• by Tanya Gazdik , 9 hours ago

Oscar winner Emma Stone will appear in her first-ever Super Bowl commercial for Squarespace, which helps entrepreneurs build businesses online.

“On top of 'The Favourite,' 'Poor Things,' 'Kinds of Kindness' and 'Bugonia,' Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos are adding yet another project to their award-winning lineup of collaborations: the duo’s first-ever Super Bowl ad,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.  “And while website building platform Squarespace replaces the oft-twisted tropes of the pair’s past projects, fans can still count on the bold, provocative and darkly funny nature they’ve come to expect from the partnership.”

The 30-second spot, “Unavailable,” will air between the first and second quarter of Super Bowl LX.

It was shot on black-and-white analogue film and presented like a series of cinematic vignettes, according to Rolling Stone. “The pitch: just like the play action clock ticking down on the field, you want to get your domain online before it’s too late.”

Stone seems made to play the melodramatic heroine. 

“According to the brand’s group creative director, Mathieu Zarbatany, there was never any doubt the ad would star anyone but Stone. In fact, the idea was written with her precisely in mind,” according to The Drum.

The effort is Squarespace’s 12th Super Bowl appearance. The brand released a teaser and then an extended version of the spot on YouTube. 

“As with most Super Bowl content these days, the teasers shared by brands days ahead of time to drum up intrigue tend to fall into a now-expected formula: a few seconds of cryptic footage followed by the date of the game,” according to AdAge. “This content serves its purpose. But lately, Squarespace has been pioneering a different approach—creating teasers and related content, often with a meta edge, that are their own free-standing pieces, tying into but separate from the Super Bowl spots themselves.”