Hyperbole 2016 – Fourth Quarter
For the last nine years, we’ve divided up the Super Bowl and taken a look at the best and worst executions on the world’s largest/most expensive ad stage. And this year, the Hyperbole tradition continues, wrapping things up with our closer, Media Maven Lauren Jones.
Here we are, in the 4th quarter, full of buffalo flavored everything and light lager beer (Merica!). And so begins the end of the adult version of Christmas morning…
With Super Bowl’s golden anniversary bringing in $5 million a pop for a :30 spot it’s no surprise to anyone the ads are just as big as the game, or so us loving fans expect them to be. We were all looking to be blown away and clearly that was just too tall of an order.
Now considering that $5 mil is only for media placement alone… these advertisers are all in with celebrity endorsement fees, production costs, etc and I can’t help shedding a tear for all those wasted dollars. I’m feeling rather bored. That puppy bowl is looking pretty damn good right about now.
Although nothing rings in as super memorable, after last year’s commercials making it feel more like the somber bowl I’m happy to see advertisers picking it up a bit. Here are a few of my front runners (since there’s no ‘none of the above option’):
- Jeep celebrating their 75th anniversary gave us two different approaches this game Portraits and 4×4. Although the theme was somewhat expected following 2015’s ‘this land is your land’ ad, I still enjoyed the underlying patriotism, history and beautiful landscapes.
- TMobile killing it twice with both Steve Harvey and Drake. All these other commercials need to #ballogize
- Only Helen Mirren could pull off the dry humor that pulled me into that anti drunk driving Budweiser commercial. Don’t get me wrong I certainly miss those sweet little pups and iconic clydesdales but I can get behind the reality of the message on this one. Simple, witty, well done.
Honorable mention:
– Not a favorite but needed to be mentioned. Colgate’s first ever Super Bowl ad and instead of selling us toothpaste they send us a PSA to turn off the faucet. Interesting. #ColgateCares
In closing, the obvious theme for the night was branding with celebrities. We saw everyone from Weezy, Goldblum, Ryan Reynolds, Steve Harvey, Amy Schumer, Seth Rogen, Missy Elliot, Liam Neeson, Drake – the list goes on and on. The only thing I found more underwhelming than the #SB50 ads was the football itself. I can only hope next year brings more excitement and definitely more Goldblum. Just please, no more puppymonkeybaby.
Well, that wraps it up for Super Bowl 50. It’s been real and I hope all of you out there are satisfied with this year’s champion (SPOILER ALERT) – the Denver Broncos. As for me, cheers to my Bengals making it to SB51!
