It’s always exciting to see the creative that makes its way into Super Bowl. People don’t realize the countless hours, calls, scripts, and so on that it takes to get here. So first off, I want to congratulate everyone who was involved in any of the spots. Even the ones that didn’t make it to air.
In honor of David&Goliath’s lovable Robo Dog spot, let’s do a “Best in Show” of Super Bowl ads. As you would imagine, my favorite commercial is our Robo Dog ad we produced for Kia. Not only because of those puppy-dog eyes (shout out to House of Parliament VFX for bringing the little guy to life). But because of all the other components of the campaign.
Like Kia’s partnership with the Petfinder Foundation to help real shelter dogs find forever homes. And the AR experience kiadogmentedreality.com allows people to bring Robo Dog into their own home.
Now onto the honorees…
Best ad with a relatable product truth – Pringles “Stuck In”
Anyone who has devoured a container of Pringles all by themselves can find this spot quite relatable. I thought it was such a simple and well-executed Super Bowl spot. Each vignette had me smiling throughout. I also think that they landed on a great track. You can’t go wrong with a little Lionel Richie.
Best ad tied to a product insight/problem – Google “Seen on Pixel”
One of the most powerful commercials this year for me was the Google Pixel ad. The spot starts off stating the problem: “Historically, camera technology hasn’t accurately represented darker skin tones.” They bring the problem to the foreground and then pull you in, in the raw/humanistic way Google always does so well. The simple moves on the photography combined with Lizzo’s amazing voice make you feel so much emotion.
Best ad with celebrities – Amazon “Mind Reader”
We saw a lot of celebrity spots much like every year. Out of all of them, I thought the Amazon “Mind Reader” spot with Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost takes the cake. I thought it was a nice build from the spot last year with Michael B. Jordan which played in the “what if” camp. The comedy wasn’t broad and the art director in me really liked color treatment by Ricky Gausis from the Mill. I’m also a fan of director Wayne McClammy’s work.
Best co-branded Super Bowl ad – Doritos/Cheetos “Push it”
This is a category worth calling out because it’s a challenging ad to pull off for the big game. You have two brand attributes to consider, two clients, and somehow you need to make the creative entertaining while not letting one brand shine over the other. I’m also a big fan of ex-D&Gers Danny O’Connor and Chase Doutre.
It makes me happy to see their spot in the top five next to our Kia Robo Dog spot. Also, I would like to send a big congratulations to Jess Spaulding and the rest of the Frito-Lay team. A co-branded spot landing in the top five was no easy task.
REELated: Complete list of all our Super Bowl coverage. Enjoy!
Best ad for a crypto platform – “Larry David for FTX”
I thought this was an interesting one to talk about since we saw so many cryptocurrency commercials this year. Out of the bunch, I would say that I found “Larry David for FTX” pretty, pretty entertaining. I’m a sucker for Larry and I thought they honed in on a truth that people are dealing with right now. People are on the fence about cryptocurrency, NFTs, and so on, and this feeling of FOMO is very real.
Obviously, everyone should do their own homework and only invest if it makes sense for them. When it comes to advertising in this space, I think the best is yet to come. I wouldn’t mind working on a cryptocurrency ad for Super Bowl at David&Goliath in the near future. And yes, crypto exchanges, we accept payment in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
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That’s it for this year’s Best in Show. Which means it’s about time to start working on next year’s campaigns…
