Wipe that wing sauce and queso off of your chin. And put a coaster under that beer! It’s time for the Super Bowl – and, for those of you without any rooting interest whatsoever in either team, it’s time for Super Bowl commercials!
On Friday, we looked at the advertisements that had already been published to YouTube. Now we hear that the FCA commercials – nor any from Ford or GM – might not make it to the air, saving something like $5 million per spot.
No matter what, we are here, bringing you all of the automotive (and car-adjacent) commercials, just as soon as the commercials are uploaded to YouTube. They’ll be posted in reverse chronological order, so the newest commercial will be at the top.
FOURTH QUARTER
Ram goes shopping on Amazon.
THIRD QUARTER
Ram responds to the food porn from Devour frozen food:
Kia tells the story of a small Georgia town, and the big SUV they build there.
HALFTIME, MERCIFULLY
Oh thank god. Half of the “football” game is over. And that halftime show is over. Toyota and The Who rejoice with all of us.
SECOND QUARTER
Ok this is getting old. More Ram on YouTube..this time with a load of laundry detergent.
Hmm. I guess I didn’t make the connection..Jim Nantz is calling this game, and also did the voice-over for the Toyota RAV4 ad.
Mercedes-Benz with a voice-activated A-Class. Wait – wasn’t a voice activated car in the pre-game WalMart ad?
Ram with another #brands talking to #brands YouTube-only spot – this time, with Pringles.
I’ll admit that I missed this. Ram is responding to a couple of commercials airing during the game with a #RamWillTowThat spot, only on YouTube. First, M&Ms. After that, Avocados from Mexico.
FIRST QUARTER
A potential Audi owner nearly dies.
Ok, it’s technically not a car commercial..but check out the lovely Eighties muscle with Chance the Rapper in this Doritos commercial.
Well, we posted it already..but here’s the first car commercial of the night. Vegan Dinner Party from Hyundai:
After the first commercial break…no commercials with wheels. Soon, I’d assume?
POSTGAME
And that’s it. By my tally of commercials that aired ON the telecast – not those just merely released on YouTube:
Toyota x 2
Kia
Hyundai
Audi
Mercedes-Benz
And the only ones that hadn’t been released prior to gametime? The Supra Pinball Wizard that aired at halftime, and the Telluride/Americana spot in the third quarter.
Is the Super Bowl no longer super for automakers? It’s a big spend for what might not be a big payoff. FCA moving their advertising strictly online might be the way forward.
I’m reading this because I’m not watching that.
NFL-abated residence.
Have pitchers and catchers reported yet?
Eight to ten days for most teams.
I can’t believe, in this hyper-PC age where everyone is looking for a chance to be “offended,” that the “deaf, dumb and blind kid..” lyrics could be heard over the revving of that reliable German Toyota engine (at least on the YouTube video)! (I wasn’t listening to the actual broadcast closely enough.)
I said to my wife: “Well there’s a blast from the 90s. Toyota brought back the Supra.”
(We tease each other about her being a “90s Kid” and me being an “80s Kid”.)
“What’s a Supra?” she says.
“It’s Japanese for Camaro.” I say.
I love how the Hyundai ad had fine text saying not to try fording water that deep and that they were using an aftermarket snorkel. Ha.
Hyundai’s got lawyers!
I shouldn’t have been surprised at that portion of the ad but I was. The only time a Telluride is going into a creek like that is after a “turn around don’t drown” flash flood cognitive failure with the driver’s life flashing before their eyes.
Overall, bad ads interspersed with a bad game.
eggs:
Could not agree more.
Bad SB, worse ads and terrible halftime show.
Nothing stood out. The Telluride and elevator ads were OK. The Supra one was only good because we got see a few more angles of the car. But I just kept yelling “its a BMW” as it slid around.
As much as it pains me to say Audi won this, for whatever it’s worth.
Who was that Supra ad supposed to speak to??
The kids who lusted after the Mark IV Supra (the Supra that matters) in Gran Turismo and Fast & Furious are in their late 30s and early 40s now – read: teenagers during the 1990s.
I mean…The Who and “Pinball Wizard”?? That song is from 1969! The first Supra was made in 1978!
Thought we’d be in for some good stuff after the 1st Quarter Hyundai Assurance ad with Jason Bateman (car shopping? Bottom floor, below root canals and “the talk”), but really disappointed with the auto ads.
Audi admits the only way a midlife cubicle dweller would ever enjoy an E-Tron is after he dies and goes to heaven.
Mercedes threw class out the window and assumes the demographic for their new A-Class enjoys Looney Tunes and talking to inanimate objects.
Toyota’s CGI pinball game with the Supra sliding over the PRNDL lights reminds viewers its an automatic only sports car that will feel just as synthetic as the commercial’s graphics.
Can’t even remember anything else. At least Bud Light fired shots at Coors and made the breaks entertaining outside the auto spots.
For me, Hyundai was the clear winner. The Jason Bateman ad was a funny and drove home the message they were getting at. Good for them.
I am shocked that MB spent the 5M + the cost of production to advertise their A class sedan. I can almost picture the meeting several months ago….’Hey what’s the worst product we have?….silence….ugh the A sedan is pretty bad, I mean have you been in one?….Great point Ken. Let’s gin up some excitement over our updates to the turd and see what happens’. Why would you run an ad for a car when the market clearly has shown people do not want them?
Toyota: The Supra spot…ugh. So much more could have been done to get the average non-TTAC etc reader excited about the arrival of this car.
One guys opinion of course, but I believe we have surpassed ‘peak SuperBowl’. The ads were mediocre, the game was boring at best, and the half time show was unwatchable. I did enjoy the time I spent with friends watching it though, so not a total loss.
The Planters commercial with the crazy peanut car crashing around was entertaining. I liked the disclaimer: Don’t drive like a nut.
My brother-in-law’s girlfriend was on the team that did the Doritos commercial with the cool throwback cars painted in wild colors. Thought it was pretty good, too- just over-the-top crazy fun.
Oh- don’t forget Big Boi rollin’ in on that 70’s Caddy droptop halfway through the halftime show. Sweet ride.
Was I the only one who noticed that the car didn’t seem to be in great shape? Paint and chrome didn’t really shine the way I would have expected.
Here in Canada, we get a few of the US ads, but mostly it’s the save drivel we get year round.
The one that stood out for me was from UNIFOR. They were basically telling GM to F-off.
First they broke down how much money GM received from the bailout a few years back. They followed that with “We won’t forget”. It was topped off with a not so subtle request that no Canadian buy a GM product.
Gm tried a cease and desist order, but it was aired nonetheless.
Was there a game this weekend? Looks like I didn’t miss much.
I spent the cay up North with vintage Motocycles, looks like I didn’t miss much and that’s a sad thing, I used to enjoy watching the commercials when they were posted after the game .
-Nate
And worst of all, Sports Illustrated has inexplicably pushed back the release of the swimsuit issue.