Super Bowl Sunday has traditionally been the Big Game for football teams and advertisers alike. And this past one, as… I don’t know, some team faced off against some other team, was no different. In that respect, at least. But it wasn’t entirely the same, in that it was the first Super Bowl to take place in the midst of a global pandemic, and thus both the cardboard-cutout-filled stadium and the advertiser lineup seemed just a little different.
This year saw some really great ads from fan favorites. (I have to call out Super Bowl-veteran Anheuser-Busch’s “Let’s Grab a Beer,” because if anyone can make me nostalgic for being snowed in at an airport, it’s David Fincher, Atticus Ross, and Wieden+Kennedy.) But it also saw a number of notable absences — Budweiser, Coke, Pepsi, and several other big brands sat out this year, choosing variously to save money, redirect money, or just avoid the tightrope of coming up with a showstopping ad for a sporting event during a pandemic.
In their place, however, came a lot of newcomers. More than a dozen advertisers saw sufficient business success in 2020 that they decided the $5.6 million price tag was worth it for a Super Bowl ad. Brands including Indeed (finding work), Fiverr (finding work at home), DoorDash (delivering stuff to your house), Mercari (selling your stuff), and Huggies (pooping without getting up from your chair) made their Big Game debut on Sunday.
A Super Bowl ad during a pandemic is, indeed, a narrow line to walk. It’s a sporting event, so you don’t want to be a downer, but it’s a pandemic, so you don’t want to be inconsiderate of the plight of so many. And if you’re there because, for the first time, you can afford to be, you definitely want to avoid any implication of “Thanks for a banner year, 2020!” But to their credit, all of this year’s first-time advertisers were able to make it happen. And five (or, technically, six) of them really stood out.
1. Huggies, “Welcome to the World, Baby” (Droga5)
Even I, who am as terrified of babies as babies are of me, appreciate the adorableness of a baby gleefully losing their ish on one of those baby zoomers or snoozing on the potty. (My parents have a photo of me asleep face-down in a bowl of Spaghetti-Os that you will NEVER get to see.) So this ad already had a leg up in the adorable-baby-footage area. Bring in the jaunty editing and the inclusion of babies literally born on the morning of the Super Bowl, and “Welcome to the World, Baby” is a winner, even for me.
2. Indeed, “The Rising” (72andSunny)
This one lands in second place because, in terms of general theme, it’s not all that groundbreaking — in a world full of ads trying to connect with people on the basis of struggles and hopes, it is… one of those. But it does that in a truly lovely and effective way. It features actual job seekers (with one, ahem, notable exception), which lends it a certain authenticity, and the beautiful music and editing made it a bit of a tear-jerker for me.
3. Fiverr, “Opportunity Knocks” (Publicis New York)
Here’s how much I loved Fiverr’s ad: I’m promoting a brand that’s technically trying to put me out of business, five dollars at a time. Seriously, though, someone was going to get new pop-culture phenom Four Seasons Total Landscaping in on their advertising efforts, and I loved this one.
4. Dr. Squatch (Raindrop)
It’s over-the-top, it’s absurdist, it’s mildly gender-essentialist, it’s possibly still showing the pencil lines from tracing the “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” commercials, and I love every bit of it. It’s sufficiently self-aware to sand the edges off of any qualms that might stand between me and an unqualified thumbs-up.
(Also, congrats to Raindrop Branding and Advertising, which just had its first Super Bowl spot! Great job, buddy!)
5. Tie: Vroom, “Dealership Pain” (Anomaly New York)/Chipotle, “Can a Burrito Change the World?” (Venables Bell & Partners)
“Um, Caperton,” you might be saying, “that’s an… interesting tie you’ve got there.” It is. But the two ads land in the #5 spot for essentially opposite reasons. The Vroom ad isn’t heavy on substance — “car dealership bad, contactless car sales good,” basically — but the ad is so straightforward in its melodrama that you kind of have to love it. The Chipotle ad, on the other hand, is visually beautiful and brimming with beautiful sentiments about environmental and social responsibility, and if the brand weren’t otherwise synonymous with “thing you blame if you get lower GI issues at the office,” I might see it in a different light. As it is, both ads earn a hearty, “Well, that’s an ad!”
Welcome to the Big Game big time.
Since we’re here, how could I leave out Popeye’s? I mean, no, they didn’t technically have an ad in the Super Bowl, but we have to celebrate their righteous stab at a presence via what appears to be the ad industry’s current favorite stock footage.
(A word of advice for advertisers: It might not always be a big deal, but when you’re already paying upwards of $5 million for a 30-second Super Bowl slot, you might want to go ahead and shell out a little bit more for an exclusivity buyout.)
Did any ads jump out at you, either from Super Bowl newbies or seasoned Super Bowl veterans? Was anyone else wishing to get at least a glimpse of the Budweiser Clydesdales, like, stampeding through the background of the wedding in the Bud Light Seltzer ad?
Um, me, neither. That would be weird.