Out to Launch
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
George and Weezy, Helen Mirren, Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe star in Super Bowl ads. James Lipton does not. Let's launch!
  • Helen Mirren to drunk drivers: "If your brain was donated to science, science would return it." The legendary British actress stars in a 60-second Super Bowl ad for Budweiser that is undoubtedly the daintiest drunk-driving PSA you will ever watch. Mirren dines at a restaurant, eating a burger with beer. Once her beer arrives, she speaks to anyone who would think of driving drunk, calling them selfish, oxygen-wasting humans. She then thanks the audience for being responsible, stand-up people who like to have fun and know boundaries. Budweiser is donating $1 (up to $1 million in total) to safe-driver programs if you use the hashtag #GiveADamn in tweets. See the ad here, created by Anomaly New York.

  • Willem Dafoe has one great set of gams, as seen in Snickers' Super Bowl ad. Continuing with its "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign, Dafoe plays a hangry Marilyn Monroe, on set for "The Seven Year Itch." Standing atop the subway grate, Dafoe is not happy. "Who's the genius who puts a girl in heels on a subway grate?" he quips. A quick-thinking producer hands Dafoe a Snickers, and Monroe returns and nails her infamous pose. A cameo by Eugene Levy saying "This scene will never make the cut -- morons!" closes the ad, seen here, and created by BBDO New York.

  • James Lipton goes all in as a spokesman in TurboTax's Super Bowl ad. Unfortunately, he's been rejected. In a 60-second teaser ad, Lipton's agents have to break the bad news to the overexcited octogenarian, even though he's wearing a handmade TurboTax sweater and carrying an ice cream cake decorated with his face and TurboTax logo. Lipton even wrote a jingle and convinced his never-flown granddaughter to fly in for the shoot. No one knows who will replace Lipton in "Someone Else," only that's it's someone more "regal." Watch it here, created by Wieden+Kennedy.

  • Could this ad use a little more cowbell? Kia released its Super Bowl spot promoting the 2016 Optima and starring Christopher Walken. "Walken Closet," running in the fourth quarter, stars Walken as a colorful man sent to add pizzazz to a man's dreary beige wardrobe. Rather than blend in, Walken wants the man to don colorful socks and take a spin in the 2016 Optima. The spot, created by David&Goliath, ends with the pair riding in the Optima and Walken making sock puppets. See it here. The goal of the campaign is to introduce the revamped Optima as a midsize sedan that stands out in its automotive category. Leading up to the Super Bowl, Kia used IBM's Watson to connect brands with ideal social media influencers. Kia then selected the most relevant social media influencers for its #AddPizzazz campaign. Prior to the Super Bowl, nearly 100 of influencers received a pair of the colorful Stance socks featured in "Walken Closet" and were encouraged to share how they "add pizzazz" via their social media outlets.

  • Apartments.com is launching its first Super Bowl ad starring a revamped George and Weezy of yesteryear. Now playing the roles made famous by Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford are George Washington and Lil' Wayne. "Movin' On Up" is a 60-second ad that also stars Jeff Goldblum as Apartment.com chief change officer, Brad Bellflower, and a gospel choir singing the memorable theme song to "The Jeffersons." In the ad (we previously previewed a teaser), Brad hops onto a piano about to be moved into a deluxe apartment in the sky. As he's hoisted up, he takes a peek inside people's apartments, from a group of college students, a woman with a massive shoe closet, newlyweds and a bespectacled family of four. George and Weezy live in the penthouse, and Brad finds them cooking beans on the grill, natch. Watch it here, created by RPA.

  • Most of us are familiar with the Drake song, "Hotline Bling." More popular is the song's video, where Drake wears a bulky turtleneck sweater and dances... badly in a cube. The setting is now a 30-second Super Bowl ad for T-Mobile, with a few minor tweaks. As Drake sings "You used to call me on my cell phone," mobile company execs interrupt, telling the rapper to add additional lyrics that explain how most cell phone providers overcharge customers without their knowledge. Drake is game, adding that the "changes don't ruin the song at all." See it here. A 60-second extended version features Drake joking about his Canadian heritage and the mobile execs dancing in the cube. Watch it here. Publicis Seattle created the campaign.

  • Isn't this true after major snowstorms as well? The NFL's Super Bowl ad celebrates Super Bowl babies, kids born nine months after a city's big win. A 60-second version of "Super Bowl Babies Choir" will run during the big game. A long-form video, featuring Seal, launched ahead of time. Part of the brand's "Football is Family" campaign, the video features Super Bowl babies of all ages singing a song set to Seal's "Kiss From A Rose." There are 49-year-old Green Bay Packer babies, teens and tweens -- all the way down to Seattle Seahawks babies from 2014. Very cute. My favorite funny yet creepy line that a set of Cowboys babies had to sing was: "Mom and Dad looked at each other, one thing led to another that night." Watch the video here, created by Grey New York and directed by Lance Acord and Chris Wilcha of Park Pictures.