ADS THE WAY I LIKE IT: TOP 5 AT THE SUPER BOWL 55
Talk'OH! Tuesday
Written by Glenn Javier
The 55th Super Bowl, which happened last Sunday (February 7, 2021), was the climax of the 2020 NFL season where the Kansas City Chiefs battled against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The latter team, coached by Bruce Arians, was hailed as the winner with a total score of 31. Congratulations to the Bucs!
But let's be honest. Days, hours, and even during the main event, we weren't just in it for the showdown but we also stayed for what's in-between, being glued to our screens all night long. I'm not referring to the other anticipated portions of the SB like Miley's special pre-game concert or The Halftime show headlined by The Weeknd. What I'm talking about were the commercials that got us cackling, shocked, inspired, informed, or just confused. It's time for the Ad Wars!
Super Bowl LV Commercial Stars [Left to Right] Michael B. Jordan, Mila Kunis, Timothée Chalamet, Nick Jonas; Photo from Essence, Esquire, Paper Magazine
Through the years, the Super Bowl, as one of America's biggest events, has become the mecca for huge brands to advertise their products or services. Although this year (and 2020) has been quite the rollercoaster, a lot of ads still pushed through. Here are my top 5 picks (in random order)
Cadillac
One name, Timothée Chalamet; and the crowd goes wild! Cadillac continues the story of Tim Burton’s 1990 movie "Edward Scissorhands" where Chalamet starred as Edgar Scissorhands, Edward’s son, and "Stranger Things" lead Winona Ryder reprised her role as Kim. Unfortunately, Johnny Depp who played Edward couldn't join them. Aired in the game’s fourth quarter, Edgar apparently inherited his father’s scissor hands and it came with a lot of stumbling blocks.
From being banned from the bus and unintentionally attracting magnets to popping a football and getting on his boss' nerves, Edgar was not happy until Kim introduced him to Cadillac's latest LYRIQ. The ad used Edgar’s different abilities to showcase the advantages of the LYRIQ’s Super Cruise or hands-free driving feature. It seemed to be the perfect fit for him. Watch the sequel below:
Bud Light
Lemon Drop! Not the cocktail but literally a bunch of lemons dropping from the sky. Bud Light tries to retell the year 2020, calling it a "lemon of a year" through a flashback that featured a montage of different places experiencing the citrusy forecast which resulted from one bad incident to another (i.e. a man accidentally shaved his head, a cyclist gets knocked off, and a wedding reception was interrupted).
Last year definitely made a lot of sour faces with the things that happened (and it's not just the pandemic) but it also gave us a lot of opportunities to rethink, look back and change. As for Bud Light, when life gave them [a lot of] lemons, they made Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade, hoping that people will start to associate the famous quote with their latest flavor. Take a look at the ad below:
Amazon
As one of the Winning commercials for this year according to Sporting News, Amazon's famed virtual assistant Alexa gets a very sexy reimagining when the woman in the ad thought (well, daydreamed) of amping up the AI's current vessel to a humanoid robot that looked exactly like Michael B. Jordan (well, it was him of course). Cause why not? We're not complaining. Just imagine if your ‘Alexa’ took on the form of your celebrity crush or even just a girl or guy you like.
It's like how we would usually command and ask Alexa but [in her fantasy] she made it more sexual, probably obscene, and uncomfortable if we're showing it to all the age groups. I can't blame her if that's how Alexa would look and talk. But the thing is, she's married and the husband is not happy at all. Check him... I mean check out the commercial below:
Cheetos
Cheetos puts on a Comedy Reggae music video-ish commercial for its new Crunch Pop Mix. Ashton Kutcher "sings" his investigation over the person who kept eating his stack of Cheetos [who's apparently Mila Kunis] yet Kunis just gets away with it by saying that it wasn't her though, again, it was pretty obvious. This just proves that Kutcher is definitely an actor and not a singer.
Speaking of singer, who can forget Jamaican reggae musician/singer Shaggy's appearance in the ad and how they paid homage to his catchy 2000 song It Wasn't Me, with the same vibe from the music video and the same beat, just different lyrics. Catch the #ItWasntMe commercial below:
Dexcom
Apart from the amusing ads, we also have the more serious yet fascinating ones. As someone who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 13, Nick Jonas touched on the many technological advancements in the past years and wondered why nothing has been made to monitor and manage the said metabolic disease, specifically pointing out the fact that people are still pricking their fingers on a daily basis.
Fear not because, in this commercial, Dexcom showcased its latest mobile application called the G6 which continuously tracks your blood glucose levels, without the hassle of pricking. To see what I'm talking about, click the ad below:
Not the usual?
Here's a little tidbit of information from Sporting News - and it can be perceived as good or bad. Popular brands like Pepsi, Ford, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, some of which had iconic ads in the previous SBs, won't be showing up because they want to use their money on more "important" matters such as helping ad agencies to promote Americans receiving the vaccine for coronavirus.
Well, now we know.
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