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Among the many celebrity-filled Super Bowl commercials, the one that stood out was Ben Affleck's sequel spot for Dunkin' for lampshading how absurd it was, according to AB&C Chief Creative Officer Steve Merino. | PHOTO COURTESY OF DUNKIN.[/caption]
WILMINGTON — With a price tag of $7 million for 30 seconds of advertisement time, viewers received more flash than substance when it came to the advertisements during what turned out to be one of the most thrilling Super Bowls in recent times, according to one local advertising director.
Steve Merino, the award-winning chief creative officer of Wilmington-based ad firm Aloysius Butler & Clark (AB&C), said this year’s spots continued an unwelcome trend: they were “ho hum.”
“I know people have been saying for years they’re less interesting and more impactful, and I do think a big part of that is a trend you’re seeing is more news about the ads beforehand,” Merino told the Delaware Business Times. “You lose a bit of the magic that you get from seeing them for the first time.”
Early projections place viewership of Super Bowl LVIII between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs at 120 million, and stakes are high to create memorable ad campaigns. But like last year, Merino noted that several TV spots had celebrities, from Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman riding dragons in Mountain Dew's Baja Blast promotion to Uber Eats with Jennifer Aniston, rapper Jelly Roll and David and Victoria Beckham.
“Twenty years ago, when Cindy Crawford did a Pepsi ad, that was a big deal. Now, those are just table stakes,” Merino said. “What makes a great advertisement is something that can just stand out in the moment. It’s hard to feel that way when every ad has 10 to 12 celebrities. If you’re paying attention to who’s in the ad and not what they’re saying, it’s not effective.”
One prime example he pointed to were the four advertising spots bought by the CoStar Group that owns Homes.com and Apartments.com. The advertisements had Dan Levy and Heidi Gardner smash into an office high-rise with a comically large champagne bottle, while Jeff Goldbum negotiated with aliens.
“That’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s four commercials with the same plotline. They spent more than $30 million on a campaign that I’d describe as not very effective,” Merino said.
The one star-studded advertisement that did work was actor Ben Affleck’s Dunkin’ ad, serving as a sequel to last year’s where he worked at a Boston store. This time, Affleck interrupted his wife Jennifer Lopez’s recording session to introduce his boy band “DunKings,” with actor Matt Damon and quarterback Tom Brady.
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AB&C Chief Creative Officer Steve Merino said simplicity shone this year, like in the quick, silly message of the new Reese's caramel cup. | PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HERSHEY COMPANY[/caption]
“That was so bizarre, you felt they were all in on the joke. Like, ‘why am I in the commercial? Isn’t this absurd?’ It was so self-aware it made it funny,” he said.
The top advertisement of the night for Merino was the Reese’s Big Cup Caramel spot. In 30 seconds, a voiceover provides bait-and-switch about big changes to the candy, intercut with shots of a family reacting in over-the-top ways to the news.
“It’s such a simple idea — and silly. It didn’t need any celebrities because it was just a good idea,” he said.
Other favorites for the AB&C advertising executive was the Kia EV9 “perfect 10” promotion, where a little girl does her ice skating routine for her grandfather, once again leaning to simplicity to get the message across.
Among the advertisements that fell flat was the E*Trade Baby spot, leaning on re-introducing an old novelty of a talking baby. Chinese-backed online shopping platform Temu bought many spots to have an animated woman turn items into Temu products with a magic wand.
But Merino also takes the Super Bowl advertisements as a way to gauge America’s mood — and sometimes how businesses can capitalize on it. Unlike previous years where cryptocurrency dominated the screen or electric vehicles, Merino was struck by spots on online betting, cybersecurity and even artificial intelligence weighed in on the advertisement
“Two years ago, no one would even talk about those things on such a large scale,” Merino said.
This year, Delaware region businesses and institutions got into the game. Wilmington University and Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board were among those featured — and Merino said that those spots cost in the upper $300,000 range. Last year, when the Philadelphia Eagles had a disappointing loss to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, the regional ad buys for the Philadelphia market were around $500,000.
Of course, even the Taylor Swift effect came into play when it came into the ads. That included ads from Dove on retaining girls in athletics, E.l.f. Cosmetics riffing on shows like “Judge Judy” and “Suits” and Michael Cera’s absurdist take for CeraVe.
“Now, you have the ability to draw a younger, female audience. When have you ever seen a cosmetics ad during the Super Bowl? The fact that those brands were in the mix definitely shows theTaylor Swift effect on sort of what's happening in both business and society,” Merino said.
