The Best of the Super Bowl LII Ads

Story posted February 5, 2018 in CommRadio, Arts & Entertainment by Arts Staff

Each and every year, the Super Bowl is one of the most watched events on TV. With the game goes a host of brand new, very expensive advertisements from the nation’s largest company. As is the case with every year, a few companies separated themselves from the pact.

TIDE

Was the whole Super Bowl just a Tide ad? Stranger Things’ David Harbour seems to think so. By making fun of stereotypical advertisements for luxury cars, lite beers, perfume, car insurance, extreme workouts and more, Tide stole center stage during the commercial breaks of the Super Bowl. The best part? It didn’t stop there. Isaiah Mustafa has returned with another bizarre Old Spice commercial? Nope, Tide ad. The Budweiser Clydesdales are back in action? Nope, Tide ad. Yet another one of the billion cliché OTC medicine commercials? Nope, Tide ad. David Harbour and Tide had us on our toes all night long. This ad campaign was a stroke of brilliance by Tide’s parent company, Procter & Gamble, and there’s no doubt that their heavy advertising investment payed off. The Eagles may have won the game, but Tide won the spaces in between. – DJ Bauer

M&M

If there’s any celebrity to fill the role of an M&M in a commercial, it’s Danny DeVito. The ad begins with two M&M candies walking down the street - completely normal. After complaining about being eaten by humans, the red M&M just happens to stumble upon a lucky penny and wishes to become a human. A quick transformation into Danny DeVito makes this candy’s dreams true. He uses his human form to go around asking people if they want to eat him - also completely normal. The commercial comes to an end after DeVito gets hit by a truck, realizing that being a human isn’t so great after all. – Jenna Minnig

Westworld Season 2 Trailer

Inarguably the best trailer reveal of the night, Westworld’s season two trailer proved how establishing tone and intrigue is all that’s needed to draw in an audience. In a time where entire plots of films are revealed in trailers months before release, the Westworld season two trailer shows footage of where the show can go, but not where it will go. The most enticing thing any piece of media can offer is the answer to a question and HBO has once again not only reignited the questions from the season one finale, but has subtly expanded the scope to where those questions can truly lead. The beautiful piano score and captivating visuals only further reel in returning and potential viewers back into Robert Ford’s haunting world. – Chandler Copenheaver

The Cloverfield Paradox Reveal

One upping the already minimalist approach to marketing for the rollout of 10 Cloverfield Lane, Bad Robot Productions and Netflix teamed up for an exciting and buzzworthy release of the sequel, The Cloverfield Paradox, showing just a 30-second ad announcing the films immediate release at the end of the Super Bowl. But what boosts this ad into the top ads list is the genius of the marketing. Early Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores are starting to lead some to believe Paramount made the move to sell to Netflix for distribution due to the poor quality of the film. But the quick return on investment for the high levels of hype and binge watching achieved for the mediocre film with such little promotion is a genius use of marketing to achieve profit on a below average product without having to lie about or hide its true nature. – Chandler Copenheaver

 

DJ Bauer is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email metakoopa99@gmail.com.

Chandler Copenheaver is a senior majoring in public relations. To contact him, email chandlercopenheaver@gmail.com

Jenna Minnig is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email jkm5756@psu.edu.

About the Contributors

ChandlerCopenheaver's photo

ChandlerCopenheaver

Senior / Public Relations

Chandler Copenheaver is a Production Director and Arts Director of CommRadio who has been a member of CommRadio since the spring of 2015. Chandler’s responsibilities entail managing the production department, managing the arts department, creating audio commercials for CommRadio and external organizations, scheduling commercial blocks, and writing editorial content related to the arts. Chandler Copenheaver has worked most recently at Arlington Thrive in Arlington, VA as a Development & Program Intern, WellSpan Health in South Central PA as a Public Relations & Marketing Intern and served as a teaching assistant for the Penn State course BiSci 3 Environmental Science. Chandler aims to work in the fields of Public Relations, Communications Strategy or Communications Management. Follow him on Twitter @C_Copenheaver or email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

DJ Bauer's photo

DJ Bauer

Senior / Broadcast Journalism

David “DJ” M. Bauer Jr. is a senior from Valencia, Pennsylvania majoring in broadcast journalism at Penn State. He is an editor, writer, producer, and play-by-play announcer for the CommRadio sports department. His writings include the Weekly NFL Game Picks series, Bauertology, and the NCAA Bubble Watch series. He is the co-host of the CommRadio talk show 4th & Long alongside Jeremy Ganes. Alongside Andrew Destin, Andrew Field and Zach Donaldson, he is one of CommRadio’s Penn State football insiders, a group of elite writers who cover Penn State football in depth during the 2020 season. He was also a production intern for the Frontier League’s Washington Wild Things baseball club. If you’d like to contact him, email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Jenna Minnig's photo

Jenna Minnig

Senior / Broadcast Journalism

Jenna is a General Manager of CommRadio where she manages the student radio station.