Super Bowl Ads That Stole The Show

Super Bowl Sunday is a VERY big day in the Hower household. For me, it’s actually the perfect pairing as a football fanatic and advertising addict to be able to watch 4 hours of what should be the best game of the season, coupled with what should be best-in-class marketing during the commercials.

Now the football game left a lot to be desired given the Eagles absolutely dominated the Chiefs, but for this week’s POWER Plays, I wanted to focus on which companies I felt stole the show.

Here’s a breakdown of my personal three favorite Super Bowl ads:

• Little Caesars “Whoa!” Commercial? - This one was simply a fun one for me. The commercial focused on Little Caesars’ Crazy Puffs being so good that renowned actor Eugene Levy’s bushy eyebrows couldn’t handle it and just flew right off his face. It was a clever concept, but it also got me thinking about when the most advantageous time is for companies to run their Super Bowl commercial. It begs the question, do you want to have your spot placed right up front, or during crunch time late in the game, etc. This one for Little Caesars was published in the earlier portion of the game right after kickoff. In my opinion, this timing was optimal given everyone’s most excited about the game and energized to also thoroughly pay attention to the commercials. So pairing up the prime timing with a creative and cute commercial like Little Caesars put together here really resonated with me.
• Michelob ULTRA “The ULTRA Hustle” Commercial - Michelob ULTRA did a fantastic job at piggybacking off of one of the highest trending sports in America right now - pickleball. I would categorize Michelob ULTRA as one of the trendiest beers as well in recent years, as they have seemingly taken over a large portion of the market share for individuals who have an aptitude for athletics / fitness. So for their team to lean into that and pair it with another top grossing activity in their target space, pickleball, was a brilliant move. Let me take this even a step further in highlighting just how trendy this marketing team was! The commercial also weaves in an element of betting where actors Willem Dafoe, Catherine O’Hara compete against younger pairs with the winners ultimately taking home the Michelob ULTRA. With the rise and legalization of sports betting growing across the country, you have to give kudos to the strategy integrating another extremely popular and trendy activity in this sports / athletics vertical all in one 60 second spot. It was the perfect storm for their target demographic.
• Lay’s “The Little Farmer” Commercial - Last, but definitely not least, as this was probably my personal favorite ad spot of the night, was the heartwarming Lay’s commercial. I feel confident in saying that this was a commercial in which everybody watching the game stopped and was fully immersed in the story of this little girl that was doing everything in her power to make sure her one little potato grew. It tugged at the heart strings while adding in perfect mini elements of humor. The little girl was a star that for the entire 60 second spot, everybody was rooting for. I liked the way that the Lay‘s team used the storytelling strategy to push hard towards their focus on the natural aspect of their potato chips. Yes, I understand that you can’t call potato chips natural / healthy by any means, but utilizing a sentimental story like this and showing the growth journey definitely helped their cause. In my mind, the heartwarming touch here helped break down the barrier set for junk food, even just for a moment thanks to The Little Farmer.

Thanks for turning in to this week‘s edition of my personal POWER Plays of the Week. To take this subject a step further, I’d love to hear from you all regarding which Super Bowl commercials were your favorite.

Let me know in the comments below, and have a POWERful week!?