• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, February 9, 2023

I was doing some bi- idea brainstorming with myself earlier today (for reasons that will become clear later in the column) about possible Super Bowl ad ideas.

And I thought, what better combination than Chevrolet and Chevy Chase.

Now, before you get all “no, no, no, that won’t work,” or “great idea if you’re living in 1976,” picture this concept and script.

AD Idea:

This Super Bowl spot will tell the story of Chevy Chase as a new Chevy driver, driving around town while listening to his favorite tunes. He takes a wrong turn, gets stuck in the mud, and is rescued by a bunch of strangers.

You probably know where this is going, right?

But, first, here’s the script:

Open on a brand new CHEVY driving around town. We see CHEVY CHASE behind the wheel, singing along to a song and tapping his hands on the steering wheel.

Cut to CHEVY CHASE taking a wrong turn down a narrow alley. CHEVY CHASE slams on the brakes as he notices a muddy puddle in front of him. He revs the engine in an attempt to get through the mud, but gets stuck in the middle.

Cut to CHEVY CHASE trying to get his car out of the mud, but to no avail. He looks around in frustration, but then notices a group of strangers standing on the other side of the alley.

Cut to a shot of the strangers as they begin to walk over to CHEVY CHASE. CHEVY CHASE looks on in amazement.

Cut to a shot of CHEVY CHASE and the strangers pushing the car out of the mud.

Cut to CHEVY CHASE thanking the strangers. He then offers them a ride in his car.

The strangers get in the car and CHEVY CHASE turns on the same song he was singing to before.

Cut to a shot of CHEVY CHASE driving away with the strangers singing and laughing along to the song.

END CARD: Chevy. Bringing you and your friends together.

Well, I kind of like the tagline. Whether Chevrolet would want to fill its hypothetical $7 million dollar :30 in the big game with this ad, let’s say I have my doubts. That said I have seen probably millions of ads in my lifetime, some better and many worse than this spot, including a number that actually made it to Super Bowl.

As you probably guessed I had a lot of help fleshing out the Chevy Chase/Chevrolet commercial idea. It came from a company called Addition, an AI technology platform built on the same model that powers Chat GPT.

And they’ve just released a new AI application: the Super Bowl Ad generator. Have some fun with it here. In a nutshell the site analyzed a handful of classic Super Bowl spots, one of which you click on and then enter a very brief "brief." About a minute later it spits out a concept and script.

"We fed the top-rated spots from the last 10 years into the AI to teach it how to come up with Super Bowl ads,” says Addition co-founder and Adland veteran Paul Aaron. “Now it can generate them for any brand by simply typing in a few words."

Aaron has been on the digital and tech side of the business most of his career, working for shops like Crispin Porter Bogusky, Carmichael Lynch and Amalgamated before hanging out his own shingle in 2015 as digital strategy consultant. Addition was formed in 2021. Adland luminary Jon Bond is a board advisor.

In fact, the company credits Bond with the idea of using the Super Bowl as a way to demonstrate the capabilities of Addition’s platform.

Rick Barber, the co-founder who runs the tech side, commented "Any revolutionary tech platform can always benefit from customization. We’ve found that when you take the technology behind Chat GPT, which is great, and combine it with high quality data it unlocks a wide range of new uses for marketers." 

And for making ads, if you put some thought into it (much more than I did), it’s one more tool at your disposal.