Stuart Elliott: Timely Ads Trump Typical Fare in Ad Bowl LI

Well maybe not great but timely and relevant and thoughtprovoking and worth talking about in a quotDid you see thatquot or an quotOh no you didn39tquot kind of way that hasn39t been the case for many yearsIf the results of Super Bowl LI a lastminute victory by Trump39s favorite team the New England Patriots were the equivalent of the Electoral College then the commercials were the equivalent of the popular vote You39ve heard of the Peach Bowl This was sort of the Impeachment BowlAdvertiser after advertiser broke with conventional wisdom to tackle topical issues in their spots defying pundits who predicted that Madison Avenue would play it safe for fear of alienating any of the giant viewing audience Instead numerous brands took stands by celebrating immigration diversity multiculturalism inclusion unity acceptance tolerance the environment and the arts The change made for ads that for the most part were more substantial than the usual Super Sunday fare because they seemed to say more than just quotBuy my brandquotAnd what about commercials that were aimed at the other side Slim pickings apart for a spot from the American Petroleum Institute which made a case for oil and a spot for Busch a lowerpriced beer that does well in red statesThe marketers taking sides against Trumpism figured they39d draw much more attention with such commercials rather than unspooling ad bowl standbys replete with wacky animals sight gags and talking babies And that gamble paid off Ads embracing progressive values generated far more conversation than their counterpartsFor instance Talkwater a social data intelligence company found that five of the Top 10 Super Bowl spots creating the most discussion online and in social media had those elements No 1 Budweiser centered on the immigrant39s journey of its cofounder No 2 CocaCola with a paean to a rainbow nation quotAmerica Is Beautifulquot No 5 Audi supporting equal pay for women No 6 84 Lumber also focused on immigration and No 7 Airbnb which declared quotThe world is more beautiful the more you acceptquot A website for 84 Lumber offering a longer version of the commercial had so many visitors during the game that it crashedThe commercials with pointed points of view also did well in terms of likability and favorability A Kia commercial featuring Melissa McCarthy as a wellmeaning but hapless ecowarrior finished first in the annual USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter competition followed by Audi in third place and Budweiser in fourthThe ads that took stands also were noticed by folks who rarely if ever pay attention to the annual scrum among Super Bowl commercials Two leading Democrats Senator Charles Schumer and the strategist Dan Pfeiffer sent tweets approving of the trendquotMajor corporations with large market research budgets have decided that it is totally fine to oppose Trump and his policiesquot Pfeiffer wrote while Schumer praised the ads for demonstrating quotthe country is moving in the right direction prowomen proenvironment proimmigration prodiversityquotThat brings up another aspect of those ads Advertisers crave younger consumers who are freespenders and still forming brand preferences and polls indicate younger Americans largely are against Trump39s policy decisions If the money is where the future is it makes sense to wave a rainbow flag as Google did in a spot for Google Home which also offered other multiculti nods such as a mezuzah on a doorpost Or make fun of Trump39s quotawfulquot hair as It39s a 10 Haircare did Or declare that quotArt makes life MoreInspiredquot as a new Pepsi brand Lifewtr did Or promote a new streaming series quotA Handmaid39s Talequot based on a bleak novel about a dystopian future as Hulu did The book was among those that prompted a muchdiscussed sign noticed last month during the Women39s March in Washington quotMake Margaret Atwood fiction againquotThe Hulu commercial even ran twice thanks to the firstever overtime in a Super Bowl Every year the network broadcasting the game makes contingency plans for overtime but they never had been implemented until SundayLet the record show that Hulu became the first advertiser to show a Super Bowl spot in overtime followed by a rerun of a Sprint spot from the second quarter then new spots for ProActiv and SoFiTo me the interweaving of politically charged messages amid more standard Super Bowl ad fare made the night more entertaining a respite from so many recent ad bowls that were subpar or underwhelming It became something of a fun scavenger hunt to figure out if a spot was innocuous or had more serious meaningFor example was the appearance of a Skittles commercial a wry comment on how the brand unwittingly became enmeshed last year in presidential politics about refugees Were the growers of avocados from Mexico trying to fill America39s kitchens before a punishing tariff was enacted on their product Were a pair of hilarious Tide ads about a stained shirt making a statement because one of the stars was Jeffrey Tambor who portrays a transsexual woman in the popular Amazon series TransparentDid a TurboTax ad about Humpty Dumpty pictured at top have a double meaning because after all where did he sit but on quota wallquot And was a Persil ProClean commercial featuring Bill Nye known as the Science Guy saying something about the importance of science at a time when it39s under attackYes I could be reading too much into this sometimes a cigar ad is just a cigar ad And concentrating on the political content of the commercials may overshadow what the other ads were trying to accomplishBut when ads fell well short of the mark being overlooked may turn out to be a blessing in disguise A commercial for Snickers for one misfired badly failing to take advantage of being live It was confusing too Similarly I had a hard time figuring out what was going on in a spot from Hyundai which was produced during the game and aired immediately after it endedI was happy to see the return of the Bud Light pitchbeast Spuds MacKenzie but baffled as to why he came back as a ghost Is there a craft beer named Spirit Dog that AnheuserBusch is targeting And a spot for King39s Hawaiian Bread bore a suspicious similarity to a spot for Bud Light from 2006Also the typical spate of spots infused with bathroom humor or double entendre about sex or drugs sunk even lower than they usually do when compared with their higherminded counterparts I39m looking at you Febreze Intel ProActive and TMobileAll in all a more successful Super Bowl for the sponsors this time around proving you can be patriotic without being a PatriotClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this article are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggersamp160

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Stuart Elliott: Timely Ads Trump Typical Fare in Ad Bowl LI

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