Newcastle today is introducing a "cheeky, irreverent campaign" in which it will "try to recruit 20 to 30 brands to help it break into the Super Bowl advertising melee," according to Emily Steel of the N.Y. TIMES. In exchange for a cash contribution, the other brands’ logos and messages "will be incorporated into a spot crafted with Newcastle by the advertising agency Droga5 that will air online and in some local NBC television markets during the game’s broadcast." Newcastle Senior Brand Dir Charles van Es said, "With the whole world going to crowdsourcing these days, we figured we could crowdsource an ad." Steel notes the stunt "marks the second year in a row that Newcastle is
trying to crash the Super Bowl." Even if Newcastle "wanted to purchase a Super Bowl spot, it would be unable to buy commercial time during NBC’s national broadcast of the game" because Anheuser-Busch "perennially locks up the ad time as the exclusive beer advertiser." But Newcastle said that it "found a workaround to air a commercial during the game: Buy time on NBC’s local affiliates" (
N.Y. TIMES, 1/12).
NOT-SO-MACHO MAN: TODAY.com's Ben Popken wrote many of the companies running Super Bowl ads "will be putting distance between themselves and stereotypical macho images" associated with the NFL. Dove, for example, "promises to challenge the definition of what it means to be a man today." Toyota "will tweak the formula by featuring paralympic athlete Amy Purdy, a double below knee amputee." Budweiser has promised an "emotional story" about how a man and his Clydesdale "help a puppy who has lost his way learn the true meaning of friendship." Marketing technology company Unruly VP Marketing & Insight Devra Prywes said advertisers "are trying to make us cry this year." Innerscope Research Chair & Chief Science Officer Carl Marci said, "What we know about the emotion centers of the brain is that they pretty reliably will respond to certain categories of stimuli." Popken noted sex and celebrity "sells for this reason," as does cuteness, which "includes, in particular, babies and puppies." Popken noted the "bet on cuteness is so safe that seven out of ten of the finalists this year in [the] long-running Dorito's contest that lets fan-generated videos become their Super Bowl ad features babies or cute kids" (TODAY.com, 1/11).
TOO CUTE? In DC, Esther Cepeda wrote, "I just hate it that Anheuser-Busch has announced that this year’s round of Super Bowl Budweiser commercials will include another spot featuring a heart-strings-pulling puppy in combination with the iconic Clydesdale horses." Budweiser’s marketing objective is "to remain relevant to young adults who have grown up during the craft and artisanal beer age." Its tactics "include ads featuring horses, puppies and videogame characters, such as another TV spot slated to play during this year’s Super Bowl featuring Pac-Man." Screenshots, memes, Vines and YouTube links "will be getting huge play among not only the 20-something millennials that Anheuser-Busch is hoping to target, but also their little brothers’ and sisters’ Snapchat and Instagram accounts." Cepeda: "It’s a shame Budweiser couldn’t have saved the irresistible power of cute animals for their public service announcements instead of using them to hook impressionable young viewers" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 1/10).
