Once again advertisers triumphed with their creativity in the Super Bowl ads, this year costing them a reported $4million per 30-second spot. We saw Don Cheadle, his llama, and a ping-pong playing Arnie for Bud Light’s “Epic Night”, and speaking of A-list celebrities, how about Bruce Willis hugging it out for Honda? Sodastream avoided 2013’s competitor-targeting controversy by editing its alluring ad featuring Scarlett Johansson. An earlier version purportedly had the star cheekily naming two major drinks brands, but this was lost in the final edit. Speaking of which, Coca Cola and Pepsi both ran their own epic ads… Which is your favourite?
In what must have been some serious licensing arrangement, Toyota teamed up with The Muppets to showcase the spacious interior of its Highlander model. Axe played with politics with its beautifully shot dramatic ad, fully embracing the age-old adage to ‘make love not war’. Radio Shack took us down memory lane to the 80s with a cast of familiar faces and references, seeking to change consumers’ perception of and to revamp its brand. Kia’s parody of a movie classic ends up taking a completely surreal turn… Who saw that coming? And speaking of surreal, how about Ellen’s fairytale ad for BeatsMusic?
Once again, there were some great soundtracks on show. Chevrolet’s ‘Romance’ ad for its new Silverado used a 70s classic which was very in-keeping with the ad’s storyline. Of course other car brands were also on top form; check out Volkswagen’s magical "Wings".
Finally, in an innovative move, and perhaps the most creative placement of all, Esurance made a point of running its ad AFTER the big game, saving it $1.5m in media spend, which it subsequently gave away to one lucky customer in a Twitter sweepstake…