Title image: A Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise ad features Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson and his real-life mom.
More than 117 million viewers are expected to tune into the Super Bowl this Sunday, many of them eager to see whether the Cincinnati Bengals or Los Angeles Rams prevail.
But some are more interested in what happens during the commercial breaks.
Good advertising reflects us and leads us and normalizes things that scare us, and the Super Bowl does that to a huge audience all at once.”
–Kelty Logan
“This is the one time that clients give advertisers a blank check so they can get wonderful producers and cinematographers and come up with some really brilliant stuff,” said Kelty Logan, an associate professor of advertising, public relations and media design at CU Boulder.
An industry veteran who joined the field in the 1970s in New York City, Logan views Super Bowl ads as a cultural mirror, reflecting what’s going on in society at the time or, at least, what viewers wish were happening.
CU Boulder Today sat down with Logan to talk about hits and misses of Super Bowls past, how the pandemic has shaped recent ads, and highlights to expect this year.
What does the Super Bowl represent for advertisers?
There was a time when everyone watched the last episode of a show, like MASH, together. But with the emergence of streaming services, that really doesn’t happen anymore. If you are looking for a shared experience that everyone has at the same time and talks about the next day, the Super Bowl is the last stop.
How have Super Bowl ads changed?
The big change is the cost. This year, a 30-second spot costs $7 million. In the 1980s, it was half-million. In recent years, people have also gotten fed up with how non-inclusive the advertising and humor was. Almost simultaneously, advertisers started to realize half the audience was female. You see more inclusivity now, and more advertising geared toward women.
What are some of the best ads you’ve seen?
Apple’s futuristic ad, launching Macintosh in 1984, was iconic. It marked the birth of the personal computer and everyone got one after that. Another classic is the mean Joe Green “have a Coke and a smile” ad from 1979. It still makes me cry.
Do you have a favorite?
The Hilltop ad from Super Bowl VI. I remember it vividly. It was 1972. The Vietnam War was ramping up. We had armed national guards on the UCLA campus where I was going to school. It was so disorienting. I saw that commercial, with all these real kids in their real clothes, singing, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,” and thought: They understand what we want.
Logan’s top 5 Super Bowl ad picks
Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise
Retired linebacker Jerod Mayo tackles people he suspects are wasting food at a Super Bowl party, including Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, who is knocked down while standing beside his real-life mom.
AT&T Fiber
Actors Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher’s ex-wife, and Mila Kunis, his current wife, both stand up, expecting to receive a “most admired alum” award at a Fairfax High School reunion (where they really went), only to have to sit down when YouTube celeb Anna Gomez gets it instead.
Amazon Alexa
Amazon’s Alexa embarrasses both Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost by reading their minds out loud in front of each other because Alexa’s psychic.
Sam’s Club
Kevin Hart thinks he’s getting the VIP treatment at Sam’s Club when, in fact everyone at Sam’s Club can use an app to avoid checkout lines.
Lay’s Potato Chips
Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen have a sentimental chat about their truly weird friendship, concluding with a zombie wedding.
Is social media stealing ads away from the Super Bowl?
Yes. To a degree. State Farm is the first brand to say it's skipping a national Super Bowl commercial in favor of a TikTok campaign.
How did the pandemic shape ads last year?
We were in the aftermath of a very unsettling election and everyone was in lockdown, so nobody quite knew what tone would be correct. A lot of ads were trying to thread the needle between compassion and humor. On the one hand, you had Bruce Springsteen’s Jeep ad “The Middle” about the two Americas. Some people loved it. Some hated it. On the other hand, you had a lot of references to people being locked at home together trying to have fun. Everyone thought it was going to be over, and ads like the Bud Light Seltzer ad looked back on it like that.
Who’s advertising this year?
In 2020, the cars and the hotels and the travel companies all pulled out, but they are all back. There are also more than 30 first-time Super Bowl advertisers this year, including Booking.com, SAMS Club, Planet Fitness and two cryptocurrency companies. I think companies are assuming we are rounding the bend and people are ready to get out there again.
Who should we be watching for this year?
The spots feature really engaging celebrities that run the gamut from Snoop Dog and Martha Stewart to Megan Thee Stallion and Matt Damon. They’ve even brought back the Budweiser Clydesdales and the E-Trade talking baby. And Lindsay Lohan is back, sharing the screen with William Shatner and Danny Trejo.
And what are the ads like?
The ads I’ve seen do not reference the virus or our experience with the virus at all. You are seeing people in social situations again—having dinner together and eating chips at a party together. Last year, the ads were gently humorous. This year, they are raucously funny. I think they figure everyone just wants to laugh.
