Sunday’s Super Bowl created a lot of drama on the field, as the Kansas City Chiefs came back to beat the San Francisco 49ers in overtime. There was also drama in the stands, as many viewers eagerly awaited every shot of Taylor Swift cheering for the eventual victors.
But, we all know the Super Bowl is about more than just football. It’s also about what’s happening on television when the game isn’t actually being played.
To break down some of the best and less successful Super Bowl ads, Tim Riester, founder and CEO of the firm Riester, joined The Show.
MARK BRODIE: I've got to say the Dunkin' Donuts one, that line specifically that we just heard how do you like them donuts, I'm so sorry. To me that was one of my favorites.
TIM RIESTER: That was a wonderfully executed commercial featuring celebrities and as we all saw last night, many commercials featuring celebrities do not go that well, right?
BRODIE: So what to you stood out watching, you know, given what you do for a living and watching the ads as you did, what stood out to you?
RIESTER: This Super Bowl was a much more wholesome presentation of advertisements than we've seen in recent years. And I think it was a result of the nature of, of society right now. I think coming out of a pandemic and an energy crisis and inflation, and now the conflict between Israel and Palestine and Hamas, has created so much discomfort and uncertainty in consumers that people are going selfward and retreating into their homes.
The Super Bowl is one of those rare moments where you're with your family and friends, you're doing something that's purely based on enjoyment. And as a result, we saw advertisers who understand that, comfort food advertisers or comfort providers coming in and bringing a lighter part of America back to consumers.
BRODIE: Which and specifically to you sort of play that out, which to you were emblematic of that kind of thing?
RIESTER: Well, one of my favorites was Lindt chocolates. First-time advertiser in the Super Bowl, and that's a product that just the moment you unwrap that beautiful little chocolate, you automatically feel better even before you put it in your mouth, right? And they use that Perry Como song, "the round, round, round." It was so beautifully crafted, it just made you feel good for a moment, and I think the Super Bowl is all about escapism. And advertisers like that really delivered.
BRODIE: All right, so I mentioned Taylor Swift. She of course was in the stands after the game. A lot of people, at least some of the people I was with, were waiting to see when she would get on the field to, you know, give Travis Kelce a big hug and a kiss. Did her presence on TVs during the game and afterwards impact the way advertisers did their ads?
RIESTER: It did. And in fact, Taylor Swift, I think, was the greatest benefit to the Super Bowl, Super Bowl 58. Viewership of the NFL has gone up dramatically since she's become involved. A 53% increase in teenage girls, a 34% increase in women over the age of 35 just because of Taylor Swift. As a result, we saw more advertisers coming in with products targeting women and messages targeting women than we've ever seen in the past.
BRODIE: There is one that stood out. To me, I think it was a Dove soap ad talking about basically, I mean, the, the cynical part would be if you use Dove soap, if you get knocked down as a female athlete, you'll be able to get back up. But I think the point was that, you know, women athletes, girl athletes need, need more encouragement, like they need to, you know, Dove is there to support these athletes.
RIESTER: In fact, yeah, Dove had a wonderful message in that it's not the hard knocks that prevent girls from continuing in sports. It's not that they're not tough enough. It's self-image, it's body image, and social media has made it so hard to be a teenage girl today, and their message, and, and they did a pregame event that many people weren't talking about that deserves attention.
Do you remember Steve Young, the retired quarterback from the 49ers? He and his daughters partnered with Venus Williams, the retired tennis player, and they invited high school girls from all over the country to Las Vegas, and they did a self-body image event with a flag football game at, at the stadium prior to the game. And I think that was just a wonderful move of Dove and putting their heart in the right place for girls.
BRODIE: So you mentioned that there were, I mean, celebrities are often a big part of Super Bowl ads. Which to you sort of fell flat because just having a famous person, famous face doesn't necessarily guarantee success.
RIESTER: I think the worst commercial in the Super Bowl, and I was so disappointed about this, was for Drumstick. Drumstick is this iconic American brand. It's 95 years old, and it's never been in the Super Bowl. And they come in and they try to imitate, do you remember that original Travelocity gnome commercial? They basically rip off the idea. They put this guy they call Doctor Umstick, and, and he's not animated, he's not activated. They don't use the celebrity comedian who they had cast in the role other than just to have him sit and cry on the airplane. It was so poorly done, I call that ad "dumbstick" instead of Drumstick. It was, it was such a letdown.
BRODIE: You mentioned, you mentioned now two companies that were first-timers in the Super Bowl. Was that something else you noticed? Were there a bunch of companies that had not previously advertised in the Super Bowl that did this year?
RIESTER: Nearly half of the advertisers were first-timers. And another commercial I love from a first-time advertiser was Etsy. Etsy, as you know, has always promoted these vintage items, and they wanted to promote this new gift-giving platform, and they did the ad, this, this period piece where the Statue of Liberty is coming in from, from the French, remember that, into New York Harbor. God, it was so well done, and they're struggling trying to find out what to send back as a thank you gift because the French don't like anything and we send them cheese.
BRODIE: A cheeseboard, right?
RIESTER: Yeah, through Etsy, and of course all of France just erupts in joy when the cheese arrives. It was great.
BRODIE: OK, so which other celebrities, I mean, there's so many. There's, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito had a cameo. We saw Christopher Walken, Martin Scorsese, Kate McKinnon, so many celebrities. A couple, did any stand out to you as being this is amazing, or this, they just shouldn't have done this?
RIESTER: I think one of the best executions in addition to the Dunkings, the Dunkings we talked about was for agent State Farm. Arnold Schwarzenegger, hey, State Farm for decades has had like a good neighbor State Farm is there, that's their slogan. And they've been so disciplined and sticking with that.
And to use Arnold Schwarzenegger and make fun of the fact that he can't say neighbor in an American accent, right? And, and just to drill that over and over and over again in a commercial and the way they tease that campaign on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon was brilliant. They were on the air almost a week prior to the Super Bowl and just hit it home with their pre-promotion with Arnold. It was wonderful.
