Humor, heart ads dominate
NEW YORK — From a strange creature called “Puppymonkeybaby” to a tear-inducing Audi ad, Super Bowl ads ran the gamut this year from offbeat humor to heartfelt messages.
On advertising's biggest night, Chrysler celebrated Jeep with an ad featuring black-and-white portraits of veterans, kids and pop icons. In Audi's spot, a depressed aging astronaut remembers his joy for life by driving an Audi sports car with his son. And in a quirky Doritos ad, a fetus in a sonogram appears to rocket out of the womb to chase a bag of chips.
The goal for advertisers: to stand out and win over the 114 million-plus people watching the big game on Super Bowl Sunday. With ads costing a record $5 million for 30 seconds, the stakes are high to stand out from the 40-plus advertisers and be remembered.
In general, advertisers played it safe with universally liked celebrities such as Anthony Hopkins (TurboTax) and Ryan Reynolds (Hyundai).
“It's been a pretty safe night,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at advertising agency MRY. “There's relatively little going over the top.”
Offbeat humor reigned with a creature called “Puppymonkeybaby” — pretty much exactly what it sounds like — in an ad for Mountain Dew's Kickstart.
“It's on my list of the weirdest ad of the night, but it's very catchy and people will be talking about it,” said Kelly O'Keefe, a marketing professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Heartfelt messages were in abundance too. SunTrust's ad urged people to take a breath and feel better about their financial health. BMW's Mini urged people to “defy labels.”
Some advertisers created minimovies. Toyota went long with a 90-second ad depicting bank robbers who use a Prius 4 to escape from police. Hyundai's “The Chase” ad, echoed “The Revenant,” showing people escaping grizzly bears by using Hyundai's remote start feature.
“Super Bowl advertisers are sticking with light themes,” said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. “Last year we had serious ads about fathers and mortality. This year the ads are funny and creative.”
