The Super Bowl Rolls out Ads, both Clever and Creative

Maura Read, Staff Reporter

Every year, the Super Bowl brings excitement to watch the game, but it also brings humorous commercials that keep watchers entertained. The Super Bowl is a great opportunity for companies to promote their product in a creative and humorous way. Every year brings in new commercials that generate interest in that particular brand. This year, many commercials were appreciated for their creativity and uniqueness.

Many commercials used the technique of including famous and well-known actors in their commercials. Brands like Dunkin’ Donuts, T-Mobile, Rakuten, Pepsi, SquareSpace, Uber One, M&Ms, Hellman’s, Pringles, Doritos, PopCorners, Bud Light, and many more capitalized on celebrities that would cause everyone in the room to comment on who is featured in the commercials. Dunkin’ Donuts featured Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in their commercial early on in the Super Bowl. T-Mobile produced another highly acknowledged commercial starring John Travolta, as he reprised his Danny Zuko days in Grease, alongside Zach Braff and Donald Faison. The trio performed a clever rendition of “Summer Nights’,’ which described the benefits of T-Mobile and encouraged the audience to consider T-Mobile’s services. Pepsi also created two original commercials that had clever celebrity features and portrayed a creative way to promote their product.

The first commercial shown introduced Ben Stiller as an actor playing roles in various films. He enticed the viewers to try a Pepsi Zero Sugar to determine if he was acting or genuinely liked the drink. Similarly, Steve Martin was shown having a different emotion in each clip, and the commercial ends with him encouraging us to try the drink for ourselves and determine if his fondness for the drink was genuine. Finally, Rakuten featured Alicia Silverstone playing her role as Cher Horowitz in Clueless while talking about the benefits of Rakuten. This was a clever way to promote their product and generate public excitement when they see a familiar face.

Another genre of commercials are those that appeal to the viewers’ feelings of happiness, compassion, humor, and motivation. Rémy Martin, Temu, General Motors & Netflix, Turbotax, Google Pixel, Jeep, The Farmer’s Dog, Kia, Planter’s Nuts, Amazon, Ram, Tubi, and Vrbo created ads that specifically appeal to the emotions of the viewers and how the commercial left the viewers feeling. The Farmer’s Dog and Ram were two brands that used dogs as a way to warm the hearts of viewers and make a lasting impression on the audience. The two commercials focused on the developing life of families and how dogs fit into that picture. Both commercials left viewers with a heartwarming feeling that is very hard to duplicate and generated interest in the product being promoted.

Humorous commercials also tended to be the effective and entertaining. The commercial for Kia cars was very original and entertained many people. It depicted a father racing home to find his baby’s binky and added a clever detail where the people on the roads and the people he passed all got out of the way and helped him get home quickly. Families across
the country could relate to the panic of the father trying to find his baby’s binky, and the commercial had many humor- ous aspects that made it one of the most acknowledged Super Bowl commercials. Kia also established itself as a brand that serves the family and can be trusted amid panic. This was an effective advertisement to market the brands’ goals and charac- teristics. Many brands like the ones listed above pulled emotions and fervor sur- rounding their commercials and brought genuine interest to their brand through clever marketing techniques.