If there were two trends we noticed in this year’s Super Bowl ads, it was celebrities and crypto. And while the Whippets were torn on whether Coinbase’s minute-long QR-code-screensaver thing was was clever or lazy (or both), we can’t deny it was effective, with app installs jumping 309% week on week.
But before any of our clients even think about trying to use that stat as ammo for making the logo bigger…we jest.
5. Irish Spring | Welcome to Irish Spring
Add two parts Pure Blonde and one part Midsommar, make it about a men’s body wash and what do you get? This fun and (pardon the pun) fresh ad for Irish Spring.
While “Smell from a nice-smelling place” has more than a whiff of familiarity (Old Spice’s ‘The man your man could smell like’), for us, this homage of sorts wasn’t too on the nose.
Favourite moment – “Give him the bath!”.
4. BMW USA | Zeus & Hera
This one’s a lot of fun…if you don’t think about it too hard. If you do think about it, it’s a bit confused.
Zeus finds retirement frustrating due to struggling with electrical appliances and his neighbours pestering him for favours. Then Hera buys him an all-electric BMW iX and all his problems are solved. Doesn’t really make perfect sense, but hey, it’s Arnie and Salma Hayek, so what’s not to love?
Favourite moment – Peggy the non-flying horse-dog.
3. FTX | Don't Miss Out on Crypto
You gotta hand it to Larry David – he can dish it out better than pretty much anyone, and he can take being the butt of the joke just as well.
Here the Larry we know and love stays true to his techno-luddite self, rejecting world-changing innovations at every turn, unable to see the incredible opportunities in front of him. If your cranky old uncle mocks you for buying some crypto, show him this.
Favourite moment – Larry telling Thomas Edison that his lightbulb invention “stinks”.
2. Uber | Don't Eats
As someone in the industry, you can just imagine the conversations that would have gone on at Uber when they were deciding whether non-food items should fall under the Uber Eats branding. But here they’ve embraced the problem in a deliciously funny way.
Favourite moment – The legal supers at the bottom of screen, e.g. “Do not eat not food.”
1. Pringles | Stuck In
We all know that, with Pringles, once pop you can’t stop – and this definitely held true for the hero of this crisp, hilarious spot. Nothing to fault here, we love it.
Favourite moment: Lionel Ritchie’s ‘Stuck on you’ as the track