Superbowl adverts are the premier league in the television advertising game over in the States. So, we thought we’d throw the spotlight on some of the all-time greats.
The Superbowl – as you probably know – is the “Cup Final” of that thing Americans wrongly call “football”. (What? What?)
It has, until quite recently, been a uniquely American event that wasn’t even carried by British broadcasters. But now, thanks to international streaming services, interest in the event has been growing over here in the land of proper football.
A Superbowl is typically watched by over 100 million Americans … That’s almost one in three pairs of American eyeballs all watching the same ad breaks at the same time! Consequently, those ads are the most expensive piece of advertising real estate of the whole year. A single thirty-second spot costs a whopping $6.5 million (and rising by roughly half a million a year).
Consumers and cultural commentators look forward to the new Superbowl adverts with the keen anticipation that we, in Britain, reserve almost exclusively for John Lewis’ Christmas ads. This is because Superbowl adverts have set an especially high creative bar – featuring some of the best-written and most star-studded ads ever produced.
And, an added attraction is the one-upmanship between mega-businesses as they compete to get the biggest movie stars to appear in the highest concept adverts for, presumably, the biggest pay-checks.
The contest on the field might be the main attraction, but the war being waged in the ad breaks is every bit as interesting!
We’re going to reel-off the Superbowl adverts which we think are ones for the ages – but, first, let’s look at a few of this year’s star players:
So, let’s kick-off our selection of Fantastic Superbowl Adverts from 2023:
Bud Light – “Hold”
Agency: Anomaly
Miles Teller continues in his arc to A-list movie-stardom with this slice-of-life from Bud Light. Being put on hold for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages is something we all experience from time to time, here’s how to make the most of it.
General Motors / Netflix – “Why Not an EV?”
Agency: Majority
This spot suggests Will Ferrell has been taking notes from his mate, Ryan Reynolds – who is the maestro of selling two things at once. But it makes sense for corporations to partner up. GM gets to play with Netflix’s sexy IP and Netflix gets a much-needed cash injection.
Pepsi Zero – “Great Acting or Great Taste?”
Agency: Vayner Media
Oh, so that’s what Ben Stiller is doing these days. (I think 2017 was the last time I saw him in a film). This is part of a campaign featuring actors revisiting their hits – one of the other ads that debuted at the Superbowl featured Steve Martin. The schtick is that they’re telling you they really like the product – or are they just acting? Y’know, like in every other advert ever.
Pop Corners – “Breaking Good”
In-house Agency: D3
But 2023’s champion ad – which is in a different league from all the others we’ve looked at from this year – brings together the stars of ‘Breaking Bad’ and Vince Gilligan, the show’s creator, as the advert’s director, in a really clever, simple and well-written way. Superbowl adverts, yo!
I think that ad may make its way into the pantheon of all-time great Superbowl adverts – where it’ll be mentioned in the same breath as such luminaries as …
#5: Apple – “1984”
Agency: Chiat\Day
Year: 1984
Directed by one-man movie studio, Ridley Scott, coming off the back of his joint masterpieces, ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner’; this spot has all the production values of a feature film – packed into a tidy 60 seconds.
It was one of the earliest examples of a genuinely disruptive commercial!
The received wisdom with ads (than, as now, regrettably) is that repetition builds response – which is why poorly-conceived PPI and Payday Loan ads are pumped out at you from every channel, in every ad break. But Apple’s ‘1984’ ran just once. One and done!
In the days before Tivo and YouTube, this elusiveness made it seem more fascinating, and resulted in it becoming a real talking point.
The ad broke many more golden rules of advertising. It wasn’t relentlessly cheerful and didn’t feature a pack shot; it didn’t even show someone using the product. Instead, it was about the dangers of conformity, of becoming slaves to boring business computers. Two days after the Superbowl broadcast, the Apple Macintosh was released – an exciting and definitely non-conformist computer.
For the 40th anniversary of the Superbowl, this was voted the Best Superbowl Ad Ever. Almost 40 years on, it’s still a masterpiece – but we’re putting it a number 5 in our countdown!
#4: Budweiser – “Wassup”
Agency: DDB Chicago
Year: 2000
What may be considered the first Superbowl commercial of the modern age – aired in 2000. This was the first ad to generate what we now call ‘memes’.
It was inspired by a short film, directed by pop-music-video-maker, Charles Stone (which featured Stone and his real-life friends simply saying “Wassup” to each-other). Stone was hired by DDB to repeat the formula with added Budweiser. The simple, repetitive and easy-to-emulate catchphrase caught on immediately.
As proof of its adoption into wider culture, the catchphrase was featured in ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Friends’ and ‘The Office’ – and it still hasn’t gone away, re-appearing in 2018’s film ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’.
#3: Hulu – “Alec in Huluwood”
Agency: CP+B
Year: 2009
The confluence of internet and television has been building over the last decade, with the massive inflation of broadband speeds. Streaming is now the de facto way a lot us see our movies. But, back in the noughties, the notion of ‘streaming’ was still relatively novel. Hulu and Netflix had only committed to the notion in 2007.
While Netflix might be considered industry leader (although that position is far from secure given the controversy around password sharing and the alternative suppliers now available), it was anybody’s game back then, and Hulu were front and centre with this statement of intent.
Alec Baldwin (at the height of his ’30 Rock’ bankability – and in-between controversies), a good script and movie-quality special effects combined into an ad which, rather boldly, plays as a public information film warning against watching streaming TV. “There’s nothing you can do to stop it.” It’s very bold. And true.
#2: Volkswagen – “The Force”
Agency: Deutsch
Year: 2011
This commercial took the world by storm, after its Superbowl debut. It is notable, particularly, because it was a rare example of Lucasfilm licensing their IPs (namely, the music and the likeness of Darth Vader) for something that wasn’t directly promoting ‘Star Wars’.
It was the first major ad to be released online before the Superbowl, and has been rewarded by being recognised as The Most-Shared Superbowl commercial ever (at over 5 million shares).
This is why the big-ticket ads are now ‘leaked’ in the week-long run-up to the big game, to get those cooler conversations started early.
As such, it constituted a new hope for Superbowl adverts.
#1: Tourism Australia – “Dundee”
Agency: Droga5
Year: 2018
Some advertisers now release movie-style teaser trailers in the week before the Superbowl, pre-empting their ads and building up some eager anticipation.
All of which nicely leads us to a campaign from 2018, which played the game brilliantly:
Advertisers are a canny breed and this has never been more apparent than in the strategy that ex-pat Aussie David Droga’s team came up with for Tourism Australia.
This campaign weaponised the teaser-trailer run-up to the Superbowl, with a star-studded trailer for a new Crocodile Dundee film: ‘Dundee – The Son of a Legend’. A frisson of excitement travelled around the net like – well, like a viral meme.
Then the campaign’s meta-textual masterstroke came during the Superbowl: They played a different trailer in which Danny McBride – the putative star of the film – gradually realised, along with the viewers, that this isn’t a movie trailer at all, but an advert of Tourism Australia.
So, What Do You Think?
There it is, then, my top five Superbowl adverts ever. Disagree? Good! What cunning, disruptive, meme-inducing commercials do you think I’ve missed, from the Superbowl’s 57-year history? Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter with links to the Superbowl stars we left off the field.
Let’s share and enjoy.
