You can’t expect every commercial to be a hit, but with the money and branding behind Anheuser-Busch, you’d think they could do better than 3 out of the 4 worst commercials. So which ones failed?
USA Today
The ads, created by McGarry Bowen, for the two new products were the ones who came up short on Super Bowl Sunday. Much like Bud Light Platinum last year, Budweiser Black Crown and Beck’s Sapphire didn’t win over the viewers. It should be noted, however, that #keepitplatinum managed to sell quite a bit of beer for AB. I thought this year’s spots did a reasonable job of conveying the market after which they are going, but the lacked entertainment value. And unless you were closely paying attention to the dialogue, you wouldn’t even have caught on that Black Crown was the winner of a consumer contest.
The Beck’s Sapphire ad didn’t really say much about the beer, but it had a singing fish in it and a remix of a great 90s jam. I’m flummoxed as to why it wasn’t a fan favorite. At least my pregame prediction was correct. Chet Faker’s rendition of the song has made a huge jump on Amazon, from #12,005 to #905.
Bud Light’s voodoo ads, also from McGarry Bowen, featuring Stevie Wonder and Zoe Saldana landed in the middle of the pack. They were entertaining and a solid culmination (hopefully) of the on-going campaign of gameday superstitions.
The real star of the day was Budweiser’s new Clydesdale foal and his former trainer. “Brotherhood,” created by Anomaly, not only took the top spot in USA Today ad meter, it is also the 3rd most shared Super Bowl commercial of all time behind VW’s “The Force” and another AB Clydesdale spot.
Darren Rovell