Early in the Super Bowl’s first quarter, Jaguar found itself playing defense. Lexus—not even a big game advertiser—was buying space on Twitter piggybacking on its #goodtobebad hashtag. When you’re cultivating a bad boy image with villainous Brits in your commercials, you don’t abide rivals squatting on your hashtag.
There was lots of speculation in recent weeks that Apple might be running a Super Bowl commercial this year to mark the 30th birthday of Macintosh—and of the Super Bowl spot that so famously launched it. That didn't happen. But this morning, Apple did release just such an ad online.
From Bob Dylan to Seinfeld via Pepsi, Transformers, Captain America, Stephen Colbert, Ellen and the rest, here is all you need to know about the 2014 Super Bowl ads in just 2 minutes.
Every region had its own odd selection of local ads during last night's Super Bowl, but Utah surely takes the prize for most uncomfortable viewing-party moment. In an eerily quiet and hypnotically rotating road-safety PSA, the Utah Department of Transportation depicted a dead child lying in an overturned car. A dead kid. During the Super Bowl. "Sam looks like he's sleeping, but he's not," the narrator explains. "He's not thinking. He's not breathing.
If you weren't bowled over by any of the Super Bowl commercials last night, well, you weren't watching in Savannah, Ga. The folks there, as Tenacious D would say, had their asses blown out—thanks to this insane ad from Jamie Casino. The lawyer filled the entire first local ad break with the two-minute heavy-metal masterpiece below, which basically tells his life story. A Saul Goodman-esque figure, Casino was a lawyer to the crooks until something bad happened to him—and he reinvented himself.
When the Super Bowl is a blowout, you need the commercials to pick up the slack. The good news from Sunday night: On the whole, the ads were stronger than last year. The bad news: Nobody was really riveted to their TVs and drafting off the energy of a thrilling football game. Still, there was lots to enjoy from advertisers on Sunday night. Among our favorite spots: 10. TurboTax Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Brilliantly directed by Bryan Buckley, this commercial took a fun insight—that Super Bowl Sunday isn't the greatest day for most football fans—and ran with it.
Chevrolet’s desire to become a global brand via sponsorships with the English soccer clubs Manchester United and Liverpool has taken a turn now that General Motors has unexpectedly announced the brand’s withdrawal from Europe—this, even before Man U footballers have the chance to wear their Chevy logo-emblazoned jerseys. Photos: Ewanick: Courtesy of General Motors; Soccer: John Powell/Liverpool FC Via Getty I
America is a diverse place, with a wide diversity of opinions on what it means to be an American. As Coke is quickly finding out. The brand's touching It's Beautiful Super Bowl spot, which featured a multiethnic cast of characters singing America the Beautiful in English and lots of other languages, didn't go over well with some viewers.
Esurance is doing a fun little stunt tonight that should get some attention. The online insurance company has bought the first commercial slot after the the final whistle of the Super Bowl. The company says that cost $1.5 million less than running an in-game execution—and it's using the ad to announce a Twitter sweepstakes in which it will give that money away to a lucky viewer who tweets the hashtag #EsuranceSave30.
Veteran sales executive Keith Lorizio is out at Microsoft. The company has not provided a reason for his ouster. But according to sources, Lorizio's departure was not voluntary, and was immediate. Lorizio has been with Microsoft since 2006. Microsoft issued the following statement: "We can confirm that Keith Lorizio, vp of U.S. sales for Microsoft Advertising, is no longer with the company. Barry Dougan, gm of global specialist sales, will assume interim leadership of the U.S. ad sales organization while we conduct a rigorous and thoughtful search for a permanent replacement.
