This article analyzes the trends and notable ads from the latest Super Bowl, focusing on the use of nostalgia, humor, and unique marketing approaches.
Marnie Shure is a writer and editor with over a decade of experience. For the past six years, she has been primarily focused on food publications, covering restaurant reviews, recipes, breaking news, fast food and grocery taste tests, industry trends, and more. She previously helmed The Takeout, a Midwest-based food website.
It should come as no surprise that the majority of this year’s Super Bowl ads aimed for silliness over sentimentality, while leaning heavily on nostalgia — both approaches are tried-and-true tactics during the Big Game. But there’s a difference between serving up a warmed-over pop culture reference and building upon that reference in a fun new way, and the ads that accomplished the latter were the best of the night. In “First Delivery,” Budweiser’s perennial Clydesdales campaign finds a new way to tug at the heartstrings: by centering the narrative on a small foal who isn’t yet big enough to ride with the other horses as they deliver kegs of beer. When a keg falls off the delivery truck, however, the little foal goes on a solo–style trek through vast expanses of American landscape that, true to Budweiser’s signature style, can only be described as “heartland of an indeterminate time period.” The foal eventually arrives at its destination, dutifully rolling the keg with its snout right up to the bar, and it’s greeted as something of a folk hero while the freshly reintroduced tagline, “This Bud’s For You,” appears on screen. The Clydesdales are the sort of IP that every brand dreams of: a visual language that primes its audience to prepare for an emotional experience. On those terms, it’s hard to argue with this latest iteration’s effectiveness. Considering that last year’s Bud Light Super Bowl spot involved a wish-granting genie and a rampaging T-Rex, this year’s ad is much more rooted in the real world; indeed, it’s literally confined to the cul-de-sac. Post Malone and Shane Gillis are recruited by the host of a boring party to come and enliven the event with their riding mower/meat smoker/tractor-trailer full of Bud Light beer. Gillis and Malone use leaf blowers like T-shirt cannons to send Bud Light cans into every neighboring household, inviting everyone to join the party. Peyton Manning makes his obligatory appearance near the end, but he’s by no means the main event — that would be the beer itself. Busch Light has chosen to split its 30-second Super Bowl allotment into two different 15-second spots, each featuring the everyman “Busch Guy” mascot as he reveals lessons from the Busch Guide full of “cold and smooth survival skills.” In one spot, hikers are taught to mark time in the wilderness by tracking the sun’s movement along the horizon, relative to a can of Busch Light. In the second spot, the Busch Guy offers navigational tips to avoid “going in circles” — advice that stings Ross Chastain, a professional NASCAR driver whose entire job depends on going in circles. The beer brand is Chastain’s primary sponsor, so the NASCAR integration is only fitting here. Luckily, Chastain also delivers his lines with the right level of indignation, making the ad a solid installment of the “survival skills” concept. Coffee-Mate has launched a new product: a dairy-free whipped cream alternative that swaps in coconut oil for heavy cream. To promote it, the brand has taken out its first-ever Super Bowl ad, “Foam Diva,” which is certainly eye-catching but not for the squeamish: The 30-second spot depicts a human tongue (which has just tasted Coffee-Mate’s new product) performing gymnastic feats and playing musical instruments for a concert arena full of roaring fans. Shania Twain provides the “voice” of the talented tongue, singing an original song called “Gimme Cold Foam.” Particularly mesmerizing, if not slightly upsetting, is when the stretchy, flexible tongue fully springs free of the mouth and does several arcing midair twists to the music. It’s the sort of ad that makes you wonder what the initial pitch meeting was like, but ultimately the message that Coffee-Mate is “a party in your mouth” comes through loud and clear. With “Slow Monday,” Coors Light takes a marketing approach with virtually guaranteed audience buy-in: cute animals doing humanlike things. A series of sloths are seen slowly answering emails, glacially pushing carts through the grocery store, and barely pedaling exercise bikes; visual gags abound, like a slow speed chase with the police. The montage encapsulates that universal sluggishness the Monday after the Super Bowl, and Coors Light is turning that day of national fatigue into a marketing opportunity by selling a literal “Case of the Mondays.” So-called Mondays Light will be an actual product available for a limited time, and the end of the ad instructs us on where to buy it. Good luck getting the song “Monday, Monday” out of your head after this
SUPER BOWL ADS ADVERTISING TRENDS MARKETING BUD LIGHT BUDWEISER COFFEE-MATE COORS LIGHT BUSCH LIGHT
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