15 of the best 2019 Super Bowl ads
While South Africans have no real stake in the Super Bowl, everyone can appreciate good advertising, and the world’s biggest brands go all-out spending millions of dollars to get screen time before one of the largest active viewing audiences.
In the 2019 edition of Super Bowl LIII, tech adverts were prominent, particularly playing on some of the fears around the rise of technology.
An android child struggles to control his emotions. Robots threaten to take away human jobs. And a voice-activated device ponders its own existence.
Amazon had its own commercial, where it poked fun at Alexa. The ad featured rejected ideas for the technology – including a microwave, dog collar and hot tub – and even depicted a massive power outage triggered by Alexa.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also made an in-person appearance at the Super Bowl, where he was spotted with National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell.
This year’s ads were mostly from big brands, but a few newcomers bought commercials – including Bumble, which tapped Serena Williams to promote the dating app. Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi and Avocados from Mexico were some of the veteran advertisers returning in 2019.
Anheuser-Busch nabbed one of the first slots of the game to tout Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer, a brand it acquired in 2016. The spot featured mermaids named Bonnie and Vivian pitching the product in front of sharks.
The Super Bowl remains the biggest showcase for ads, even though the game’s audience peaked in 2015. Last year’s contest drew 103.4 million viewers, the lowest number in nine years.
Advertisers benefited from a close game, with the New England Patriots only securing a safe lead over the Los Angeles Rams in the final minutes. The Patriots won the game 13-3.
Here are some of the best ads during the game.
Amazon
Amazon’s Alexa was the highlight of the group’s commercial, which drew on big names like Harrison Ford, Forest Whitaker and the cast of Broad City to poke fun at the voice-activated digital assistant.
Alexa even made a cameo appearance in the Pringles ad, where she expressed sadness for not being able to taste the chips.
Michelob
Beer brand Michelob had two ads – the first, for Michelob Ultra, played on the rise of robots, showing a humanoid robot performing several tasks better than its human counterparts – only to be left out in the rain as the humans enjoyed beer.
The second ad, for Michelob Ultra Pure Gold played on the Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) trend.
Bumble
Dating app, Bumble, took the female empowerment route, tapping tennis star Serena Williams to showcase her journey with the payoff that “the power is already yours”. The Bumble app gives women the power in heterosexual match-ups to choose whether or not to connect with the men.
Microsoft
Microsoft opted to move away from laughs, and rather showed a touching and heartfelt ad about its adaptive controller for the Xbox gaming console, which allows children with disabilities to participate in play time with friends.
Nostalgia
There were a few ads that had celebrities reprise some iconic roles to sell the brand.
Sarah Jessica Parker appeared as Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City) along with Jeff Bridges as The Dude (The Big Lebowski) to forego their traditional drinks (a Cosmopolitan and White Russian, respectively) in favour of a Stella Artois beer.
Slasher-flick star Sarah Michelle Gellar appeared in a familiar scary environment, running away from a murderer only to discover she can’t unlock her phone anymore because her Olay skincare routine has made her unrecognisable.
Finally, Doritos brought Back Street Back – with a remix.
Budweiser
Beer brand Budweiser (which is now available in South Africa) had three adverts.
The first boasted the brand’s move to green energy, being brewed on wind power – while the second called out its competitors for using corn syrup in their products. The third ad teamed up with HBO to advertise the coming final season of Game of Thrones.
Here are some other adverts that caught the eye, including Pepsi, which pulled in some big name celebs to try and shake off the brand’s image as a Coke alternative, and what car brands offered.
Pepsi
Hyundai
Toyota
Colgate
Avocados from Mexico
Reporting with Bloomberg
Read: 6 of the biggest advertising blunders in recent history – including one from South Africa
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