Commentary

Out To Launch: Super Bowl Edition, Day 2

TacoBellSince it’s impossible to keep a Super Bowl ad under wraps in the age of social media, the action de rigueur this year is launching the big game ad early on a brand’s YouTube channel. Let’s begin with Taco Bell. The brand first teased its 60-second big game spot with an equally long video called “Grandpa Goes Wild.” In it, an elderly man takes his motorized scooter inside a football stadium where he runs over a tackling dummy, yardage signs and water coolers. He also makes some donuts on the field while security catches up with him. See it here. “Viva Young” will run during the second quarter and gives viewers a backstory on 87-year-old Bernie Goldblatt, the man with the fast scooter. Bernie escapes from his retirement home for a night on the town with his AARP-card-carrying pals. fun.’s song “We Are Young,” sung in Spanish, plays in the background while Bernie and his pals cross many an item off their bucket list. We’re talking swimming in a stranger’s pool, dancing in a club and not breaking a hip, making out with strangers, flashing innocent diners and getting a back tattoo. The night ends with a trip to Taco Bell before returning to the retirement home at sunrise. Watch it here, created by Deutsch LA.

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HyundaiToo bad this ad for Hyundai isn’t running worldwide, since it features a group of badlanders similar to ones seen in Coca-Cola’s big-game spot. Hyundai Canada created “Gaspocalypse,” a 60-second spot running during halftime in Canada. Promoting the Sonata Hybrid, the ad follows a Sonata driver down a long, lonely stretch of highway. Behind the driver a group of badlanders emerge, intent on running him off the road. The badlanders put up a good fight and might have succeeded had they not all run out of gas. The spot ends with the Sonata owner driving the rowdy group back to the gas station and asking, “Aren’t you guys taking this weekend warrior thing a little too far?” Watch it here, created by Innocean Worldwide Canada and directed by Benji Weinstein of Steam Films/Tool.

GildanI never heard of the brand Gildan until the company bought Super Bowl airtime. The wholesale manufacturer of t-shirts, looking to compete with the likes of Hanes and Fruit of the Loom, will run its first Super Bowl spot during the third quarter. A teaser spot shows a man waking up in a bedroom that isn’t his, wearing a blindfold, smeared lipstick and attached to furry handcuffs. The man gets away but forgets his favorite T-shirt. Does he cut his losses or return for the shirt? The teaser asks viewers, “How far will this guy go for his favorite T-shirt?” I’m sure he goes back, for the tagline in the big game spot is “it's about time you had a favorite T-shirt.” See it here, created by DeVito/Verdi, the agency's first Super Bowl ad.

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