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Super Bowl 50 Ad Recap: Blocking & Tackling, Targeted Hits and Touchdowns

Super Bowl Babies Pic

Advertising during the Super Bowl broadcast has become such a part of our nation’s culture that we should recognize the day after the Super Bowl as an advertising holiday. Let’s go with David Ogilvy Day since he’s often called the Father of Advertising.  The Super Bowl 50 ads had the usual combination of memorable, forgettable and serviceable ads, similar to plays in the game.

Advertisers spent $5 million on the ad time plus a substantial amount writing, creating and producing the commercials. The winners achieved all 3 of the requirements of a successful Super Bowl Ad:

  1. Focus on one big idea that resonates with your key target audience
  2. Make an emotional impact
  3. Create both visual and audible memories

The NFL’s Super Bowl Babies ad will probably be the most remembered and referenced in future years. The ad featured people conceived when their parents’ favorite team won the Super Bowl with teams of Super Bowl babies singing along with Seal to his hit song Kiss from a Rose. The ad pulls at the heart strings, created a buzz and is memorable.

Doritos was the big humor winner with Ultrasound featuring a husband eating Dorito’s during his wife’s ultrasound. Dad realizes the baby is following the Dorito as he chomps away. When Mom throws the Dorito, the baby reacts! The social media mentions were many.

Amazon Echo’s ads featuring Alec Baldwin, Dan Marino, Missy Elliott and other celebrities wins the “blocking and tackling” award to use a football analogy. Amazon spread the word about the Echo’s features to a huge audience with ads that got the job done.

Skittles Steven Tyler ad ties in well with the overall Skittles messaging. I’d give it a B grade. Not a classic but good enough because of its consistency to the core Skittles branding theme.

Heinz Meet the Ketchups ad features Weiner dogs in hot dog costumes running towards people dressed as Heinz ketchup, mustard and BBQ sauce. The dogs jump on the people/Heinz bottles and lick away. Brings a smile and educates the audience on the many Heinz flavors.

I thought Mountain Dews PuppyMonkeyBaby ad asked the audience to think, not a good thing during Super Bowl watching. The overall premise is sound and with repeated views the ad might resonate more, possibly even gaining some catch phrase traction. But for a one time view in the game, I don’t rank it in the top tier.

Some ads probably resonated with their target market but not so much with the larger audience. The Christopher Walken Kia ad makes sense to the older audience while the TJ Miller Shock Top Beer probably resonated with the beer’s 20-something target market. Reaching your core audience is the most important thing to the advertiser so Kia and Shock Top Beer can still consider their Super Bowl investment a success.

The Super Bowl broadcast featured so many other ads, too many to mention. I’m sure I missed somebody’s favorite. Let me know which ones you liked the most and you’ll receive a No BS Marketing special gift.