On February 5th the United States hosted the Super Bowl – the final game of the National Football League between New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots won in an epic comeback battle with a score of 34-28. But this article is not about football. Today we speak about Super Bowl commercials.
World famous brands also competed at the event, presenting new Super Bowl advertising trends and trying to wow the audience. Just imagine, this year the number of viewers exceeded 100 million! Valoso gathered the best Super Bowl advertising videos shown during halftime.
1. Budweiser — Born the Hard Way
The advertising by one of the most successful American brewers, Anheuser-Busch, has caused a resonance in American society. The video starts with a scene in a bar where a customer addresses the main character, named Adolphus Busch: “You don’t look like from around here.”
Busch, an immigrant from Germany, then starts to remember the difficulties and dangers faced by crossing the Atlantic for his dream – to open a brewery in the United States. At the end of the video, Busch’s interlocutor is Eberhard Anheuser. He offers the protagonist a glass of beer, and Busch shares the secret of improving the formulation of this beverage.
Viewers condemned the video for addressing the situation of migrants, an issue that has recently escalated dramatically in the US. However, the representatives of Anheuser-Busch said that their advertising does not carry political context and reflects the history of the brand only. Nevertheless, this is one of the most controversial Super Bowl commercials.
2. Mercedes-Benz — Easy Driver
Directors of a new Mercedes-Benz commercial are the Coen brothers, known for their quirky movies like Fargo and The Big Lebowski. Action takes place in a classic biker bar somewhere in the deep south of the United States, spoofing the famous 1969 movie, Easy Rider.
The idyll of the day breaks with the news that someone’s bike was blocked in the parking lot. The bar crowd decides to find out what is happening and they all run out the door just in time to see actor Peter Fonda (a cast member of the original Easy Rider movie), who casually gets behind the wheel of his new Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster and rides off into the sunset.
3. Apple — Take Mine
The new Apple commercial presents examples of portraiture function. In this story, the girl returns home to a Greek village on the Mediterranean coast. After she takes a photo of her grandmother, all the locals ask to capture them too.
4. National Geographic — Genius
National Geographic Channel has decided to draw the audience’s attention to its new project called Genius, which starts on April 25th. It is assumed that each season of the show will focus on particular outstanding people.
The promotional video shows what Albert Einstein (played by Geoffrey Rush) is doing between his studies. While his tea gets cold on the table and scattered fragments of his manuscripts everywhere, the genius breaks out the violin! Suddenly, the tune changes and Albert starts to play Bad Romance by Lady Gaga!
5. Intel — Brady Everyday
This brand shows 3D broadcast technology for sports events, Intel-360 Replay, which can make even routine events epic. The video shows the Patriots team player, Tom Brady, the victorious Patriot Quarterback. It is noteworthy that the brand chose the advertising hero even before the Patriots reached the Super Bowl!
6. Squarespace — Get Your Domain Before It’s Gone
The website constructor and domain registration company presented a video with John Malkovich in the title role. In this story, he is going to start his own company for the production of men’s clothing and an online store.
However, somebody has already registered the domain Johnmalkovich.com. The commercial is built around Malkovich trying to solve this issue by persuading the owner to give him the domain.
Interesting fact: Originally, Johnmalkovich.com was really an online store, who named the domain after amateur fisherman, John Malkovich.
7. World of Tanks — Because Tanks Rule
Belarusian company Wargames debuted among Super Bowl commercials with two 15-second videos that parody American reality shows. In the first video, the M4 tank breaks through the wall of a fashionable living room and interrupts a debate among women about the who’s the best mom.
In the second video, the same tank crashes into a toy house, which a young family had planned to buy – a parody of popular house-themed TV shows. The slogan of both adverts – Because tanks rule. This is the first Super Bowl commercial of the multiplayer online game.
8. Snickers — Live Commercial
Snickers brand decided to emphasize their intention to show live ads during the Super Bowl – the first time since 1981, when Schlitz broadcasted beer tasting in real time.
To attract attention, Snickers chose an unusual approach – representatives of the company showed screen tests, where the producer questions a trained horse as to how it copes with the pressure, and then holds an audition for the role of dead cowboy.
9. Skittles — Romance
In the story, the protagonist of the video, Candy Casanova, tries to attract the attention of a girl named Kathy by throwing Skittles at her window. But the girl is only interested in the candies, as is her family members and other characters, like a robber, a cop, and somebody else…
10. Nintendo Switch
Video games manufacturer presented a Super Bowl commercial for the first time. With the new track by Imagine Dragons, the company shows the possibilities of using its console – interactive games with friends, easy connection to a TV, and the use the controllers.
Despite the bright advertising, the audience did not appreciate it. In YouTube comments, people say that Nintendo laughs at them and suggest that the situation would be very different if Sony had released this console.
Did You Know…
Here are some fascinating Super Bowl commercials facts: Super Bowl commercials are the most important revenue of NFL. In 1967, during the first championship match of the National Football League in history, 30 seconds of advertising cost $42,500. For 50 years, this amount increased more than 117.5 times. The cost of Super Bowl advertising in 2017 is $170,000 per second!
Many advertisers put out precious marketing resources to create Super Bowl commercials that are exciting, and concise. However, some Super Bowl ads 2017 have questioned the Super Bowl advertising effectiveness.
If you want to make professional and creative advertising videos, we advise you to become a member of Valoso. With us, your content will improve significantly.
