Super Bowl Commercials 2021
Super Bowl week is my favorite week of the year as a marketer. My son, a budding marketer himself, asked me why I love to watch, write and talk about them so much, and I told him, “It’s the Super Bowl of advertising”. Trite, but true. This is the week when advertisers put out their best content.
The #SuperBowl is the largest live viewed sporting event in the US. But especially this year, if you think about the rise of all the new streaming services like Disney+ and HBOMax, people's media viewing habits have become really fractured, and I’d argue a lot of that has been accelerated by us being home and consuming so much media due to the pandemic.
So, live sports have become even more important to advertisers because they provide a unique live television watching opportunity - it's really a collective viewing experience, and those are harder and harder to come by in today’s age of highly personalized, asynchronous media viewing.
This is why CBS could demand over $5 million dollars for a 30 second ad. If you’re an advertiser, you’d better use those 30 seconds in the best way possible and put your very best content on air.
Today, I want to share my thoughts on some of the more notable ads - and why (or why not) I liked them.
I fully recognize that I’m playing Monday morning quarterback here. And I’ve worked on big TV ad campaigns like this before - I know how much work goes into them. To those who worked on this year’s ads - great job. It takes a lot of guts to step on to the world’s stage like that.
So, here are my thoughts on the Super Bowl 2021 commercials.
Dawn and Swiffer: “Come Clean and Close the Chore Gap.”
A high percentage of American households put the responsibility of household chores on one person in the home. And as a working mom, this is something I hear about quite a bit from friends of mine. A good friend of mine actually wrote a great piece on Medium about this topic, and how to tackle it. I really like what Dawn and Swiffer are saying, and the intention behind the ad. It’s a movement that needs to happen. But for some reason, the execution didn’t hit home as hard to me as I would have liked it to, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. Is it because there wasn’t a real call to action? Is it because the ad still felt like it was targeted at women, so it feels like it’s talking to itself? Is a Super Bowl ad the right medium for this message? Overall, I say thank you to P&G for starting the conversation. Let’s continue it and make this a real movement.
T-Mobile: “Don’t Trust Just Any 5G Network”
My favorite celebrity ad, and one of my favorite ads last night. I have to say, it was a nice surprise since I had seen many of the ads ahead of time. Premise: It’s a few years ago, and Adam Levine is videochatting with Gwen Stefani, asking her about her dating life and what she’s looking for. She tells him, but because Adam is on a bad network, he only hears every 3-4 words. So, he hears that she wants someone who is “Country” and “uncultured” and “threatened by a strong, confident woman.” Adam says he has the perfect person for her, and sets her up with Blake Shelton. I love it when celebrities can poke a little fun at themselves, and this was so much funnier because of it. The ad makes a little fun of Stefani and Shelton’s odd couple differences, and even pokes fun at their friendship with Adam Levine. I laughed out loud at this one and look forward to watching it again.
GM: “No Way Norway”
GM has been doing a teaser the week before, telling us all that Will Ferrell hates Norway – but why? Well, we find out that it’s because Norway sells more electric cars per capita than the US. He says “I won’t stand for it”, and recruits Kenan Thompson and Awkwafina to go to Norway for an unknown reason. The joke is that they all end up in Scandinavian countries that aren’t Norway (because apparently all Americans get the countries mixed up?) It was cute and a great way to get the word out that GM is serious about electric vehicles. Also note that this was a fan favorite from friends of mine texting and DMing me during the game.
Rocket Mortgage: “Pretty Sure”
Tracy Morgan stars in this ad showing the difference between certain and “pretty sure”. Lots of funny visual gags and very entertaining. I liked this one and think it will be one of those ads we can all see many times and continue to get a laugh.
Scott’s: “Backyard of Your Dreams”
Another celebrity packed ad, with celebrities being totally OK with poking a little fun at themselves. We had Emma Lovewell from Peleton, John Travolta and his daughter doing Tik Tok dances, Martha Stewart, Kyle Busch, Leslie Baker (from the Office), all enjoying the beautiful backyard. I liked that this ad had a nice nod to the realities we’ve faced due to stay at home measures over the last year, but didn’t come out and make it about Coronavirus. I think the sweepstakes to win a backyard of your dreams really works, and answers a real consumer trend of investing in your home and outdoor space.
Toyota: “Jessica Long”
This ad told a beautiful story in a creative way. It started out by showing Jessica Long, a Paralympic swimmer in a state of strength and grace, as she effortlessly cuts through the water. You also see that she has two legs amputated below the knee. We then hear from her mother’s point of view, the story about Jessica’s adoption against a visual backdrop of Jessica winning races. Toyota’s ad is highlighting their sponsorship of Team USA, and interesting enough, you never see a car in this ad.
Jimmy John’s: “King of Cold Cuts”
As I mentioned on my social media, “If Scarface was about sandwiches” pretty much sums this ad up. Brad Garret stars in it as the King of Cold Cuts who sees his sandwich empire be taken down by Jimmy John’s, who comes in with real food at a reasonable price. It is a not so subtle swipe at Subway (mentions of turkey made by science, and a visual of a building with the company name “Almost Bread Company”. I really enjoyed this ad.
Squarespace: “5 to 9”
Dolly Parton is always a yes in my book – so I probably loved this from the second I heard the first few repetitive notes of Dolly’s “9 to 5” playing. And then you hear Dolly’s voice doing a new version of the song, called “5 to 9”. Visually, we see scenes from an office where people are in dark cubes, doing seemingly boring and repetitive tasks. The clock hits 5pm and a woman opens her laptop and starts working away on a colorful, beautiful website for her dance fitness business. She stands up and walks through the office, seeing all of her office mates’ side hustles come to life after 5pm. I think this might be my favorite ad, as it really hangs together and plays on that real insight that so many of us have passions outside of our day jobs – and gives us permission to embrace those side hustles and to turn them into our main hustles. As the new version of the song says, “Workin’ 5 to 9, you keep workin, workin, workin til your dreams come true.” The modern version of the American Dream.
Annheuser-Busch: “Let’s Grab a Beer”
This ad told many stories beautifully within a :60 second ad. I’ve been there, worked on tv ads, and that is really hard to do. It was built on a great insight – that grabbing a beer is not really about the beer, but about the moment of human connection that occurs over the beer. From a marketing standpoint, I know how hard it is to create an ad that works across multiple brands, and this was a masterful scale play by Annheuser-Busch. Well done.
Cheetos: “It wasn’t me”
This ad is getting panned by many, but I encourage those critics to watch again. Look for the Cheetos dust on the cat, on the walls, listen to Shaggy’s new version of the song, and I dare you not to laugh. While I agree that Ashton Kutcher can’t sing, I think he probably knows that too, and it’s pretty charming that he did it anyway. Mila Kunis getting busted and straight up lying to our faces – really funny. I stand by this ad as one of the best this Super Bowl. Unfortunately, I think that this ad might be a victim of the pre-release. I would wager that had this ad not been released before the game, it would be all we are talking about today. Something to keep in mind for next year.
Jeep: “The Middle”
Cinematic is the first word I can think of to describe this ad. Beautifully shot and I think the choice of Bruce Springsteen was right on – because it’s hard to get more American than The Boss. While I think the message is right, that we’ve been a country divided and that it’s time to work together to re-unite, I struggle a bit with why Jeep is the one to do it. Great message, beautifully shot, but does it sell cars? We will see.
Indeed: “The Rising”
I liked this ad. I also like that their tagline (or as I would call it in a client meeting, Brand Promise) is so simple. “We help people get jobs.” They aren’t trying to save the world – they’re trying to help people find opportunities to shine.
Amazon Alexa: “Alexa’s Body”
The ad opens on a woman who clearly is behind the design of an Alexa (showing the product beautifully.) She says, “I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful vessel for Alexa” as her eyes settle on a bus with Michael B. Jordan’s face on it. She then goes through a fantasy sequence where Michael B. Jordan becomes the voice of her Alexa, and they share some pretty flirty moments. The timing in the game couldn’t have been better. I’m originally from Kansas City and we had officially reached the point in the game where it was clear there was no way to win, and this ad provided a nice moment of levity. As I said on Instagram, “Alexa, please wrap up this terrible game with an entertaining ad”.
Paramount: “Paramount Mountain”
I really liked the idea of putting all of Paramount’s celebrities on the top of the Paramount Mountain. The ads were funny and well executed. However, I think we might have had too much of a good thing. I believe the ads would have been a little more effective had Paramount/CBS shown a bit of restraint and only put out 2-3 vs. 5 or 6 (I lost count). Check them all out here.
Tide: “Jason Alexander Hoodie”
I loved this ad. Talked about it a lot on my @amandagregorymarketer Instagram account, so check out my videos about it there. I give this a 10/10. Loved the insight, loved the execution, loved the subtle nod to Seinfeld. GREAT ad.
Other notes on Super Bowl LV Commercials:
Robinhood did a :30 ad. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was done before or after the Gamestop situation. Would love to hear more about that if anyone’s got info on that.
Interesting enough, Reddit (who is also involved in the Gamestop situation) also did an ad. They did a 5 second ad that was so full of copy, you’d need to pause the TV to read it. Curious to hear about how many folks did.
Dr. Squatch: Even my husband, who doesn’t follow ads like I do, said, “Haven’t I seen this before?” and I told him, “Yes, but it was for Dollar Shave Club 10 years ago”. Funny, but not super original.
Doritos: I can only imagine there’s a ton of pressure on the teams working on the Doritos Super Bowl ad every year – they consistently show up and entertain us at the Super Bowl. While this year’s “Flat Matthew” had Matthew McConnaghey (a celebrity, one way to a winning Super Bowl ad), and the story helped highlight a product feature, (that the product is not flat), it just, well, fell flat for me.
So, that’s all I’ve got for this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads. Did I miss any? What were your favorites? Shoot us a note and let us know.
