Stuart Elliott: Super Bowl Ads Delighted, Confounded on a Strange Night

It was one of the stranger ad bowls inside a Super Bowl that I39ve had the privilege to watch and I39ve watched a lot of them Sunday was my 30th Sure viewers saw plenty of spots infused with elements familiar from decades of biggame pitches celebrities humor animals music sight gags schmaltz surprise endingsamp160 But the spots also brought up other themes in new ways that spoke to the crosscurrents of life in 2019amp160 The result was a hodgepodge amid a boring game with few messages that broke through other than a stirring spot saluting the important work that journalists do from the Washington PostAppropriate for crosscurrents were the crossover commercials echoing the vintage Certs ads devoted to quotTwo Two Two mints in onequotamp160 By far the best was the spot for Bud Light that did double duty as a trailer for the upcoming final season of HBO39s Game of Thronesamp160see photo at topamp160 Now that the Bud Knight is dead does that mean the death of the brand39s lame quotDilly dillyquot catchphraseamp160 We can only hopeOther crisscrossers included commercials for TMobile with crosspromotions for Lyft and Taco Bell for Burger King which touted one of its stable mates in the 3G Capital empire Heinz ketchupamp160and for Stella Artois which brought together Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City the Dude of The Big Lebowski and the actor who played the Most Interesting Man in the World in a campaign for a rival beer Dos EquisAnother sign of our contemporary crosscurrents was the notable increase in commercials for and about women not only reflecting the growing dialogue about gender but also that women make up almost half the typical Super Bowl audience amp160In fact in most yearsamp160it39s the Super Bowl not the Oscars that is the mostwatched TV show among womenIndeed all four commercials in the very first ad break of the game featured women Bon ampamp Viv39s Spiked Seltzer MampampM39s Hulu39s The Handmaid39s Tale and Bumbleamp160 Other femalecentric spots some advocating girl power others just peddling products included Amazon Prime Michelob Ultra Pure Gold Olay Toyota Turkish Airlines and WixThe biggest news from the ad bowl was the rush among advertisers to center their commercials on technology artificial intelligence voice assistants robots electric cars streaming videoamp160 Was it an embrace of the brave new world ahead of usamp160 Anxiety on Madison Avenue to not appear outdated and out of touchamp160 A tribute to our soontobe mechanical overlordsamp160amp160Whatever the reason it reminded me of the quotdotcom bowlquot in Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000 when close to two dozen spots were bought by internet marketersamp160 Advertisers taking tech paths Sunday included Amazon Audi CBS Google Hulu MercedesBenz Michelob Ultra Microsoft Netflix Pringles SimpliSafe Skechers Sprint TMobile Toyota and TurboTaxThe results varied wildlyamp160 A neardeath experience from Audi and a creepy quotRoboChildquot from TurboTax were offputtingamp160 Both Michelob Ultra and Pringles mocked AI for being well artificialamp160 The winner clearly was MercedesBenz with a clever commercial for its AClass voice assistant starring Ludacris Lassie the Road Runner Wile E Coyote and Willy of Free WillyAs strange as the fetish for futuristic tech was the fact that two Super Sunday commercials were inspired by Andy Warhol a whimsical animated Coke spot that ran before the national anthem based on his philosophy that quota Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Cokequot and the Burger King spot that paired the Whopper with Heinz ketchupamp160 The latter ad excerpted from a short by a Danish experimental filmmaker has a fascinating back story which includes a revelation that Warhol originally had wanted a burger from McDonald39s but ate the Whopperamp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160Hmmmmmamp160 Could the Certslike double dose of Warhol be because his most remembered remark quotIn the future everyone will be worldfamous for 15 minutesquot is like so many of the tech commercials about looking forwardamp160 Don39t be surprised then if the standout star of the 2020 ad bowl is a spot with a robot version of Warhol or a voice assistant that talks just like himClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160

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Stuart Elliott: Super Bowl Ads Delighted, Confounded on a Strange Night

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Stuart Elliott: Super Bowl Ads Delighted, Confounded on a Strange Night

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