers and a 60-year old song.
We get Ram’s “Drive Your Own Story” in which actor Glen Powell takes on “Goldilocks” changing it into a dragon-punching, Van Halen-pumping action film. Like wtf?
Bizarre But Is It On Brand?
And look, maybe these ads got attention, but did they really do anything to build the brand in the consumer’s mind? Will it make you think of Weather Tech, the next time you need mud flaps? Will it watching Glen Powell do some weird transformation make you buy that next pickup? OK, maybe for Mountain Dew, that was on brand to be bizarre. But still…
The point is, if you look at the truly great ads, they reinforce or help clarify the brand narrative that already exists. Monster’s “When I Grow Up” ad connects because it taps into the shared understanding that no one really wants a crappy job. They want to move up. It reinforces that Monster is the place to help people do that. Simple. But brilliant.
What did we get this year? Coffee Mate’s Let’s Go Tongues ad, which in my personal opinion, does little to help encourage people to buy its Cold Foam, and may actually turn people off of it:
Celebrities, More Celebrities & Old Songs
I don’t know about you, but ¾ of the ads seemed to include a celebrity of some kind. You had the Dunkin’ ad (DunKings 2), the Hellman’s ad (When Sally Met Hellman’s), (which were perhaps mildly amusing for those in the know) and any number of 30+ ads that also featured a celebrity spokesperson. Again, we get it. Social proof. And they’re familiar and, for the most part, likable. But how many do we need now? Are we out of the ability to come up with a new concept that doesn’t include a celebrity of some kind? In other words, it’s almost too easy. That said, maybe I’m more of a traditionalist when it comes to this.
And the old songs? Look I love the classic rock era as much as anyone. But if you’re aiming for a youth audience, is Seal’s Kiss From a Rose from 1994, really the song to use? The song is 30 years old. How about John Denver’s Country Roads to sell Rocket Mortgages? Why are we talking about West Virginia too, with this 50+ year old song?
What the song choices inevitably are – they’re safe. People like me like them, people sing along. But how does it connect to what we’re selling?
Anyway, that’s my rant for the day. Would love to hear your thoughts on this too.
