From Arnold Schwarzenegger as Zeus to getting stuck into Pringles, Havas’ Dan Lucey and Myra Nussbaum share their thoughts with Reel 360 on Super Bowl 2022’s creative efforts.
Dan Lucey, Chief Creative Officer – Havas New York
Wall-to-wall commercials with celebrities end up canceling each other out. This was once again the case in Super Bowl LVI. Even when the spots are done well and packed full of spicy jokes, they end up blending in.
This became apparent with the Uber Eats commercial where Gwyneth eats her vagina candle, or in the Amazon Alexa ad starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost, where Colin jokes of faking his own death. These are funny commercials and in any other circumstance would prove ultra buzzworthy.
Instead, I found myself drawn to Coinbase’s oversimplified QR code bouncing off the walls of the TV screen like some vintage Atari game. It was at this moment, I started to question my own taste in ads. Was this really going to be the best spot of the night? It was for sure the only ad that quieted the Super Bowl Party I was at and had people putting down their beers and moving towards the screen to scan a QR code.
My party was not the only one that scanned the code. Coinbase’s app crashed due to excess traffic, proving people are starved for something less familiar, different. So yes, I’m really picking Coinbase, less talk more Bitcoin, as the best ad of the night. Although, they could have, and probably should have added some more personality to the landing page the QR code took us too, offering us more than free Bitcoin.
Second Best ad was the new Chevy Silverado EV. This :60 commercial recreated the Sopranos opening shot for shot, but instead of Tony driving, it was his daughter Meadow. The spot was full of Easter eggs that the hardcore Sopranos fans are having a field day with.
Does this mean Meadow and AJ were not killed in the controversial series finally? Could one even suppose Meadow is now in charge of the family? These are just some of the questions that are lighting up the internet. For $14 million dollars your goal is to get people talking about your ad long after the game is over. This spot achieves just that.
Honorable mention: Pringle’s, Stuck in. It was funny, built on a silly truth, at least for me, and didn’t try too hard. It also stood out for lack of celebs.
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Myra Nussbaum, President & Chief Creative Officer – Havas Chicago
As usual, it was a star-studded advertising event. Some of my favorite faces showed up across the board with Salma, Buschemi, Idris Elba, ScarJo, Andre3000, Zendaya, Rudd, Rogan and so many more. Overall the spots were easy breezy and stayed far away from making any political statements.
As we come to the end (knocks wood) of a 2-year pandemic I think brands and agencies just wanted to give us a digestible dose of celebrity-fueled humor and that they did.
My favorite of the night was FTX. I know I’m not the only one that has a bit of trepidation when it comes to cryptocurrency and this spot was aimed at us. They made a brilliant casting move to align us with none other than Larry David, the most cynical and humorous comedian of our time.
While other cryptos of the night gave us QR codes and bad CG, this spot encouraged us to be brave and believe that human ingenuity will always succeed. And the line “Don’t Be Like Larry” will be ringing in my ears every time I worry about investing in the wild west of crypto. I also appreciate that they didn’t reveal the Larry spot until tonight, instead focusing on their Twitter stunt of giving away 7.54 in bitcoin which I entered along with over a hundred thousand other Super Bowl fans.
Other standouts for me were in the electric vehicle category which dominated the night. Hera (Salma Hayek Pinault) cheering up Zeus (Arnold Schwarzenegger) with a new BMW iX is marriage comedy at its best. GM’s Silverado EV, “New Generation” featuring the Soprano kids brought back all the feels for that amazing series.
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We want to thank Havas for sharing Dan and Myra’s opinions with Reel 360.
