Super Bowl Ad Predictions for 2016

Now that the Super Bowl is past us and we have 364 more days (give or take) until the next one, I thought I'd share some predictions for next year's ads:

• A brand will create a 20-year throwback ad featuring Steve Winwood & Higher Love:
• Politically charged ads about red and blue states
• Advertisers will flip on dadvertising and try to focus on momvertising, because MOM!
• More pharma brands will advertise with their illustrated grossness
• Ads will feature less children dying
• An internet star will show some skin
• There will be slapstick humor - someone will fall down/get punched/get hurt
• Lettuce growers decide to do a :90 ad
• Ads will try to find the funny again and leave the heartstrings alone (except maybe Budweiser, if they bring that un-aging puppy back again)
• The Olsen twins will show up in a car ad
• Technology will show us how disabled people can achieve anything

Winners, Losers of Super Bowl Ads 2015

My review of winners, losers and runner's up.
WINNERS:

Budweiser Lost Dog
Snickers The Brady Bunch
Loctite Glue

FAILS:
Absentee dads from Nissanand dads that are there from Toyota.

Dead children from Nationwide.

Disabled achievers from Microsoft and Toyota with Purdy.

Screaming goats from Discover Card and Sprint.

Nothing topped the Nationwide dead kid ad though..

RUNNER'S UP:
T-Mobile - Sarah Silverman & Chelsea Handler

Supercell/Clash of Clans with Leslie Neeson and a Taken spoof.

Always #likeagirl

Kia Sorento with Pierce Brosnan.


See all the Super Bowl ads from 2015 here: http://adland.tv/superbowlads/2015-super-bowl-xlix-commercials

Super Bowl ad fumbles and themes

+ Last nights Super Bowl was a blow out, at least in terms of the game. The ads? Not so much. Some shared themes and tactics by brands came through.

Bears

A good 'ol Super Bowl creative standby...bears. Nearly as expected as dogs these days.

• Chobani
• Beats Music
• CarMax

Borrowed Interest

Rather than focusing on their own unique points, brands have piggybacked on other things. Not like it's new this year though.

• Bank of America with U2 and RED
• Chrysler and Bob Dylan
• T-Mobile - Tim Tebow - the only upside on this one is that it was at least connected to the celebrity in some way. But the thought of him as an OBGyn increases the creepy factor.
• SodaStream and Scarlett Johansson
• Toyota and Muppets
• Kia and The Matrix
• Okios and Full House
• Microsoft
• Honda and Bruce Willis

America & Patriotism

Nothing's more American than football and the Super Bowl so these brands felt it was the perfect place to tout their ties to the American spirit. Strategy was showing through a bit much on some of these.

• WeatherTech made in America
• Coca-Cola America The Beautiful
• Chrysler and Bob Dylan with the opening line "Is there anything more American than America?" Sounds like it came straight out of the brief.

Attempts at Epic Copywriting

Anthemic spots are nothing new to the Super Bowl. In fact there have been some decent ones in years past.

• Jeep - Restless

Are you among the restless many? Each tick of the old clock a reminder, that stillness is what actually kills us. When the walls close in, do you climb out? When the road ends, do you go on? Restlessness starts with an itch. And ends in progress. It is your ambition refusing to be bottled up. Begging for a little blue sky time. Genetics have a voice that you can only deny so long. They scream GO. RUN. ACT. FIND. DARE. Where you go when you have the itch is free will. How you get there, is why we made the new Cherokee.

• Chrysler - Bob Dylan

Is there anything more American than America? 'Cause you can't import original. You can't fake true cool. You can't duplicate legacy. Because what Detroit created was the first and became the inspiration to the rest of the world. Yeah, Detroit made cars and cars made America. Making the best, making the finest takes conviction. And you can't import the heart and soul of every man and woman working on the line. You can search the world over for the finer things. But you won't find a match for the American road and the creatures that live on it. Because we believe in the zoom and the roar and the thrust. And when it's made here, it's made with the one thing you can't import from anywhere else. American Pride. So let Germany brew your beer. Let Switzerland make your watch. Let Asia make your phone. We will build your car.

• Maserati

The world is full of giants. We have always been here. Lumbering in the school yards. Limping through the alleys. We had to learn how to deal with them. How to overcome them. We were small, but fast. Remember? We were like a wind, appearing out of nowhere. We knew that being clever was more important than being the biggest kid in the neighborhood. As long as we keep our heads down, as long as we work hard, trust what we feel in our guts, our hearts. Then we're ready! We wait until they get sleepy, wait until they get so big they can barely move. Then we walk out of the shadows. Quietly walk of the dark. And strike.

• Microsoft - Empowering

What is technology? What can it do? How far can we go? Technology has the power to unite us. It inspires us. Technology has taken us places we've only dreamed. It gives hope to the hopeless. And it has given voice to the voiceless.

Most uncomfortable ads of the evening

Title says it all.

• Butterfinger encouraging threesomes
• Okios with Bob Saget getting familiar with John Stamos

Brands that could have spent money better

It seems a lot of brands decided on the PR strategy of having an ad in the Super Bowl vs. actually doing a Super Bowl-worthy spot. Which is a pity because it's really a waste of dollars that could have been spent more wisely and creatively.

• Budweiser new bottle spot
• WeatherTech
• Squarespace
• Sonos
• Beats Music

This and That: 01.29.12

+ Super Bowl XLVI is coming up next weekend. If you want a sneak peek at what you will see, check out the Super Bowl Commercial Spoiler Alert for 2012 that I've put together. Quite a few ads are already "released" to the world, with a good number of teasers as well. Still a few keeping mum, like FedEx (although I double they'll top my all-time fave of theirs, Apology.) Do check Adland leading up to the big ad game, as we'll be posting updates as we go.

+ This past week, JC Penney launched a new logo and campaign from Mother which are part of a major brand overhaul planned by Apple exec turned JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson. Perhaps it's just me (although from the twittersphere it doesn't seem like it), but I think it's horrid. Looks like it was designed in Powerpoint. And the other elements for it look like they are trying to be Old Navy. C'mon. Where's the creativity? I get that it's quite different from where JCP was before, but isn't not the most amazing work overall. Maybe they can call GAP and commiserate together. Sorry Mother. And just because Johnson was at Apple, that doesn't make him infallible either.

Super Bowl 45 - The Good & Bad Ads

+ I've posted a detailed review of all the Super Bowl ads over at Adland.tv. But I wanted to post a couple thoughts here on a few things that I started to touch on there.

I did an experiment this year which was to avoid as much of the hype pre-game as I could about the ads. For the past 8 years or so, I've been doing the Super Bowl Ad Spoiler for Adland.tv, and I wanted to see if not knowing what was coming would make the ads more special, more inspiring. Sadly, that didn't seem to be the case. And this year, it seemed like even more ads and teasers were pushed out to try to build PR buzz ahead of the airing.

For me, personally, here is a look at the ads that stood out or flopped, and why.

The Good:
Coca Cola - Border Guards

Coke / Coca-Cola - Border Guards (2011) :60 (USA)

This had a great tie to the Open Happiness tag. Simple. No words needed. Yet, it felt epic. Sure, there is another ad that this is either a brain-sync of or a rip-off, but even still, in a sea of crap, it stood out with its humanity among the frat boy crap from other brands.

Silverado - Tommy

Chevy - Tommy (2011) :30 (USA)

I really liked this spot. Although I don't think many seemed to remember it. It had a nice epic tale that demonstrated the reliability of the truck. It was fun and funny without needing to put naked women in it, denigrate anyone, harm anyone...and it was shot well too.

Chrysler - Detroit

Chrysler - Eminem / Imported from Detroit - (2011)

Eminem's best spot of the night, and most relevant as well. Chrysler used a celebrity that is the darling of Detroit and it worked. There was nothing fake of how they portrayed the city that has been through the wringer. It was gritty, but it was uplifting. It was real. And, it worked. Especially in comparison to the BMW x3 "Made in America" spot.

The Bad:
Chevy Cruize Eco - Misunderstanding

Chevy Cruze - Eco / Misunderstanding (2011)

This has to be the worst ageist ad I've seen in a long time. It's horrible. Way to insult an entire demographic. I mean, I guess they figure people who are old or have trouble hearing are not going to be driving their cars, but I was very disgusted that this ad made it to air. How is it funny to make fun of people whose bodies are not functioning at full capacity? I don't get it. Massive fail here. There were so many other options of ways to show someone not "hearing" what was said and in a funny way, without going down this path.

Go Daddy - New Girl/Joan Rivers

GoDaddy - Godday .CO girl / Joan Rivers - (2011)

More crap from a brand you can count on for shitty Super Bowl ads. Yup. This was just horrifying...I didn't need to see it. I think that e-Trade and GoDaddy should both have their ad budgets cut for repeatedly forcing awful crap year after year on the public.

GroupOn - Tibet

Groupon - Tibet (2011) :30 (USA)

This was a total fail. The fact that the company was trying to actually tie to charitable causes by making fun of them did not come through at all in this spot. Some might say that it was part of the PR plan from CP+B, and some might say it was just a piece of crap, done poorly. Why? Because obviously what they were trying to communicate wasn't communicated. Just terrible. The funniest thing was that as I was tweeting about the spots and made a comment about this bad boy, someone tweeted to me that they thought I missed the point. Um...no I didn't miss it...they didn't put it in. Harsh way to get in on the game GroupOn, but hopefully you've learned your lesson.

Now, these are just my opinions. But, what I find even more interesting is that depending on which poll you look at for post-game response for favorite ads from the masses, you get a different winner. That should say something to us. There's a hidden nugget of truth and information there that should be leveraged in some way as we move forward.

I say, enough of the stereotypical and expected with animals, celebrities (both A and B-list folks), guys getting hurt, guys being stupid. Don't we think it's time to get past this crap and move on to using some new tactics? I do.

Avoiding Super Bowl Ad News

+ Over the past 7-8 years, I've done a comprehensive reporting/listing of what ads you can expect to see on air during the Super Bowl. The longer I have done that, the more I have been less impressed and more disappointed in the advertising...either the basic idea or the execution. So, I want to try something different this year. Sort of as a test.

For Super Bowl 2011, I'm going to actively AVOID any news about the which advertisers will be buying up space in the "big show". I'm sure that they are close to having all ad slots filled by now.

I'm hoping that this will leave more surprise to the spots. Allowing me to see if it really is the work that's gone downhill over the last few years or if my perception has been thrown off by knowing so much of what was coming ahead of time.

I do have a feeling that it is probably a combination of the two things but, we shall see.

Watch Super Bowl Ads All Weekend

+ Want to get prepped for the upcoming Super Bowl ad fest? Well then, stop reading this drivel and get yourself to Adland!

We're talking 36 YEARS folks. I this FedEx spot, ""We Apologize" aired 1998 and is probably one of my all-time favorites.

Go on, whet your appetite for advertising.