Sunday night was for winners. Not just the Kansas Chiefs, but also Taylor Swift, Usher and all the stars he brought out to commemorate his halftime show for the culture.?
- For the first time in history, 50% of Super Bowl viewers were women.?
- Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce together now have 3 Super Bowls, 4 AFC Championships and the most postseason TDs ever.
- Kansas City kicker Harrison Butker kicked the longest field goal in the third quarter at 57-yards?
- With the game going 4 quarters and nearly the entire 15 minute overtime, it was the 7th longest game in all of NFL’s history at 74 minutes and 57 seconds.?
- A 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Vegas, Taylor Swift, girlfriend of Kelce, was featured on the Super Bowl broadcast 54/55 seconds in total.?
When I used to teach at Indiana University, I always had a Super Bowl assignment. The course was about sport marketing and so it was fitting to talk through the commercials that make the event even more iconic to those that are football fans and those that are passive fans.?
To age myself, the last time I taught this course and assigned their project for my students, the price tag for a thirty second commercial spot was $3 million dollars. This year it was reported that it was a whopping $7 million for a 30 second ad during the coveted 4 plus hour broadcast.?
So in the world of marketing and advertising, I love looking at those commercials that felt worth the money (I guess) to the fans watching the game.?
Some of the commercials that I thought were the “Best” of the night;?
- State Farm: I am a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger as an actor and I think that this commercial was hilarious. The joke around his pronunciation of “neighbor” was actually funny and being a huge fan of the 1988 movie, Twins, Danny DeVito’s cameo was perfect and nostalgic. For me it tied together the current times of the popular State Farm marketing campaigns with the history of Arnold and DeVito as brothers separated at birth.?
- Verizon: I am a huge Beyonce fan and she can do no (rarely) wrong. The ad flipped the ten (ish) year anniversary of Yonce’s breaking the internet with her secret digital drop of being in pursuit of breaking the internet with everything that she does. Love it. Then she actually dropped two country singles. Classic Beyonce!
- CeraVe: I think that Michael Cera is hilarious. I loved the character that he played on the box office smash hit Barbie and this felt like a continuation of his awkwardness. Laughed out loud about the lotion ad.?
- Google: One of the more touching ads of the night goes to Google for me. Promoting the phone with a user that was vision impaired capturing selfies that looked blurry and then when they were snapped, full of color and life. Ending on a photo of a love and the birth of a first child.?
- Honorable Mentions: The Dove Ad, the Kia EV9 Ad, the Hellman’s Ad, and I am kinda on the fence about the Dunkings Dunkin Ad.? My favorite part of the Dunkings was “Touchdown Tommy” (Tom Brady) on the 1s and 2s. I can’t.?
I love the Super Bowl and I was cheering for the Kansas City Chiefs to win it all! What was your favorite part or ad or halftime show surprise for the Super Bowl LVIII? What were your top commercials from the night? Can’t lie, the commercials as a whole weren’t that bad this year, if you eliminate the several Temu ads!?
I was stunned by how much Tony Romo has lost the thread. He’s gone from being the most insightful game analyst to being the most loquacious. I mean, he just wouldn’t shut up!