2015 Superbowl Commercials [many embeds]

As always, some of us watch the big game for the flash and the sizzle and most importantly, the commercials -- not necessarily the game. Here's some picks for the best commercials coming on Superbowl Sunday:



I've watched this thing five times and it's really beautiful -- technically stunning, funny, rich and colorful... and by god, it makes me want to buy this $130,000 car. For my money, this is the single best commercial in the whole show, but the Budweiser spot (which is also excellent) will win the popular vote.

 

This is this year's tear-jerker, the sequel to the Clydesdale/puppy spot:



As much as I can be a cynical bastard, I admit to finding foreign liquid substances in my eyes every time this thing plays. I think it's the music that does it. Impeccable production on what has to be a $2 million commercial.

 

This one owes royalties to Austin Powers...

 

Really well done, I agree. Lately I'd been thinking that the CG and animation that was so impressive a few years ago, like on Aflac insurance commercials, had become mundane, even trite. But this is beautiful. The details were handled so thoroughly, that I wasn't even thinking about the technical aspects of the production, I was only enjoying "the ride."

 

Or aging and "Low-T!" We all become softies.

The 3 most difficult elements to work with: Children, the weather, and animals. Extremely impressive.

 

Can a soap commercial be heartwarming? Man, this one choked me up, and I'm not even a father...

 

No, we used to say: "kids, animals, and old people." I once worked on a spot that had all three, many years ago. And at the end, I was left to clean up the dog crap. Literally.

Luckily, I think the old people were equipped with Depends.

 

There's a couple of spots I haven't been able to snag yet: a new Snickers candy commercial where Danny Trejo plays Marsha in The Brady Bunch (you can't make this stuff up), and also a new Skittles commercial that looks hilarious. Also what appears to be a cool Pepsi alien commercial. They'll be up tomorrow.

 

Brilliant spot for the Kia Sorento -- not the world's greatest car, but it's an incredible production, and ya gotta love Pierce Brosnan:

 

Wait... what was that a commercial for? Quoting Walter Matthau, "Holy Moly!"

 

Wow. I think I've got "Low-T!"
That spot seems so simple, but I'll bet it took a ton of work to get it just right. Kind of a modern approach to Gillette's "The best a man can get," from 30 years ago.

 

Thanks for digging these up. The Mercedes one was fantastic, head and shoulders above the others. I did like the Kia ad - saw "November Man" on a flight back from Oz in January and enjoyed Pierce in that movie, so that was a reminder.

Not so much the others.

"Impeccable production on what has to be a $2 million commercial." - are you kidding about the cost?

 

I saw that one appear a couple of days ago. They've set it not to embed but you can watch it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=85114404&x-yt-ts=1422579428&v=rqbomTIWCZ8

 

Brilliant. They used the trite ubiquitous elements, and denounced them at the same time... really building integrity with a fresh, contemporary approach. It draws the viewer in, having them asking what's coming next?, and the ending puts a smile on your face.

 

Who cares?

 

Nope. Four months to do all that. It is, after all, a $130,000 car. The commercial time for a :30 second spot is $4,500,000 this year, so the spot cost much, much less than the air time!

 

I can dig that - but you mentioned the $2m in the Budweiser post.

 

Doh, this one is terrific: it looks like a huge, sprawling summer tentpole, and it shows what happens when your cellphone battery dies on top of the end of the world...

 

And "The Girl Can't Help It":

 

What the hell is in this stuff? I'm including this only because I fell down laughing at the sheepdog...



Plus I am a Mountain Dew fan.

 

$2 million is low on spots this big and important. I've worked on boring Chevy commercials that were more expensive, especially if they shoot for a week with a director making $100K a day and a DP making $100K a day. That's $1 million before they shoot anything. Commercials like the Budweiser spots are immensely expensive, particularly when you consider the cost of the ad agency's work, the writing, the storyboards, the endless meetings, and all that stuff. I think it's fair to say the campaign cost $2 million to shoot, but that would include foreign versions, internet versions, long versions, short versions, even versions of the same spot for movie theaters (which are becoming more and more common). In that sense, I bet it could cost potentially more than $2M.

 

Isn't the point of spending tons of $$ on Super Bowl commercials that people see them for the first time during the Super Bowl? Why are they all showing up online now? I don't remember this happening to this extent before.

 

I wonder if Star Wars 7 will have a spot?

 

I think that was true but times have changed. They are now making special bundles and releasing them on YouTube. The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.

 

There was an Ad Age publisher on Charlie Rose the other night. She explained that a lot of advertisers are pushing the envelope with potentially controversial content, or some may be perceived that way in different markets. So the early release is doing many things, one of which is to test the spot. In fact some spots have been pulled because they had negative reactions already. There was one (that was suppose to poke fun at Budweiser for over use of puppies), that had a story-line of a lost puppy eventually getting sold online, that people didn't like, and it was canceled by the agency/client; then replaced with another. So companies are paying to have multiple spots made, and not even running all of them. Makes sense when you're paying $4.5 million for 30 sec... better get it right.