She's Busy AF

EP 129 | The best & worst of the 2024 SuperBowl commercial campaigns & what brands can learn: a marketing team’s POV

• Lauren Loreto

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Our “SuperBowl” as marketers? The commercials for the SuperBowl. In this episode, Lauren brings on two of her team members: Mack (BGT's Marketing Manager) and Hannah (BGT's Content Manager) to go through the best and the worst of the SuperBowl ads from 2024. They're dissecting not just from a consumer POV, but a marketer's POV, and sharing what brands can learn from these campaigns (and tactics we were impressed/surprised to see!)

Find Lauren Loreto/Brand Good TIme online:


Timestamps:

  • The introduction (00:00:00)
  • Discussion of the star-studded Super Bowl and demographics (00:02:47) 
  • Analyzing the Wicked trailer (00:03:02) 
  • Snapchat ad critique (00:08:23) 
  • Discussion of the Jesus commercials (00:11:12) 
  • Etsy's "Gift Mode" ad (00:17:52) T
  • The Paramount commercial (00:18:49) 
  • Teemu ads and potential targeting of Amazon (00:22:23) 
  • Pluto TV's couch potato farms ad (00:26:05) 
  • Google Pixel ad for visually impaired (00:27:54) 
  • Verizon Beyonce ad (00:30:23) 
  • Uber Eats ad disappointment (00:34:33) 
  • Homes.com ad series (00:36:35) 
  • T-Mobile Magenta Member Ad (00:39:22) 
  • Favorite and Least Favorite Ads (00:41:12) 
  • Super Bowl and Halftime Show (00:43:10) 
  • Overall Impressions (00:45:07) 


Topics Discussed: podcast, She's Busy AF, Super Bowl commercials, Wicked, demographics, Broadway, Taylor Swift, celebrities, advertising, marketing, full funnel, Service, Michael Sarah, Etsy, Google Pixel, Verizon, Beyoncé, Uber Eats, Homes.com, T-Mobile, Paramount, Arnold, Christopher Walken, BMW, Popeye's, Google, halftime show, Usher, Ludacris, Alicia Keys, roller skate ring, technology, sleep deprivation

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of she's Busy AF. We're really busy this morning here at Team BGT, but we're all taking a couple minutes out of our morning to recap the commercials from the Super Bowl our favorites, our least favorites and what we found most notable this year. So we all tuned in yesterday, We've all had a good recap of the ads and we're really excited to talk about it Today. With me I have Mackenzie. Matt, why did I just call you Mackenzie? I have Matt. I was reading your name off the screen. She goes by Matt. Her name's Mackenzie, but she goes by Matt here at very good time. She's our marketing manager. I'll let her kind of intro herself. And then we have Hannah, who is our content manager. We couldn't be joined by Hope today. We're really sad about that, but she will be editing this, so who knows, Maybe she'll sneak in a little message there at the end. But, Mack, before we dive in, do you want to tell everyone a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 2:

Sure, my name is Mack. I am currently in Charleston, south Carolina. My background's a bit in PR and marketing, a little all over the place, and my most recent job was sailing around the world in a super yacht. So feel free. If you guys want to ask me more questions about that at a later time, ask away. And yeah, I'm just happy to be here and I'm the newest member to the Brand Good Time team.

Speaker 1:

Yes, you are. You've been here almost 90 days. It's crazy. Woo, woo, all right, awesome. Thank you so much, mack. All right, hannah, give us a little down.

Speaker 3:

Hi, my name is Hannah. I'm a content manager, so I manage all things content and memes with the help of Lauren Loretto. And, yeah, I love being at Brand Good Time. I did watch the Super Bowl, so I'm super excited to kind of recap all of these ads.

Speaker 1:

I know it's, I know I'm a Swiftie here on the team and I could be really silly to not mention it, but I thought it was pretty funny how people were like Swiftie Bowl. And also when I was putting on my outfit last night to go over to my cousins, I didn't have anything red, so I put on my Taylor Swift Eris tour T-shirt and I was like this feels so cheesy and cringe, but whatever, we're going to go with it and I thoroughly enjoyed the footage we received from all of this. But also this was such a star-studded Super Bowl I don't think I've ever like I don't know if it's just the way that the cameras decided to display who was there or if, like, truly there was a higher turnout, but I think we also see that in the ads, which we'll get to Like. There's a I saw. I think this was the year where there were way more celebrities in ads than like any other year.

Speaker 2:

Totally.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so okay, that said, mack, do you want to quickly dive into some demographics, Like if you did a little bit of research? Tell us about, like, what is your POV for who these ads were targeting?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So, as I was going through because we kind of had our list of what we thought was going to be the top whatever. These are like 10 or 15. So commercials that had the most impact or were the most standout ones and then I was thinking like so, for example, the first one we've got on our list is the Wicked trailer, and I was thinking I feel like that's such a specific demographic of people that they're trying to reach. You know, I mean, it's a trailer for a movie, which trailers come out throughout the year.

Speaker 2:

But, like, who is watching that movie? Is it that big of a deal that they should have had it in the Super Bowl Cause? I was like what? What man? Which, going back to the demographics, it's, you know the majority is watched by men, not by a significant amount, but do they care about Wicked? I don't know, I don't think so. Maybe I could be wrong. Um, anyways, but the so it made me want to dive into the research a little bit more. And so it said the average by gender is 53% men and 47% women, which actually I thought was a little surprising. So there's, it's almost 50, 50. And then the average age is 43. Another stat that I saw that was really impactful was that 70% of homes with cable watch it, so it's like a broad, sweeping amount of Americans watch this Anyway. So I just thought that was fascinating. So I wanted to do a little background before I reviewed our list that we've got going here and I thought that was pretty interesting.

Speaker 1:

I actually didn't watch it. I had to watch it after the fact. But I get to my cousin's house and like they dropped the Wicked trailer and I'm like what? That's crazy. Okay, so I saw Wicked on Broadway in New York City. I think, if we're talking about like who really would care about this kind of thing, I think Wicked, you know, had its moment in time. It's kind of still does, like it is a typical Broadway staple, hannah, wouldn't you? Would you agree on that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean, I think it's worth mentioning that you had said the Super Bowlist star Steadest, lauren. And Ariana Grande is the female protagonist in Wicked.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, yeah and okay, like I would be silly to not mention that like she's kind of getting bad press right now from her, one of her co-stars, you know like if anyone doesn't know that situation, just look it up. And then she, you know, dropped an album or she dropped a song shortly after. That I think was kind of like a FU to the, the opinions of everyone about that situation, which is kind of hilarious. But when I did get to go back and watch the trailer, I'm like kind of getting. I don't want to say like Barbie vibes or like Off and I'm Revives, but like I get it.

Speaker 1:

I get why it was pushed out. First of all, from what I understand, it was an extremely high budget film. So I'm sure that this putting this in front of the entire American audience, who you know Everyone pretty I mean Wicked's pretty much a household name. So I think doing that, and then also just the, the cinematics of it all, I mean it looks really epic. So I'm not surprised. I also thought it was a phenomenal ad. I'm really interested to see Ariana's role in it and like I think she was accurately placed, but like I'm, they didn't really show much of the music and I'm really excited to see. I'm not and I'm not really like a Broadway musical type of person, but Wicked is such a fun Broadway show that I'm really excited to see what they do with it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I wonder if they did that, purposefully, leaving out some of those iconic Music pieces to keep people watching and on their toes, like totally you know I didn't think about too.

Speaker 2:

Is that Like us doing this podcast? Now there's, so how many like it's? It's well Established and known that the day after the Super Bowl, everyone talks about the commercials. So, like, even if people who are huge Wicked fans then maybe they're not Super Bowl fans, they didn't watch it. There's no way they can avoid not knowing that Wicked dropped today. Yeah, you know so I had that secondary ripple effect.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I mean, I think that's the brilliance of Super Bowl in general is like the Super Bowl ads in general. I remember I could be totally wrong, but what it is now. I don't know the cost, I can look at it just a second, but like I remember at one point in time a couple years ago, super Bowl, at Bowl, ad placement was like a million dollars and so To put that kind of money into it, like you know, there's a ripple effect. People talk about it like Super Bowl ads are like a concept. You know what I mean. So, yeah, that's what it was. Are any of the thoughts on Wicked? Before we move into the next one? Because this is actually a great transition? Because Before we decided to do this podcast, I was like, okay, guys, I went to a conference a long time ago and I sat through this session that was about like impactful video and impactful commercial or whatever when it comes to like brand marketing, and One thing stood out for me from the whole session.

Speaker 1:

I can't remember anything else, but it was that like, like he, they had showed a couple of different ads and then they were like what do these have in common? And what they all had in common was that the ad itself could really have been placed on any brand. So you're, you're watching the ad and it's like a story and blah, blah, blah and like you're just sitting there like I don't know what brand this could be associated with. It could be associated with so many and the psychology of that like really stuck with me, and so it basically the session was saying that like that's not a great way to do things. Like you really want to read, weave the brand in from start to finish and make it pretty obvious right away.

Speaker 1:

And so this next ad that we're gonna talk about, I felt like is a reflection of what you shouldn't do and it really bothered me. So it's the snapchat ad, where it was like less likes, more this, and I was so annoyed because I'm like okay, I think this is a social media ad, but like which? Which one is it? And then, even when it came in at the end and it was like Snapchat, I was like wait what? And then I had to go back and like rethink the whole ad and like it didn't really make sense to me and I was just I didn't like it. I think it fell flat.

Speaker 1:

Okay yeah, do you guys have any? I mean, it was a really short ad, so like.

Speaker 2:

We can breathe. It's funny, because it's so short, I feel like maybe live, but then I went and re rewatched it in its full version and it was really long, was it? Oh, it's yes. So they like they really dragged out the whole like Likes and like it was like you know, obviously they were going after Facebook likes or, you know, instagram likes and they don't do that, and it just went through the whole, all the features of the app. So when you see the whole thing, it made me like it better than the shortened version.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's really interesting. That's really interesting. Yeah, I just oh, it's funny about all of it too is like Snapchat also had its heyday and it was like 2016, 2017, and then it fell down like the demographic loop, I think. Like I mean, I think Gen Z uses it a lot more now as like text messaging and so like how it's used has changed even, and, as a millennial like, it's just not something I even think about anymore or use anymore, and so I wondered too a part of me being so annoyed by it was like, like I saw it, I'm like the people still use that. You know, people just look. So that begs to, you know. That begs the question of like are they trying to get back in front of older?

Speaker 3:

demographics now, yeah, but it's interesting that you provided that context from the conference that kind of informs how you perceive ads, because getting likes and Getting interactions could be applied to any social media platform. So I'm with you in the the very, very pivotal stages of that commercial, it was unclear what they were getting at and what the what exactly they were promoting.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was interesting. Well, kind of on that same note, the Jesus commercials and More specifically the feet washing ones. Okay, so I I Okay. For me it clicked more quickly than I think maybe for other people. I mean, I grew up with like a very Christianic background and so I was kind of like I already drew the lines right away like, okay, this is like the feet washing of it all early on. For me it was like Jesus washed feet. He didn't care who you were or like anything, he just he washed your feet because Jesus loves everyone, whatever. So I got it right away. But then I was turning to social and seeing like the, the public perception of it was like is this a feet finder commercial? Like what, what is going on? There were a couple the of the Jesus ads in the Super Bowl, yeah, which made me want to eat big budget.

Speaker 1:

Maybe, deep dive in another way. Like I think it's really interesting overall, but like, like zooming in on this one specifically, what were y'all's thoughts?

Speaker 3:

It Gave white savior. I Also have very Christian background. I I knew pretty immediately what they were getting at. I love a message of love and caring for other people and Still at the same time.

Speaker 1:

The first 10 slides were white people caring for marginalized people and it went a bad taste in my mouth it was it really did highlight, like all the cliche scenarios of Struggle, is that we want to call it like modern struggle and and yeah, like highlighting more of the marginalized. Yeah, I, it was a highly controversial to me. I.

Speaker 2:

Um, I did not come from a religious upbringing whatsoever, but I think I did know it was a Jesus commercial and I the feet. I made the correlation, the connection pretty quickly, but I actually just think that Jesus has a really good publicist right now. Like who? I'm Obsessed, serious. I think they're really getting away from this. Like you know, maybe the evangelical Christians and the really far extreme ones are really creating this bad rap for other Christians. They're saying listen, that's not our priorities, this is our priorities, and it's coming through in the commercials. They're reminding people what being a Christian is, and I think it's. I just think it's really interesting, regardless of what's actually happening in In American life on a day-to-day basis. This is the story that they want to tell so yeah.

Speaker 2:

I thought it was interesting and, yeah, expensive.

Speaker 1:

Have you guys? Did you guys go to any of the brand websites for any of the marketing that was or any of the ads that were done?

Speaker 2:

No, I didn't okay.

Speaker 1:

So the good ones have, like, highlighted the ad on their website. Like Sarovay, which we'll get to, he gets us. Is the name of the company, that, or the nonprofit, if we want to call it mm-hmm, and and it's all. It's on the ad, right, it's on the website right away. So, says, featured, he gets us foot washing. The night before he died, jesus watched the feet of his friends and enemies. It was a total unexpected action service. It symbolized so much more. So I think it's a nonprofit. I mean, I don't know too much about the company and, the course, didn't do all the right research here. No, it says he gets us all.

Speaker 2:

See you, I don't know and I meant publicist is also in a humorous manner.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I know.

Speaker 2:

I didn't have to say okay, I think you're like looking up what company was like doing their like advertising and stuff.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I mean, it definitely makes you want to look into the company a bit more. It's not like necessarily a religious organization, but it's like I don't know. Anyways, we can move on from this one, but I just thought it, I thought it was interesting and I thought you know just an example. I think it's a good example of how, like, your follow-up marketing should work, which we are going to, that we have one on the list too for that too, which are actually the next two. You know, the Super Bowl ads are not just and I think that I think brands can learn from this too but like the full I'm like tripping over all my words but like the full funnel of an ad. You know it's. It's not just the Facebook ad that you put out there. It's like what is the full funnel outside of that? Like what is the next step? That's going to happen once they see that ad, how are they going to continue to be nurtured? Because we all know it takes like multiple touch points for someone to become invested in a brand. So I think that that's the brands who are going to do well out of this are the ones who have the full funnel like figured out for the launch. So that goes into Sarah V.

Speaker 1:

I loved this ad so much and actually saw the whole campaign play out prior to like seeing the actual ad. But they transformed their whole website to be like Michael Sarah, like he, like it's his brand and I just want to know, like, did his team approach Sarah V? Or did Sarah V approach him? But for anyone who doesn't know the ad, basically, like Michael Sarah's owning the fact that, like it's his brand, he came up to, he came up with it and like he's just finally coming out of the woodworks to tell you about it now and he's completely taken over the homepage of their website. Their marketing campaigns, like Michael Sarah they had. It's everything that you would expect Michael Sarah's awkwardness to encompass Totally and I love it.

Speaker 2:

What do you guys think I was also a fan? It was like cringe worthy. But I couldn't stop watching and at the end of it I was like, oh my God, that was so good, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

It was so on brand for Michael Sarah.

Speaker 2:

Correct.

Speaker 1:

It was so good. It was so good. Okay, and kind of with that too, Etsy gift mode, the where they were like the French were bringing in the Statue of Liberty. Did you guys see this one?

Speaker 2:

I think. I don't know if I saw the Statue of Liberty. Is that the first part of the ad?

Speaker 1:

I saw the cheese board, yes, so like I think I might be butchering this, but basically, like the Statue of Liberty is getting brought in and they were like, oh, but what? Like this is such a grand gift, like what do we get them back? And then they're like um, a cheese board and pans over to France and he's got this big cheese board and he goes fromage, blah, blah, blah. It was absolutely hysterical, but it was a. It was a an Etsy ad for Etsy's new gift mode. So, um, basically pushing that like okay, based on the type of person or their interests or whatever, like what types of gifts should you get for them?

Speaker 1:

I think they tested this with their holiday gift guide a little bit last year.

Speaker 1:

Like I was all up on Etsy, um, you know, for him, for her, like there's always been for him, for her, but like for the husband, for the plant lover, for whatever.

Speaker 1:

And so what I thought was so cool about this campaign is that they, they did this ad and then, not even like 10 minutes later, I got a push notification in my phone Like, did you catch our ad? Like, um, come check out gift mode, like all new now. And then I opened it and it was like for the gardener, for the baker, for the Taylor Swift enthusiasts, whatever like, and it has all these categories and then what it does is it aggregates all of the Etsy makers gift or Etsy makers accounts based on those interests. So I thought it was a really good example of like a really funny ad, even though Etsy just laid off a whole bunch of their company. So I'm like I don't like to take the money for this. Maybe that's how, um, and then into like getting you to get on their app, and I would love to just get into the nitty gritty of their data and see, like, what the conversion was from there and maybe what their sales were yesterday as a result, because that's just brilliant Totally.

Speaker 3:

It was brilliant, it was like creative, it had like some history, some play on history. It was short but to the point and I loved it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it kind of seemed like a cinematic masterpiece too, like I don't know if they used AI or what for it, but I was like this is it was like aesthetically pleasing to watch too. Yes, our next one here was the Paramount commercial, and I'm going to lead by saying I did not think a single one of their show promotions were good. I hated them all. I was like I'm not going to watch that. I'm definitely not going to watch that. Nope, not watching that. But the Paramount commercial itself was hysterical, and that was the Sir Patrick one.

Speaker 1:

Mack, I'm going to like you Leed, because I know you loved this one.

Speaker 2:

This was my noted favorite. I agree, I also don't watch Paramount or have Paramount, and I probably couldn't tell you any of the shows that Paramount does, but I love their commercial because it's also like what it had. Patrick, what's his last name?

Speaker 1:

I don't know.

Speaker 2:

The Star Trek guy I know, I can't think of it right now, okay, sorry, anyways, but like it was just him being like a funny old man and I loved all the characters that they had in there, and then, like they also brought in even like the old Nickelodeon characters and I just thought it was overall done really, really well and it was like slightly inappropriate because we're talking about throwing a child, which makes you like laugh a little bit too.

Speaker 3:

But it was a good.

Speaker 2:

And then Creed. Creed is like so cringe right. Like I feel like everybody like makes fun of Creed and Nickelback a little bit, like bringing Creed and like Drew Mary and I was like oh great, creed's here too. Like just to add it to the like uncomfortableness of like being in this situation. And then I also am obsessed with Reno 911. It's like one of my all time favorite shows and like the new boot booth and guy was in there. So I just overall that was like probably targeted well to me because of my humor, but yeah, it was a good way to introduce all of their shows together or some of their highlight their shows.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, hannah. Yeah, this was, this was an ad made in paradise for Mac. It was, it was yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I died over the Creed of it all, like, especially when the guy like turned around and like pulled up his shirt and he has the tramp stamp that says Creed.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

I can't handle this. And then Drew just everyone was so perfectly like in character.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that was also what I was going to say, totally.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and then I think it's just again an example of a great star studded ad, but to reinforce that, like all of those shows or those actors are on Paramount too, you know it says a little bit of nostalgia there. Yeah, I loved that. Cool, okay. The next one was Timu. I have heard of Timu probably twice. Full transparency, I like we don't need to support China more than we do so like.

Speaker 1:

I'm like I'm not getting on that platform. But then I thought it was really interesting to see the ads come up multiple times with a really obnoxious song. It was kind of giving oh my God, what's that show on Netflix that like is the game show where they all get killed? It's like based in Korea.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I cannot think of the name either, but I do know you're talking about.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, yeah, and then they just did like a, they just did like a reality show based on it. Anyways, it was kind of giving that and so I hated the songs and but I also couldn't help but feeling like, are they coming for Amazon?

Speaker 3:

Mmm, I I did not think that. But also, admittedly, I have had some Timu ads come through on my TikTok for you page and I always click please stop showing me this because it gave spam and maybe it was the music or maybe it was like that. It felt childlike, but I don't know, I'd never thought. Maybe they were coming from for Amazon. So that is quite a thought one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, I know like Chinese culture is very different and like at least okay. So like years and years ago I was probably like 738th grade, there was. I lived in Atlanta and there were these like little Chinese I don't want to call Chinese stores, but there were these stores that had like Chinese product and then like pens paper and like I loved it. I thought it was so cute and like, but that's also like the age I was and I think I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I think I would love to do a little bit more research on Timu and like why this ad concept came to be or how it came to be and like who they're trying to attract, really, really interesting. But I do know a lot of people who shop from them and they basically get like home goods for half the price. So, yeah, interesting, it's really interesting. And yeah, I don't know how I feel about it fully, but I thought the ad was annoying and I also I put this on the list because I saw some really interesting like follow up on social from it, which was that you know, it's like they say like shop like a billionaire or something. But then I think the controversy with Timu is that they like steal your credit card information. So it's like, oh okay, did you guys pay for this? Like million dollar ad spot or two million dollar ad spots from all the?

Speaker 1:

credit card information that you sell, and so that's why I put it on the list, because I thought that was funny.

Speaker 2:

I thought it looked really cheap, like I think that I get, like I got from watching it that they are pretty much saying like our website has everything, which is, you're right probably like a dig at Amazon, which also has most things for sale. But I thought overall it just came off. Yeah, very, very cheap with the cartoon bit of it and yeah.

Speaker 2:

I think it was kind of a miss. Also, I don't know if you guys both pronounced it Timu and I saw somebody else speaking about it this morning and they repeated its Temu, I believe, in the show, in the ad, multiple times like hey, america, stop pronouncing our name incorrectly. We're Temu, we're Temu or whatever it was. It was repeated so many times in the commercials Wow, which they I think they also did three commercials, which is pretty crazy.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I was in and of just blown away that they had the ad budget for three commercials.

Speaker 2:

Three shitty commercials.

Speaker 1:

I'd love to see the ROI for brands on some of these, which does lead to Pluto TV, which I had never heard of before the Super Bowl yesterday, and I was highly perturbed by the couch potato farms. I am like, okay, I get it on one hand like we are making fun of couch potatoes or whatever, but on the other hand, like this reminds me of any of those movie parodies that were made making fun of the evolution of America and how we were all going to be living on trash mountains one day. It was giving that and I didn't like it. It gave me the.

Speaker 2:

I think it was a total miss. Yeah, nobody wants to be a couch potato Like even if they made it kind of funny and silly people, I think for the most part, generally speaking, no one's proud to sit and watch 12 hours of TV a day, and so I think that they try to make it funny, but I think in the end everyone's going to feel like, ooh, not funny, even even if I am kind of like that or whatever else. Nobody, nobody wants to identify as a couch potato. No, as funny as they thought they're going to be.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Hannah. What did you think?

Speaker 3:

I didn't see this one actually, but it sounds interesting yeah.

Speaker 2:

Go back and watch it and let us know what you think.

Speaker 1:

OK, it was a weird one. Yeah, basically everyone's in potato suits in front of TV, but in a field, so I was basically pretending it was a farm of potatoes because we grow our own couch potatoes here. That was the message, and it's like what? What do you mean? This is not like I don't think most of America wants to sit on their couch. Maybe I'm getting the demographics wrong, though.

Speaker 2:

Maybe I am too, but I think, even as people are sitting there drinking, we've all eaten too much food. We all drank too much beer that night. And then we're sitting there watching the football game and we're going like, oh, I feel I just ate too much, like buffalo chicken dip and I just had four beers. And now you're making fun of me because I'm a couch potato, because I'm sitting here watching the Super Bowl, like it all packaged a deal. I would say most people didn't feel good about it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, definitely not All right. Well, the next one I want to talk about is Google, the Google Pixel ad, and I just want to say Google never misses. I used to teach some workshops around storytelling and Google's always one of the brands that I would put forth. There was that one ad that was like hey, google, oh god, I'm going to cry thinking about it. You guys probably know it was like the old man and if you don't know, I'm sending it to you after this. But it's the old man who's like hey, google, show me a picture of me and my wife and blah, blah, blah, blah, and it would show a picture and then in the end she died. It's really sad, but it was chronicling his whole life, but just showing how Google Pixel's photo library is super indexed and whatever. Ok. So this Google Pixel ad Google Pixel is a cell phone this one was cool because it tapped into visually impaired and I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

Speaker 1:

So basically, the character of the video is a guy who is visually impaired and it kind of shows what he sees, which is extremely blurry. But then it's also he has his phone up and he's going to take a picture and it's basically like we've all seen it where it puts a rectangle or a square around a face and it says it just normally does that on your phone if you have an iPhone, but with the Google Pixel it'll say one face identified or whatever.

Speaker 1:

And so then it's moving through his kind of life story and then it was like two faces identify when he met a girl and then at the end they have a baby and it's like three faces identified and I wanted to cry. I thought it was they kill it. Every ad they do, they kill it.

Speaker 3:

They really, really do. I loved this one so much and I loved that you could see it in action, like you could see the product that they were advertising in action in the life of someone who is visually impaired, and they took us on a journey. It was so good.

Speaker 1:

It was so good. It was so good. I would have loved to see more Google ads.

Speaker 2:

honestly, I don't know if that was the only one, but that was the only one I saw. I wasn't saying I don't remember any others.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean Google, all companies of all companies that made an appearance at the Super Bowl. They could have afforded more. Shame on you, google. That's my only beef with you right now, ok.

Speaker 1:

Next one was the Verizon ad. Ok, so I thought was super interesting. I don't know if you guys caught this, but at the end of the halftime show they were like it was. I'm not going to butcher it, but it was something about like did you think we broke the internet? Or something like that, just wait a little bit longer and Verizon is going to show you more ways, or something like that. So there was a transition piece between the end of the halftime show and that ad that wasn't right. After it was a couple ads later.

Speaker 1:

So the ad we're talking about here is the Verizon Beyonce ad, where she's basically trying to break the internet by announcing a bunch of things, doing a bunch of things, and then at the very end, most of the people at the party I was at did not catch this. She's like all right, drop the new music, like that's what's going to break the internet. And then shortly after, she released two songs and her album's coming March 29th on social, which I thought was so cool. I'm not a big Beyonce fan, I'm obviously more of a Taylor fan, but I respect the hustle and I think Beyonce is really cool and talented. So I thought this was a big win for Verizon in terms of creative, in terms of storytelling, and then also in terms of Beyonce having a marketing partner to promote the launch of her new album the drop of her new album.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that is really iconic. I feel like artists are coming up with more and more interesting and new and profound ways to announce an album launch, which is really cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, mack, what do you think?

Speaker 2:

I also am a huge fan of Beyonce in this sense of I think she's just a total amazing woman and has broken all these barriers and she has this huge following Kind of like, obviously, the Taylor Swift, the Swifties. So I think from that perspective, I love that Verizon selected her, like, if anybody's going to break the internet, it's only going to be Beyonce. So I think that they selected her appropriately and I thought it had good humor. And I also agree with you I like the overlap of the pre-recorded commercial that they dropped for Super Bowl timing with her new album drop. I just think it was so cool as well thought out. I'm also a Rusted Development fan, so I like seeing what's his name I forget now, but it was cool to see him there as well, bringing him back.

Speaker 1:

The host where he was recording. He was online. He's like that's still not broken.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I have to wonder if they approached Taylor Swift for this. I have to wonder.

Speaker 2:

I also had this, I think, in my notes here that I'm looking at Like almost couldn't have picked anyone else. Maybe Taylor Swift is my notes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I almost wonder, because you know she's always about to drop something. I think it's really interesting she chose the Grammys to drop her new album and I think that truly would have broken the internet, given the exposure time and placement. But I have a feeling maybe if they did approach her she didn't want to make the Super Bowl about her, after all the shit she's been getting for making for people thinking she's making it about her, which to that I say like a girl can watch football and also date someone who plays football and show up to a football game and just be herself. So Totally.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but Wonder what it was recorded. You know what I mean. I wonder how long ago, because I feel like these are a lot of times planned so far, so far. Out that was Taylor Swift and Kelsey, even a thing. Then you know what I mean, I wonder.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, she was planning this album for two years.

Speaker 2:

Oh, wow.

Speaker 1:

But Travis Kelsey of it all was sooner than that. So, yeah, really interesting, ok. Next one was the Uber Eats. Ok, guys, I was disappointed I'm going to lead with that because this was one of the ads that had pre-game exposure, so something I thought. I don't know if this has been done in years past, but this was the first year.

Speaker 1:

I noticed that some brands were doing like a pre-game campaign, so they were kind of leaking or doing like pre-commercials to hype up the commercial as if it was a movie or something, and so Uber Eats was one of them. And there was the notorious Victoria Beckham, david Beckham, like little snippet where they were like kind of teasing the Super Bowl ad prior, and so I was really excited, I was really looking forward to this ad and, like I thought it was a total mess, I was not entertained by it. I was kind of confused, I couldn't understand the like. I felt like I needed subtitles on because things were happening so fast at the same time and I just it was, in my mind, a forgettable ad for being for trying to be unforgettable.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I agree with you, Lauren. I think I told you last week that I was excited for the Jennifer Aniston David Schwimmer moment and then when I was watching the ad, I was just scratching my head wondering if Uber Eats had a feature that maybe I didn't know about. It was just unclear what. Obviously they were promoting Uber Eats but and I loved all the features Usher and the Beckhams and we love a Jennifer Aniston moment but the ad was unclear to me. I was also let down.

Speaker 2:

I agree.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, bummer, bummer, because it definitely had potential and Uber Eats like shares a huge market space, so do you better next year. I mean, I think maybe this is one of those that proves like it doesn't matter that how star studded you can be, it can still totally fall.

Speaker 2:

Totally. I think that's a great point. Try harder Uber Eats yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we're getting down to the last few homescom. We added this in for Miss Hope because she really want to talk about it and she loves David from Schitt's Creek, and this one was a three part series. I actually only saw the first two, but it was pretty funny. I thought this one was pretty fun. Cinematically I think it was incredible. The storyline was pretty funny. Again, going back to like, I think anything that bashes corporate culture is hysterical, so I liked it. But I don't have like a lot of thoughts compared to others, so I'll let you guys kind of take it.

Speaker 3:

No, I just was super entertained by it. I'm also a Dan Levy stan, so I can't really think clearly about whether or not the ad was impactful and strategic. I just know that I saw him and was super excited to see him twice more and the other homescom ads, but that's all my thoughts. Mac, do you have anything?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think, if anything it's. I think they did a really good job. I think they were all funny. I did watch them afterwards and I think that even if, like you said, lauren, like what they were kind of talking about, it could almost been any brand with this one right Like until they put up homescom, I was like what are they going to be talking about? Or advertising, because he's just taking over a corporation and so, yeah, I think in the end it's going to be memorable because it's who it is, it's, you know, dave Levy, but the. I think it was smart for homescom, like, I think they did a good job casting storyline, all the above.

Speaker 1:

What's interesting about it? Okay, so I'm on the website right now Maybe I missed this, like maybe the third ad really drilled this home, but then I think that's a poor example of how you should run your ads across. Something that maybe not everyone's going to watch the whole time is that if you go to homescom it's I guess from what I understand here, it's like a Zillow or a realtorcom. It says only homescom connects you directly to the person that knows most about the property for sale the listing agent. And what I know about Zillow and realtor is they like to filter that information and then they also collect like money from those agents to be to like promote it to get you. It's like a lead buying situation and I think this was totally missed in all the ads. I didn't like. I did not get that point at all.

Speaker 2:

I don't think I knew what they I don't I without. I mean, I'm looking at the website now, but you're right, I don't know what homescom is from watching those commercials.

Speaker 1:

I think they're trying to be up there with Zillow and realtor where, like, you go, like I, like we, my husband, I like drive neighborhoods and I'll be like I'm gonna look up, look up these houses on Zillow. And I like to look it up on Zillow for one specific reason and it's because when you zoom in on a neighborhood, it doesn't matter if it's a house for sale or not. If you can click a dot on any house and it'll give you like history, instead of having realtor doesn't do that Realtor only shows like homes for sale or whatever you can filter.

Speaker 1:

So like I don't really love going to realtorcom, so it sounds like homes is trying to enter the marketplace there to, or has, totally. Yeah. So, while the ads were incredible, I think this was an example of one that, like, maybe didn't get the message across, or maybe that just wasn't their intention, I don't know. Yeah, okay, our last one. Did one of you guys add this?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I added this. I didn't know if you two had seen it. It was an advertisement for T-Mobile, magenta member, and it featured Bradley Cooper and Laura Dern and a couple of the actors from suits and it was just so awesome. They were all auditioning to play the role of this one person in the ad and it was really entertaining and, wow, there wasn't really anything cheeky that they did like trying to integrate the product. They didn't make it clear what they were advertising and I was really entertained.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to have to go back and watch it again, but I remember that one. I remember seeing it, but I think I was like multitasking or something like I didn't. I just remember being like, wow, this is really star studded. But I did not tie it to T-Mobile. Yeah, yeah, it was really good. I'm going to go back and watch that one.

Speaker 2:

If you also want to compare it. Sorry, if you want to compare it to what was that other one that they really pushed hard. It was a T-Mobile that had the guys from scrubs in. It. Is that what the campaign is. Those ones I feel like were really not funny and got really old. T-mobile had some other ones that I was like, so that was a T-Mobile one as well. Then I think that they did much better with that one and it had like a little variety, because the other ones were not great.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. Well, that is a recap of 13 ads that we all saw kind of and wanted to discuss today on the show. To kind of wrap this up, we're going to go through each team members, favorite and least favorite. Hannah, do you want to start?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, my least favorite, maybe you could imply was the T-Mu ad, and my absolute favorite was the T-Mobile, which is why I added it very last second. It looked great. Definitely go back and watch it Awesome.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Mack, what were yours?

Speaker 2:

I'm going to have to go with the Paramount, with them wanting to throw Arnold the football head guy, and then also they aren't on this list, but I just like any of the ones that are funny. So then there's also one with, like Christopher Walken, where everyone's doing Christopher Walken impersonations and it's for BMW. And then there's another one with her Popeyes, where they what is his name from the hangover, anyways, he comes like back in time after being frozen for so long. So those were my favorites because they're all funny. But yeah, I don't know if I have a least favorite, probably, yeah, timo Teimo.

Speaker 2:

Yeah the cartoon.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, okay, cool. Well, my favorite was the Google Pixel. I love anything that's going to like make me cry, but at the same time I love the comedy ones, so it's obviously challenging. Like the survey, I thought was brilliant from like a full marketing campaign perspective, but the Google Pixel, like it's just one that's going to stick with me forever Totally. That was my favorite. My least favorite was the couch potato farms like on it, like it, just like it was the one that gave me the ick out of all of them and so that's the reason that that one was my least favorite.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, any other final closing thoughts about? I mean, do we want to just like quickly talk about the Super Bowl and how epic that was? I've never seen such a low scoring game turn into overtime, turn into waking up this morning realizing Hannah literally has the Kansas City Chiefs, she has a balloon, she's showing us all a balloon right now. I seriously went to bed like crazy because I could not hang through all of overtime. So I went to bed last night thinking like 49ers are going to win, it's fine. I've been waking up this morning and opening Instagram and seeing like Taylor, whatever it, like Taylor and Travis because that's what my algorithm wanted to show me hugging, and I was like no way, no way Like that. I'm like googling to go see the final play because I'm like there's just no way, like how did this happen?

Speaker 3:

So no, they won with three seconds left on the clock.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, pretty epic.

Speaker 3:

What did you guys think of the halftime show?

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh how can we not talk about that? I have never been so energized by a halftime show. It brought something out of me that I didn't know was there. Oh, yes, I loved it. I like so much all of it. It was great and I kept thinking back to like, at least I don't remember Usher ever having a bad PR moment, and so it just to me it like it felt so wholesome because it's just, it was good music at a great time. He won Song of the Year that one year for yeah, like how can you forget that? And I think I think it was awesome. I think it was done really well. It was highly entertaining. Very Vegas, yeah, I loved it.

Speaker 3:

Yes, did either of you catch the disclaimer that was added to the? It was so good.

Speaker 1:

It caused like gyrating relationship issues with yeah, put out by Apple.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so good, I agree.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that it's like one of the best super cool performances I've ever seen. Wow, yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, how about you guys, hannah? No, I loved it.

Speaker 3:

I loved it. I loved it. I also did not really know shame on me that usher was an amazing dancer, so it was a super pleasant surprise. Loved the features from Ludacris and Alicia Keys, so I was pleased.

Speaker 1:

So good, the outfits were killing me. The ludicrous afro I was dying laughing.

Speaker 2:

I'm so impressed with the roller skate ring yeah, all of that.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I'm like how long did we practice? How were there no mess ups? This is great, yeah, yeah, overall, okay, cool. Well, I think this was probably one of the best super bowls, probably one of the best super bowl commercial years, and just in terms of like technology and how far all that's come, and I think it was one of the best halftime shows. So, like, I'm totally into the sleep deprivation I have right now from all of that.

Speaker 2:

Amen All right guys.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you for coming on the show today I'm Hannah Always a pleasure and thank you everyone else for tuning into this episode. We will catch you on the next one. Bye, bye, thanks.

Speaker 2:

Bye.