Ever since its initiation in 1967, the Super Bowl game has featured loads and loads of commercials. So many that we even lost track.
We know indeed that thousands of brands have always been investing a great deal of money on this particular occasion, as the 52nd Super Bowl alone included one-hour ad worth of time on screen.
The Super Bowl games are not the only competition we see. Brands and companies are also in a fierce and expensive race to the charts during this period, as it represents a periodical opportunity that will eventually expire at the end of the game season.
We provide you with a classification of the three advertisements we think are the greatest among all Super Bowl ads that have ever existed.
3rd Place: Amazon’s Alexa – 2018
What if, by chance, Alexa lost her voice? That is the theory the popular re-watched advertisement handles with just the right amount of humor.
A creepy Anthony Hopkins, A kooky Rebel Wilson, and Gordon Ramsay and Cardi B are shown replacing the Alexa voice system as it might have been issued one way or another. And they find themselves answering costumers looking for grilled cheese, the distance to Planet Mars, trying to set the mood or to call their lovers.
The real intention here is to catch the attention of the audience and invite them to watch until the end rather than to parade Alexa’s talents of answering every possible question.
And we can assure: It is definitely an accomplished mission.
2nd Place: Tabasco – 1998
An SB commercial success recipe has 3 essential ingredients: The exact right amount of non-offensive humor, some entertainment that doesn’t feel like too much effort has been put to it, and the ad serving as a matter of fact in boosting the sales.
Rare are the campaigns that actually combine the 3, but the 1998 Tabasco ad promptly deserves our appreciation for this.
This million dollars spot is so minimalist that it only features two scenes. The first part is a long, plain 25 seconds only showing an average American man peacefully enjoying his pizza, topping it with a few drops of hot sauce on his porch probably on Sunday afternoon. Nothing special happens for a lasting moment, which psychologically keeps us tied to screen impatiently waiting for the twist turn. Finally, a mosquito lands on our friend’s leg, and what does he do? Well, nothing, he just watches it as feasts on his blood and explodes from the heat of the sauce as soon as it flies away.
That is a simple, thrilling, funny, relatable, and (other than some protesting against the explosion) non-offensive watch experience.
Tabasco, congratulations, you nailed it.
1st Place: Old Milwaukee Beer – 2012
We have seen Will Ferrell so many times engaging with the Old Milwaukee beer brand for their marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, the best commercial of them which took part in Super Bowl the 46th did only appear to Nebraska, North Platte audience reaching about 25000 viewers. But luckily for the rest of the world, a replay of the mighty low budget spot is available on YouTube and some other platforms on the internet, and it has hit the 2 million views bar on YouTube as anybody would have predicted. After all, isn’t this one of the most ambitious goals of advertising? A wide resonance and positive feedback on social media. This add had an amazing return on investment indeed, especially that Will Ferrell played for free.
As for the scenario, the character is strolling across a majestic landscape as we hear a piece of symphonic music in a balanced tempo of the grandiose pomp type. This jam you get to hear at the end of the Super Bowl season while the cup is being awarded gives you the feeling that something significant has yet to occur, and the music gets on and on until after a long wait. Mister Ferrell arrives at the front plan. He catches a beer can that has been thrown to him, and the foam slowly erupts as he cracks it open just like it’s supposed to happen every time you see a beer on screen. In the end, he holds the Old Milwaukee proudly and starts to say its name just as we hear the beep indicating the end of ad time, and we think it’s quite fun.
Conclusion
All three brands we present to you have scored the best from these advertising campaigns as notoriety of the products and sale numbers are still getting higher and higher after all this time. We can undoubtedly confirm with a stamp that this is a SCORE for the three companies.
