Some automakers decided that they would surprise viewers with their Super Bowl advertisements, rather than release them early and make my job easier.
Some other advertisers decreed that #SB50 would be the night of bowel issues, or of projectile obstetrics.
Let’s discuss the car ads I didn’t cover on Saturday … I’m sure there are other blogs for that other stuff. Eww.
BUICK
We knew that Buick would show the new Cascada along with footballer Odell Beckham Jr. and model Emily Ratajkowski in supporting roles. Now we can see the entire ad:
TOYOTA
Prius J-turn? Prius J-turn. This was unexpected:
JEEP
Jeep had two ads run in the second half. First, a reminder of Jeep’s heritage:
Next was a video embodiment of the “It’s a Jeep thing, you wouldn’t understand” catchphrase:
So, discuss among thyselves. Which was the best, and the worst?
Ah, a part two. Ziggy Sobotka did that J-turn in the Prius with Frank and Nick in the car. I’m trying to find confirmation that the fourth person in the car is Spiros Vondopoulos. All from The Wire, season 2.
The Jeep “4x4ever” was a bone to the faithful, I don’t see it winning any converts but there was a brief flash of an old Grand Wagoneer in the ad which made me look carefully for a glimpse of the reborn Grand Wagoneer which never came.
Yea it was great until the renegade flashed onto the screen, then it probably elicited more eye-rolls among the faithful than a sense of pride. Otherwise I agree it was pretty good.
I’m at a one day training in Albuquerque today and the hotel had its complimentary copies of the USA Today. No headlines today just a full page Jeep Ad on the front page. It’s a photo collage of people and Jeeps, the tagline – “We don’t make Jeep, You Do.”
It might as well have been tagged: “It’s a Jeep Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand.”
FCA is putting all they have into keeping the Jeep brand momentum surging, where it ends no one knows!
i thought the same thing; with a new wrangler in the garage is guess im “all in” on the jeep brand, but when that renegade popped up in both commercials it reminded me how much fca is going to milk this.
That Renegade is surprising a lot of the “faithful”.
Yeah, if it’s any good at all, if I were FCA I’d probably milk it for all it’s worth. I’d stop short of the whole Trackhawk thing though.
Well my favorite was actually the Audi R8 commercial with the astronaut. The Acura NSX Van Halen ad was also good.
Of those posted I was pleasantly surprised by the Prius ads, they were well done and effective. The Buick ad was solid due to Emily R. But the car was an afterthought.
What struck me about the Audi commercial is that astronauts are historically associated with the Corvette. So, I wondered: did the ad agency first pitch this to GM, and they declined it? The R8 is a nice car, but I think GM missed out on a much more impactful commercial had it been a Corvette.
Also, Emily Ratijowski–I just don’t get her appeal.
Have you seen her naked? I mean, holy cow. Not the prettiest model out there, but wow.
I forgot the Ridgeline ad, that was a winner too. In fact, the best ads were almost all for cars.
why don’t they just call the damn car a Cascade?
The Prius commercial–now that was funny!
As for the model, beyond secondary sex characteristics, I don’t get the appeal of models generally. Rarely any soul.
I’ve seen the unrated version of “Blurred Lines” and while I agree her facial features are on the strong side, her body goes to 11.
I agree completely, GM missed the boat on that one. My first though was they all loved corvettes!
As I recall Major Nelson was a Pontiac guy, favoring GTOs. Major Healy tooled in a Firebird, I think.
I don’t know about “love”. They were given Corvettes as a promotional/reward thing.
Pontiac probably sponsored “I Dream of Jeannie”. TV show. TV astronauts.
I was SO angry that the American astronaut got into an Audi. Like, I almost took offense. I know the Germans built the rockets, but US space-race pride is sacred. At least a Cadillac, or a loaded 300.
If only they still made Cadillacs…
They tried, but it wouldn’t fit on the screen.
Audi in involved with some kind of X Prize related lunar rover project. They showed a model or prototype and brought out Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan at the NAIAS last month.
Considering that General Motors designed lunar rovers that actually drove on the moon (built by Boeing but designed by GM), I thought Audi was a bit cheeky.
Cadillac should send the remaining ELRs to the moon in order to follow up on its original marketing.
We designed and now built the only cars on the moon – GM.
Either did I until I saw other photos of her. Wow!
“That Prius is actually pretty fast! Over!”
No.
No it isn’t.
9.8s to 60 per Edmunds test, so yeah, not that quick. I still enjoyed the ad, and the color was good. Unfortunately they have made a literal mess of the styling, the last gen was ok, but this one is back to gen1 levels of fugly.
Notice all the cop cars in the Prius ad were Crown Vics. Does one of our data geeks want to do a performance stats run down between the new Prius and say a 2010 Crown Victoria PI?
The Crown Vic is at least 2 seconds faster to 60 MPH. C&D got 0-60 in 10 seconds in a 2016 Prius.
The Explorer PI will go 0-60-0 faster than it takes the Prius to get to 60.
I enjoyed the piece but yes I was thinking I know the Panther can catch (and ram) the Prius.
Maybe not, but it’s all about image. Now that gas is cheap again, Toyota’s trying to tweak the Prius image. They need to.
The Prius ads were long and tedious and no one cares because that car is ugly and slow and only driven by people that hate cares.
Audi R8, NSX, and Ridgeline adds were good.
I do like the Ridgelines bed speakers, that was pretty cool.
Blah blah blah, same old talking points.
Audi was my favorite, but only because I was happy they tipped their caps to David Bowie.
Oh, so it’s Cas-cah-da.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NTl1ajzq0bk
Snickers ad beat ’em all.
And the Audi ad was not only ludicrous in comparing a stupid car to the Apollo program but glaringly tasteless given Edgar Mitchell’s passing (a *real* astronaut, not just a TV one) only a few days before.
There are now only seven living people that have walked on the moon.
And aren’t the Chinese intending to completely automate any lunar missions they might pursue?
Talk about a brief blip in history, never to be repeated. Chilling.
I find Chinese efforts on the subject very interesting but I think they will soon find out how difficult it is to automate space flight.
Think a robot would have come up with SCE to AUX?
Probably not as they aren’t so clever. Robots also aren’t the good workers as one might think. Robots at Fukushima are dying on the job in as little as three hours. If you can’t even withstand a little nuclear holocaust then what good are you?
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fukushima-robot-dies-3-hours-after-entering-japans-radioactive-reactor-1496126
I’m not sure of China’s lunar plans.
Talk about an exclusive club though.
These past few decades have sure kicked the stuffing out of our starry-eyed ’60s & ’70s space mentality.
Now all we can cheer is when Elon manages to ass-land a rocket w/o blowing it up.
Now it’s just Bezos and Musk giving each other backhanded compliments.
“China’s manned space agency is readying the Tiangong 2 space lab for liftoff around 2016, which will be followed by the crewed Shenzhou 11 spacecraft and a Tianzhou cargo vessel that will rendezvous with the lab.
Chinese officials expect that the core space station module will be launched around 2018, and the orbiting facility is slated to be completed by about 2022.”
http://www.space.com/27893-china-space-program-moon-mars.html
Proposed manned projects are so far all earth-orbital it appears.
Space weapons don’t need no moon rocks.
Evidently the PRC doesn’t feel it needs to put men on the moon and would rather focus on humans orbiting. I do find this curious, although getting to the moon ain’t easy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_manned_lunar_programs
“Think a robot would have come up with SCE to AUX?”
@RideHeight: You’re awesome.
The Prius ad was funny. The R8 ad was good too. The others… about the lamest Super Bowl ads is a long time. However I did correctly guess that this 1st ad was for BEER… just thought it would be for Bud, but they won because Peyton mentioned them twice in post game interviews.
The Kia Optima/Walken ad was rough. What was the copy, something like “The Kia Optima is like a pair of exciting socks”? Wow, can’t wait to get into a showroom for that one.
Lol yes. And in the end, Mr. Beige is STILL wearing beige clothes, in a white car with beige interior. So he really stepped out of his beige comfort zone, lol.
I thought the idea was excellent…including Walken. The execution, missed, for the reasons noted.
No Kevin Hart Genesis commercial? Though why Hyundai would spend big bucks advertising the “Hyundai Genesis” when it is about to be renamed the Genesis G80 G70? is beyond me.
The Audi commercial was the best by far. I liked the Kevin Hart ad too.
Prius, outrunning cops? Seriously? And the ridgeline? I’m still struggling to realize why I need speakers in the bed of the pickup.
You’ve never rolled down the windows in your truck/car put your music on and went on doing whatever tasks you needed? I have surround sound in my shop and I still find myself using the truck speakers more than anything else.
“You’ve never rolled down the windows in your truck/car put your music on and went on doing whatever tasks you needed?”
I can honestly say I have never done this, but if there is a market for it then Honda has it covered.
Tailgaters who blast Brahms?
I prefer Beethoven when I tailgate.
As a landscaper, and knowing a lot of people in the building trades (who tend to buy, and use, trucks) Its actually a fairly common practice. Auto stereos have way better sound quality and volume then the typical job site boom box.
So your sheep can learn to sing, gezz, try to keep up will yeah. ;)
Said it before, I’ll say it again: Black Pistol Fire absolutely crushed it on that Prius commercial. Those driving beats nearly make that crap-box desirable.
Glad to see rock and roll still lives, particularly in power-duo form.
Didn’t see Prius ad till this article. Bank robbers are such lovable scamps.
Want to learn Japanese? Here’s your first lesson:
clueless = akio.
Ex.: “Ain’t that kinda dumb?” = “Saa, chotto akio desu ne.”
OK all you advertising/marketing folks, the “I can’t believe it’s a Buick” ads, is that suppose to work? Kind of rehash of the “Not your father’s Oldsmobile” ads, and well we see how that worked out. To me it says, we made a lousy car, but now it’s better. Just seems desperate.
The recent Chevrolet ads are similar, where they debadge a Malibu or something and bring people in and “ask them what brand it is”. And then they say, “go check out Chevy, they totally don’t suck now!” (more or less).
Exactly. “That’s a Buick?” just reinforces the notion that Buick’s image is a dowdy car for old people. I have a tweenage niece whose first exposure of Buicks are commercials where everyone is surprised the decent cars shown in their ads are Buicks, so she assumed they must have a really bad reputation or something.
The first Jeep advert was excellent though. Really set Jeep apart from every other SUV.
When I look at how many mfrs DON’T advertise during the Super Bowl, it makes me wonder about the effectiveness of such ads, or any TV ads for cars.
Kia, for one, could have done much, much better – ugh. And I’m a Kia partisan.