Finding the middle

About this time every year, the entire world gets a glimpse at a handful of creative ads that make their debut at the #SuperBowl. As one of the most watched events on the planet, the Super Bowl commands upwards of $5.5 million dollars for a 30 second spot. That price tag doesn't include production which is extra. But if you have a product that someone can eat, drink, plug into the wall or drive --- there's a pretty good chance that 100 million people will know about it after it airs on Super Bowl Sunday. All you have to do is secure your company's seat at the table for the annual prime-time event.

For the creatives who work on these ads, the idea of coming up with a compelling scenario that's worthy of 100 million views is nearly unimaginable. Sure, they get to work with a big brand and there's often a handsome budget to hire film crews and Academy Award-winning actors. But at the end of the day, let's not get it twisted. They know that there is simply no margin for error when it comes to unfolding the story for something that the entire world will see from that day forward. Forever.

So imagine being in the room (online, of course) to discuss the pitch for an ad that was slated for broadcast during this year's @Super Bowl. You're with some of the brightest folks from your ad agency and you're about to meet the client. The spot is 30 seconds long and you know that the client has a product that people are undoubtedly familiar with, have purchased, and/or know someone who has it at home. You're Slacking your colleagues at all hours of the night. The Miro board is full of mock-ups and references from the brand's competitors. The client is itching to hear something amazing but insists that it's anchored with the steady stream of marketing insights plinging into your Inbox. What should they think, feel and do with the brand when they see their ad this year?

Ford and Budweiser sat this year's Super Bowl adverstising fiasco out, as the optics of ponying up millions of dollars in the midst of a hard-hitting pandemic would not be in their favor with a typical ad. 可口可乐公司 called it "a difficult choice," something it made to “ensure we are investing in the right resources during these unprecedented times.” Other brands like Little Caesars Pizza and Hyundai Motor Company (?????) followed suit, putting their ad budgets elsewhere.

And rightly so. Even if an iconic brand assembled their marketing team (as they do) and enlisted the help of some brilliant creatives (ready to rock) --- what could anyone say that would be appropriate but not boring, authentic but not sappy, memorable but not pathetic? Imagine trying to sum it all up in a brief. Forget about it. It wouldn't just be a tall order, it would be risky business in the highest order. Years if not decades of positive brand associations could turn sour and wreak with the most pungent smell in half a minute. The wrong treatment to an ad could cost the company a lot more than the fee of producing and broadcasting it after another one of Tom Brady's unfortunately-magnificent throws.

American #football fans and the families who tolerate them have weathered a whirlwind chain of events in the Capitol and pandemic-related furloughs. Like many other parts of the world, coping with disproportionate dosages of remote working/studying at home has been really tough. So the last thing these people need to be reminded of (in a 30 second spot, mind you) to order a pizza or pick up a six-pack of something. Granted, the latter may have donned the Spencerian script that I hold so dear but there aren't 5.5 million reasons why anyone should be inundated with that little tidbit of information just because the number of eyeballs is guaranteed to be in the kajillions. Enough already.

And just when I had given up on expecting anything great to be shown at this year's event, one brand cracked the code and released the most timely and profound message to ever grace the screen. It is authentic and engaging, artistic and warm. It stays on-message. It references concepts and passages from history. Perhaps most of all, it shows us that the right take away message still has a place in branding, that activation can be purposeful, and that creativity --- when wielded by wholesome intentions --- is worth 30 seconds of consideration.

Here is "The Middle" --- written and narrated by Bruce Springsteen for Jeep .

The Middle

There’s a chapel in Kansas standing on the exact center of the lower 48. It never closes.?All are more than welcome to come meet here in the middle.?It’s no secret the middle has been a hard place to get to lately. Between red and blue. Between servant and citizen.?Between our freedom and our fear. Now fear has never been the best of who we are, and as for freedom, it‘s not the property of just the fortunate few. It belongs to us all, whoever you are, wherever you’re from. It’s what connects us and we need that connection.

We need the middle.

We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground so we can get there. We can make it to the mountaintop, through the desert, And we will cross this divide. Our light has always found its way through the darkness. And there’s hope on the road up ahead.