AP's Sarah Bolton was featured in Marketing Dive with her take on successful Super Bowl Ads. More on her takes below!
Some Super Bowl ad musings (in addition to Marketing Dive's pickup): WHAT LANDED: Breast cancer awareness (Novartis) -- A bait and switch in the best way. The first part of the spot objectifying women’s bodies in a riot of music and color was so exaggerated and garish in its retrograde execution, it signaled that a twist was likely coming. The surprising and clever reveal featured the inimitable Wanda Sykes bringing it across the finish line with a powerful and clear call to action. Novartis made the most of the opportunity to reach every woman watching - and the men who care about them - with an execution that was smart, funny and ultimately important. SOMEWHAT LESS SO: In a sea of less than inspiring AI-centric ads from the tech sector, OpenAI’s promotion of ChatGPT featuring an exquisite animation was certainly impressive. But perhaps unsurprisingly the execution lacked real emotional resonance, which was brought into starker relief when the spot that directly followed it was the NFL’s ‘I am somebody’ which tugged at the heartstrings showing athletes inspiring young kids through Big Brothers/Sisters mentorship programs. For that 90-seconds humanity > AI. AND KUDOS FOR AN AMBITIOUS SWING . . . Rocket Mortgage’s integrated TV + experiential activation that extended their licensing of the song Country Roads: After soundtracking the last TV spot in the ad break, the telecast rolled directly into a live in-stadium singalong of the tune, which was innovative and more memorable than the spot alone. In actuality, the execution of the in-stadium portion lacked some participatory energy but was a cool idea nonetheless, and opened the floodgates to more ideation along these lines in the future. WHAT DID YOU THINK?