For advertisers, when the Super Bowl comes around… it feels a little bit like Christmas!
Agencies around the world compete for some of the most tasty contracts in the calendar year, where creativity and execution must be pinpoint perfection. After all, 5.5 million dollars per second is quite the chunk of change! This year continued traditions with many fun and unpredictable commercials, where some companies took the opportunity to inspire, others opted for laughs with absurd celebrity-packaged spots, others heavy on nostalgia and others chose to be a little smarter than the rest!
Here are our Top 5 picks of best Super Bowl commercials for 2021:
Number 5
Brand: Uber Eats
Name: Wayne’s World & Cardi B’s Shameless Manipulation
Agency: Special Group
With the battle of food delivery platforms seeing tasty profits over the past 12-months, Uber Eats chose to take a nostalgic twist pledging to support local eateries!
With the Wayne’s World stars taking us for a trip down memory lane, they are of course met by cameo appearance by Cardi B, who gives them a meta-savvy not to how Big Game advertisers try to blend nostalgia with modern relevance.
However, despite how passionate they are about this subject, they insist that they’d never resort to manipulating their audience with subliminal messaging, sexy glamour shots or cute babies… even though they suddenly demonstrate all three. They wouldn’t even resort to shameless celebrity cameos, although Cardi B does suddenly pipe up from her spot beside Garth that everyone should, indeed, eat local. The three even make a viral video to “jump” on the opportunity to share their love for local, but not because it’s trendy, obviously. They’re just better than all that.
‘Wayne’s World.. party time.. excellent” – party on Wayne! Party on!
Number 4
Brand: General Motors
Name: No way, Norway
Agency: McCann Detroit/McCann Worldgroup
General Motors released its big game ad, starring Will Ferrell, who discovers Norway far outpaces the United States in electric vehicle adoption. In the commercial, “No Way, Norway,” Kenan Thompson and Awkwafina join Ferrell on his action-packed journey to give Norwegians a piece of his mind. A 60-second version of the ad will air during the first quarter. “No Way, Norway” is an extension of GM’s “Everybody In” campaign, which launched in January 2021 to excite a new generation of vehicle buyers and accelerate EV adoption while showcasing the company’s Ultium battery platform. The spot features upcoming Ultium-powered electric vehicles, including the Cadillac LYRIQ luxury SUV and the GMC HUMMER EV super truck.
What’s even better than a good Super Bowl commercial? The answer commercial from a competitor!
Audi, as with so many times in the past, hits back at General Motors and boy-oh-boy did it put a few smiles on our faces!
Number 3
Brand: Cheetos
Name: It Wasn’t Me
Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Frito-Lay’s Cheetos’ spot taps Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Shaggy for an orange-hued rendition of Shaggy’s song “It Wasn’t Me.” The ad promotes “Cheetos Crunch Pop Mix,” which combines crunchy Cheetos with Cheetos Popcorn, with the old ‘That 70’s Show’ couple coming back together for a 2021 Super Bowl special.
The beloved Hollywood couple remixes the chart-topping hit by the Grammy-winning Jamaican reggae artist to summarize how Kunis has been sneaking around the house with Kutcher’s bag of Cheetos Crunch Pop Mix, a combination of Cheetos Popcorn with Cheetos Crunchy that debuted in January.
Number 2
Brand: Bud Light
Name: Last Year’s Lemons
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy New York
When life hands you lemons! And 2020 handed everybody a lot of them!
For most of us, the past 12 months was the weirdest and most painful but Bud Light manages to harness a free-flowing expression, which now means so much more! Did we also mention the small detail of launching a new product?
Inspired by the do-it-yourself haircuts, postponed weddings and other inconvenient but relatable situations in 2020, the ad looks at the bright moments in a challenging year, to turn last year’s lemons into the new Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade.
Number 1
Brand: Reddit
Name: Wow, this actually worked.
Agency: n/a
When posing the question, ‘what makes a successful commercial’, Reddit ticks every single box… and some! Effective, viral, current, smart, and oh did we mention their powerful message?
The spot was a mere 5-seconds long, but that all it took for them to sweep in on first spot, where their message:
“If you’re reading this, it means our bets paid off. One thing we learned from our communities last week is that underdogs can accomplish just about anything when we come together around a common area.”
The spot comes after a ‘Reddit army’ took on Wall Street pros by inflating the share price of GameStop. Their Chief Marketing Officer, Roxy Young, said that although it was not part of their marketing plan, and that they may have burnt through all of their allocated budget, one thing for sure is that they could consider these 5 seconds as some of the most successful in Super Bowl advertising history.
Wow!- Mmm
- Hmm
- Meh
- Pff
