Toyota is out with one of its two Super Bowl ads, and it's going hard for the inspirational route.
As promised, actress and Paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy stars in "How Great I Am," a minute-long spot set to Muhammad Ali's classic speech before his 1974 title fight against George Foreman. The ad was originally scheduled to air pre-game, but Toyota said Friday that it's been moved to a slot in the first quarter.
The commercial shows quick cuts of Purdy, also a Dancing with the Stars contestant, training on the slopes, performing in a ballroom and posing for a photo shoot, using special prosthetic legs for each task. When she falls, she gets up again, and back to work. Naturally, she drives a Toyota.
"To say I'm honored to be in this spot airing during the game would be an understatement," Purdy said in a statement. "All my life I've been faced with choices, and I've been determined to be bold through every one of them. I have a great relationship with Toyota, and to be in an ad that encourages others to persevere and be bold in their own lives is something that is hard to accurately put into words."
The automaker joins what appears to be a growing number of marketers featuring handicapped athletes in ads. Earlier this month, Gatorade released an commercial in which it treated sled hockey players to a game with NFL pros. Guinness's tribute to friendship, by way of wheelchair basketball, earned a place as one of Adweek's 10 best ads of 2013.
Purdy's story is moving, and certainly worth showcasing. The soundtrack, a tour de force in its own right, makes for a great counterpoint. What it has to do with Toyota isn't entirely clear. But it's safe to say the brand's execs want you to think it's great, too.
CREDITS
Client: Toyota
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles
One of the better ads airing on Super Bowl Sunday won't be from a marketer paying $4.5 million for 30 seconds, but from the network broadcasting the game.
NBC Sports has cast Nick Offerman, the breakout comedy star of the network's own Parks and Recreation, to headline a campaign urging Americans to "get more Nascar in your life." And Offerman kills it in a 60-second mock music video that will air as the first spot after the final whistle in the game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.
NBC is releasing just a 30-second teaser (see below) on Monday morning. But Bill Bergofin, senior vice president of marketing for NBC Sports, gave Adweek an exclusive preview of the Offerman spots—which includes an extended two-minute version, as well as the :60—in which he plays everything from a driver to an official breaking up a brawl to the guy waving the checkered flag.
The actor (who owns his own woodshop in real life) was a natural to tout NBC's return to broadcasting Nascar this summer. He has drawn raves for his comic portrayal of Parks and Rec's Ron Swanson, a staunch libertarian who keeps a sawed-off shotgun on his desk and believes the park system should be privatized like Chuck E. Cheese's.
"We just felt like he was the perfect character to carry the message," said Bergofin.
The ads were created by NBC's in-house unit led by chief marketing officer John Miller, with help from Hungry Man (and director Dave Laden).
In the teaser, called "Gut Check," Offerman declares that only Nascar can save "soft" Americans from themselves.
"If the founding fathers saw us huddled in our little cocoons, texting each other smiley faces, they'd hang their powdered wigs in shame," he says. "When our idea of danger is eating gluten, there's trouble afoot."
On Wednesday, NBC will post the two-minute video, called "America Start Your Engines," in which Offerman hilariously raps about the "bad-ass" appeal of Nascar in Nanny State America.
"Sure, everybody at Nascar gets a trophy. As long as they win the f**king race!" Offerman says, as he leans out the window of a race car.
On Super Bowl Sunday, NBC will show "Gut Check" during pre-game programming. Then it will lead in the first commercial pod after the game with a 60-second version of "Start Your Engines." Among the lyrics:
Welcome to the place where we speed all day
Where we bump and grind in a non-sexual way
Where scores are settled, and we break the rules
And everybody's got a set of badass tools
Get some Nascar in your life
Hello glory, goodbye strife
NBC is also planning a non-Offerman spot called "Fan for Life" for Sunday's pre-game. All the spots will air on NBC, NBCSN and other networks in the coming weeks. NBC hopes Offerman's videos go viral the way its "Coach Ted Lasso" promos for the Premier League soccer with Saturday Night Live alum Jason Sudeikis did.
Taking over from ESPN, NBC Sports has agreed to pay $4.4 billion over 10 years to air the second half of Nascar's Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, according to SportsBusiness Daily. Fox Sports has rights to the first half of the Nascar season.
CREDITS
Client: NBC Sports Agency
John Miller - CMO
Bill Bergofin - SVP Marketing/ECD
Lorin Finkelstein - VP Brand/Co-ECD
Lindsay Davenport - Producer
Production Company: Hungry Man
Allan Broce - EP/CD
Dave Laden - Director
Eric Schmidt - DP
Erin Sullivan - Producer
Craig Repass - Line Producer
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
VFX: The Mill
Music: Beacon Street
The year was 1994. Ace of Base saw "The Sign." O.J. Simpson's white Bronco sped down the freeway. And of course, this thing called the Internet was a tiny baby. And Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric were desperately trying to figure it out.
A now-famous Today show clip from '94 features Gumbel and Couric cluelessly talking about the Internet. They can't seem to grasp the concept of an email address or the @ symbol.
"Katie said she thought it was 'about,' " says Gumbel.
"Or 'around,' " adds Couric.
"I've never heard it said, I've only seen the mark," continues Gumbel. "What is 'Internet' anyway? Do you write to it like mail?"
"Allison," Couric asks her producer, "can you explain what 'Internet' is?"
Fast-forward to today, and BMW is using the amusing clip—followed by Gumbel and Couric talking today, just as cluelessly, about the futuristic i3 electric vehicle—in its 2015 Super Bowl ad from Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, released Monday morning:
As an added bonus—and arguably the gem of the campaign—BMW has given us outtakes from the shoot, featuring Couric, and the curmudgeonly Gumbel actually cracking a smile (and a couple of funny jokes) every now and then:
In the behind-the-scenes clip below, Gumbel gives a little insight into his perspective. "People are inclined to ask, 'Aren't you embarassed by that clip—are you angry about that clip? I say, 'No! I'm not at all! I'm amused by it.' I watched The Jetsons years ago, so I kind of thought we'd be in a jetpack, ya know, flying over things ... I guess one day we'll get there, but for the time being, the electric car is the way to go."
It's a fun enough campaign. And to be fair, I've also found myself thinking about the enigmatic "@" symbol of late, as you can see from this tweet just last week:
it's still ludicrous that we pronounce "@" as "at" and not "around"
If you've spent more than three seconds on the Internet, you know it can be a pretty horrible place, swarming with cyberbullies and trolls who've turned comment sections into rotting hate-fests and people's own personal social pages into sources of despair.
Coca-Cola hopes to change all that—or at least, steer things in a different direction—with its 2015 Super Bowl campaign.
The soft drink company revealed Monday that it won't be unveiling its 60-second in-game spot, by Wieden + Kennedy, until it airs nationally on the game. But there will be plenty of teasers released this week—starting with the four below—as the brand preps a message of "optimism, uplift and inclusion" for Sunday.
Three short teasers airing on TV and in cinemas will feature snippets from the :60 and introduce the #MakeItHappy hashtag. You can see those teasers here:
In addition, four longer online videos will roll out this week starring teens and celebs who've experienced online negativity (racecar driver Danica Patrick and football player Michael Sam will star in two of these) or who are devoted to spreading happiness online (Kid President stars in the one of these, which is posted below—the only one released so far).
"It's bold and brave, and intended to disrupt the complacency that's set in around online negativity," Jennifer Healan, Coca-Cola's group director of integrated marketing content, said in a statement about the campaign. "Our goal is to inspire America to become a collective force for positivity."
"Coca-Cola has always stood for optimism, uplift and inclusion… and these core values have been a common thread in our advertising through the years," added Andy McMillin, vp and general manager for Coca-Cola Trademark Brands.
Targeting online hate is an interesting evolution of Coke's "Open happiness" idea. And interestingly, it's a space in which McDonald's is also starting to play. The fast-food marketer, which is also expected to advertised in some capacity on Sunday, recently mentioned online negativity as one topic it's planning to address in its current refresh of "I'm lovin' it."
For Coke, focusing on anything negative—even while positioning itself as the antidote—isn't without its risks. It makes for some pretty dark, un-Coke-like broadcast teasers. And it begs the question: Can a 60-second spot really have any impact on hater culture online?
Coke says it's invested in the issue, though, and is taking real-world steps to address it. The campaign includes a partnership with DoSomething.org before and after the Big Game to spread the message of making the Internet a happier place.
"We're all surrounded by stories of online negativity, and it's a concern that only continues to grow within society," said McMillin. "We hope this campaign inspires people across the country and around the world to show more positivity in their online actions, and to stop and think before posting a negative comment."
The 60-second in-game spot—Coke's ninth consecutive appearance on the Super Bowl—was shot in Los Angeles, Mexico City and Shanghai.
We've already seen Newcastle Brown Ale dig into Doritos' "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign this year. And now, Hidden Valley Ranch hopes to do the same with popular YouTubers,
the Holderness Family.
Penn and Kim Holderness are former TV news anchors who became an Internet sensation with 2013's "Xmas Jammies" video, which has been watched nearly 16 million times online. The family's videos put obnoxious twists on popular songs with personal anecdotes. Most recently, they parodied Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" song with the Thanksgiving-themed "All About That Baste."
This time, the Holdernesses are preparing for their own Super Bowl party. But instead of watching the game with friends, the parents are dealing with a regular Sunday night, which means getting the kids ready for bed and eating dinner with child bibs on.
"All the guys who aren't dads get to laugh at ads," raps Penn.
And indeed, their friends are watching the game with lots of food—including, of course, Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. But luckily, there's a twist, as the friends' party goes astray and the Holderness Family (and the brand) get to save the day.
As other brandshave done, Hidden Valley is trying to make product placement not feel like product placement (while, of course, spending much less than producing a TV ad). But in this case, the video is very clearly an ad for Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. And how you feel about it might depend on how you feel about this family in general.
The ad is part of a bigger partnership between the Holderness Family and SheKnows Media, a women's lifestyle media platform. The campaign is one of the first projects to come out of SheKnows Media's SK Studio, which creates branded content for advertisers. SheKnows Media claims to reach 84.5 million monthly users.
In conjunction with the video, Hidden Valley Ranch is also sponsoring a piece of content called "It's Sunday Night."
It's not clear how many videos the Holderness Family will create for SheKnows Media (or if they will be sponsored), but the publisher claims its partnership with the YouTube group is about finding a fit for its content.
"We gravitated toward the Holderness Family for their humorous approach to creating videos that are highly relatable and reflect their everyday lives," SheKnows Media's chief revenue officer Samantha Skey said in a statement.
Volvo won't be a Super Bowl advertiser this weekend, but several of its competitors will be—a fact the Swedish automaker plans to use for its own benefit.
With a promo called "The Greatest Interception Ever," Volvo is asking fans to tweet its hashtag, #VolvoContest, during other car brands' Super Bowl commercials. Participants will nominate a friend or loved one to win a new Volvo XC60 luxury crossover, with the idea being that the company wants to focus on real people rather than its own marketing message.
"While other car companies are showing you what matters to them," explains the video below, "we want to know who inspires you, who moves you, who matters most to you."
The initiative, created with Grey, New York, kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. Selected tweets will get a response from Volvo, asking why each nominee was chosen. Five winners will be selected.
The car giveaway harkens back to an earlier car promotion created by Grey worldwide chief creative officer Tor Myhren. In 2004, when he was executive creative director on the General Motors business at Leo Burnett, Detroit, Myhren worked with The Oprah Winfrey Show to give away nearly 300 Pontiacs to audience members at the premiere of Winfrey's 19th season. Similarly, the audience was chosen because friends and family had written into the show about why these audience members needed a new car.
While the Super Bowl usually hosts a large number of car advertisers—11 of them in 2014—many automakers are staying on the sidelines this year. So far, only five have confirmed that they've bought time on the game: BMW, Kia, Lexus, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz.
For more news about the brands and stars preparing buzzworthy spots, be sure to check our up-to-the-minute Super Bowl Ad Tracker.
After thumbing its nose at the in-game advertisers on last year's Super Bowl, Esurance is set to become one of them.
The online insurance company confirmed Monday that it is suiting up and ready to air an in-game spot on Sunday's telecast. No details about the length of the ad or the creative approach were available. But a rep for Leo Burnett in Chicago, which is creating the spot, said it will "demonstrate how Esurance is the faster, smarter and more modern direct insurance provider."
Esurance orchestrated a remarkable stunt around last year's Super Bowl, using the first commercial slot after the final whistle—which cost $1.5 million less than an in-game spot—to announce the #esurancesave30 sweepstakes, which gave away that $1.5 million in savings to a consumer. That effort garnered more than 3 million entries (including 200,000 in the first minute) and 5 billion social media impressions.
The company will not give away $1.5 million this year. Instead, Esurance chief marketing officer Alan Gellman said the time was right to spend the money in the game itself.
"Esurance is a major brand in the insurance category, but we're not as well known as our major competitors who spend far more than we do," he said in a statement. "So, maximizing awareness of our innovative offering for customers is important. The Super Bowl is the biggest media event of the year and it offers us the opportunity to efficiently reach a very large audience while making them aware that, because of our innovative options, Esurance is the smarter choice for insurance in today's modern world."
Specs Who: Rob Reilly New gig: Global creative chairman, McCann Worldgroup Old gig: Worldwide chief creative officer, Crispin Porter + Bogusky Age: 45
Why did you create this year's first "Super Clio," recognizing the best Super Bowl ad?
Brands stick their necks out and spend a lot of money. This is the one night where our profession is judged by the country, 30 seconds at a time. For once, we're not the "poor man's movie business." That's why I root for everybody to do well. We all benefited when Wieden + Kennedy and Chrysler pulled off "Imported From Detroit." There were no dogs, babies, punch-in-the-balls jokes. Just a great idea with spectacular writing and flawless execution.
How do you rate McCann's work?
Our Chevy work is very good; we're doing great work for Coke globally; (co-branded ads for) Coca-Cola and Walmart and for MasterCard. We're doing these great things, but we don't do them often enough. That's the goal: How do we make sure we're doing it more often and for all of our clients? When you're part of a giant company, there's hero accounts and then there's accounts that don't do great work. I've said every account at the end of year has to have three magical pieces in every office. Accountability's a big thing for me. If you don't give people goals, they don't know if they've succeeded or failed. It's very important that every account we have is attempting to do great work. I have these conversations with clients; this isn't just an internal thing.
Why move from a boutique culture like Crispin to McCann's global network?
I wanted a bigger challenge. Aside from just the size is the exposure to big global accounts. I'm the creative chairman of McCann Worldgroup, not just McCann Erickson, which is a difference I wanted. I was interested in Worldgroup and integration, connecting those different marketing entities and having them work together.
What's your mandate from Worldgroup CEO Harris Diamond?
He said, "I want McCann to be the greatest creative agency in the world. I'll give you everything you need to do it." Great creativity is how you win new business and grow.
Biggest challenge in the new job?
Finding talent and keeping them. Creative people are motivated by what great things they can make. My goal is surrounding them with those opportunities. I want this place to be known for a commitment to evolving the industry beyond what it currently is.
Domestic violence is not the kind of theme you'd expect among the beer, babes and laughs of Super Bowl advertising. But the National Football League, still stinging from the public outcry over the way it handled Baltimore Ravens' Ray Rice's assault of his then fiancée, now his wife, last year, is working to resurrect its image with a public service ad—during the Big Game—that focuses on such abuse.
The ad below, from Grey New York, discreetly avoids any direct images of violence. Based on an actual phone call, the spot opens with a woman calling 911 to order pizza. The operator asks why she's calling 911 for the delivery before realizing why she can't talk freely. He gets the caller's address and assures her help is on the way, even as the woman continues the ruse, asking for a large pie with half pepperoni and half mushrooms. The camera pans across a house, where it looks like an altercation has occurred, with books strewn about a disheveled rug, a punched-out wall and a broken picture of a woman.
The commercial ends with the line: "When it's hard to talk, it's up to us to listen."
The spot is part of the NFL's "No More" campaign that has been running during the league's games. The NFL donated its airtime for the Super Bowl spot and production costs.
The backlash against the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell has already become part of the build-up to the Super Bowl. Sports Illustrated has just reversed itself by agreeing to run a graphic domestic violence ad from the advocacy group Ultraviolet on its website this week. The ad shows a football player brutally attacking a young woman.
In addition to airing on the Super Bowl, the NFL's new spot will run on digital channels and get promotion from celebrity supporters.
For more news about the brands and stars preparing buzzworthy spots, be sure to check our up-to-the-minute Super Bowl Ad Tracker.
After teasing its campaign for the past month, website design company Wix.com has now unveiled its Super Bowl commercial.
To be accurate, the clip below is an extended version of what will run as a :30 during the fourth quarter. In the spot, five former NFL stars try their hands at new (fake) businesses to keep busy during their retirement from football. Terrell Owens is baking humble pies, Brett Favre is serving charcuterie, and Emmitt Smith is opening a line-dancing club. Meanwhile, Franco Harris has started a party planning service, and Larry Allen is literally a one-man towing service.
The TV commercial is the centerpiece of the company's #ItsThatEasy campaign, which spans both TV and digital media. Each of the athletes' fabricated companies has a working website (such as Favre and Carve, Double Deuce Club and Immaculate Receptions), complete with merchandise, online contests and backstories. Wix.com's team is also paying attention to Facebook and Twitter to respond to fans in real-time.
First, she rocked a controversial cover of Vogue with hubby Kanye West. Then she teamed up with Paper Magazine to break the Internet. Now, Kim Kardashian can add an amusing Super Bowl ad for T-Mobile to her list of conquests.
The 30-second spot, by Publicis Seattle, premiered Monday night on Conan O'Brien's TBS show Conan and will air during the Super Bowl as well. Kardashian tweeted about the spot Monday afternoon, and included a photo of her on set.
In the hilariously on-point spot, "Kim Kardashian West, Famous Person" pleads with viewers to pretty please, save your unused data—in pitching T-Mobile's Data Stash offer.
T-Mobile ran three Super Bowl spots last year, including one starring Tim Tebow. This year, in Kardashian's faux PSA, she explains the tragedy that occurs when wireless companies take back unused data from customers, as a depressing piano melody plays.
Kim—who also starred in an underwhelming Skechers Super Bowl ad in 2011—points out here, in mock seriousness, that if you lose all that precious data, you might also miss out on the chance to waste hours looking at snapshots of her trendy outfits and luxurious vacations. Because honestly, who doesn't love checking up on Kimye on Instagram every once in a while?
Newcastle just released its "Band of Brands" regional Super Bowl commercial, and it turns out Jockey, Boost Mobile, Lee Jeans, Brawny and Match.com are among the recognizable brands—along with some lesser-known ones—who are sharing the cost of the ad in exchange for a mention in it.
Jockey is particularly notable cameo, since, like Newcastle, it's a Droga5 client. If Jockey signing up was a favor to its agency, it was a worthwhile one—the briefs get a less-brief appearance (close-up product shot!) than many of the brands here.
The creative approach is amusing, too, with a couple racing around their house, trying to make every brand's pitch in time—sometimes cutting each other off in mid-sentence, as the house gets cluttered and things get desperate.
Unlike last year, when Newcastle punked the Super Bowl with the brilliant "If We Made It" campaign, the brewer is actually buying time in regional markets to air a version of this spot.
"It's the most exciting, most jam-packed, most fiscally responsible big game ad ever," Newcastle says. "It's Newcastle's Band of Brands big game ad, featuring 37 of the universe's best brands … and a dental office in Pittsburgh."
Here's the full list of brands:
AmeriMerch.com, AprilUmbrellas.com, Armstrong Flooring and Ceilings, Beanitos Chips, Blettner Engineering, Boost Mobile, Brawny Paper Towels, Charisma, Detroit Beard Collective, District 78, Dixie, East End Leisure Co., Gladiator GarageWorks, Hello Products Oral Care, Hunt's Tomatoes, JackThreads, Jockey, Kern Group Security, Kibo Active + Leisure Wear, Krave Jerky, Las Vegas, Lee Jeans, Match.com, McClure's Pickles, Mr. Cheese O's, Newcastle Brown Ale, Polished Dental, Quilted Northern, Quinn Popcorn, Rosarita Beans, RO*TEL, Second Chance Custom, Sharper Image, Tessemae's All-Natural Dressings, The Ross Farm, Vanity Fair Napkins, YP.com and Zendure Batteries.
Budweiser melted hearts with its "Puppy Love" commercial on last year's Super Bowl, and is prepping a sequel, "Lost Dog," that's expected to break Wednesday online. But a day early, here is Go Daddy—amusingly deflating Bud's balls a little bit with a spoof that even somewhat matches the plot of the sequel.
Yes, Go Daddy has its own adorable yellow Labrador puppy. And like the one in this year's Bud spot, it's gotten lost—after falling out of a pickup truck when it went over a bump. The little guy runs home as fast as his little legs can carry him … but it's not exactly a sappy ending that awaits him there.
The spot was made by Barton F. Graf 9000. Check out our Q&A with Gerry Graf here, where he talks Go Daddy's approach this year, and the ups and downs of making Super Bowl spots.
Kia has released an extended version of its 60-second Super Bowl ad, and it's a really fun spot with Pierce Brosnan that manages to have its cake and eat it, too—by both celebrating and poking fun at over-the-top Super Bowl spots.
In the spot, the former James Bond is getting briefed by his agent on his role for the ad, which he assumes will be standard action-movie fare. Instead, the agent keeps comically lowering his expectations. It's not a Bond-esque escapade, he explains—just a normal car-driving-through-the-mountain ad.
Along the way, we see each scene play out the way Pierce thinks it should, and then how it actually does. This, of course, makes it a Bond-esque escapade after all—as well as a sly critique of such spectacles (at which Kia, of course, has excelled in the past on game day).
The on-screen text at the end really caps it off. Nice work by David & Goliath.
Those who follow the saga of Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch's media interviews know he is notoriously a man of few words.
Whether it's answering every question with a laid-back "Yeah" or just thanking the press instead of uttering a real response, Lynch has unceremoniously been fined several times for his refusal to talk to journalists. However, not one but two brands—Skittles and Progressive—have now managed to get the tight-lipped athlete to talk.
Skittles, a first-time Super Bowl advertiser, staged a mock press conference with Lynch as part of the teasers for its in-game ads. He answers questions like whether he prefers cat or dog videos, if he wishes he could rush for a 200-yard touchdown, and if he'd rather arrive to the game in a blimp or a jetpack. There's also handfuls of the candy available for Lynch to chomp down on, which is probably why he looks uncharacteristically joyful during the stunt.
Separately, Lynch also sat down to chat with sports reporter Kenny Mayne for Progressive in the amusingly off-kilter video below. They mostly just play word association, although at one point Marshawn shares his love of Progressive's spokeswoman, purring, "I'm all about that Flo, boss."
The Progressive campaign is also raising money for Lynch's charity, Fam 1st Family Foundation. The running back has signed a pair of cleats, which will be sold on eBay—with all proceeds benefiting the foundation.
Award-winning singer and actor Jennifer Hudson is fronting American Family Insurance's new #DreamFearlessly ad campaign, which debuts in regional broadcasts of the Super Bowl on Feb. 1.
Hudson was part of her church choir before singing on a Disney Cruise Lines ship and then competing on American Idol. And she was selected to capture the aspirational underpinnings of the initial work from American Family's new agency, BBDO New York. It's part of a larger marketing effort that will appear throughout the first quarter of this year, including in regional broadcasts of the Grammy and Academy awards later in February.
The regional Super Bowl ad is set in a '40s-era diner and features Hudson with five other aspiring artists. Set against the song "O-o-h Child," the campaign uses the new tag: "Insure carefully, dream fearlessly."
New online teasers show the reaction of the actual aspiring entertainers who were chosen to appear in the commercial with Hudson. The TV ads will be supported by print, radio, digital and social initiatives.
The Super Bowl ad will be seen by some 33 million consumers in American Family's operating states. The work marks the third year the Madison, Wisc., company has advertised regionally in the game.
For more news about the brands and stars preparing buzzworthy spots, be sure to check our up-to-the-minute Super Bowl Ad Tracker.
On the same day it released its 2015 Super Bowl ad online, GoDaddy quickly responded to a wave of criticism from dog advocates and said it would not air the spot on the game.
The 30-second ad featured a golden retriever puppy finding its way home after falling out of a truck, only to find its owner has used GoDaddy to set up a website that lets her promptly sell the dog to a new owner. The ad seemed to be an attempt at satirizing Budweiser's highly anticipated "Lost Dog," a follow-up to 2014 Super Bowl favorite "Puppy Love."
But many in the animal rescue community swiftly pointed out that dogs purchased online often come from "puppy mills," and the hashtag #GoDaddyPuppy became a rallying point for critics.
GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving responded to the ad's critics on Twitter this afternoon, vowing "we will not air it."
Thank you @animalrescuers for the candid feedback. What should have been a fun and funny ad clearly missed the mark and we will not air it.
GoDaddy officials could not be reached for further comment. Gerry Graf, who runs the agency that made the spot, Barton F. Graf 9000, declined to comment.
UPDATE: At around 6:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Irving posted a longer explanation to the GoDaddy blog—confirming the ad won't run on the game, but saying the company will still air something during the telecast. "We are pulling the ad from the Super Bowl," he wrote. "You'll still see us in the Big Game this year, and we hope it makes you laugh."
The YouTube video was also removed around the same time.
Here's the spot as it was initially intended to air:
Adweek responsive video player used on /video.
Animal rights advocate Helena Yurcho also launched a Change.org petition Tuesday demanding the ad be pulled. It was quickly closing in on 40,000 signatures Tuesday afternoon.
"Essentially, GoDaddy is encouraging private breeding/puppy mills while shelter animals wait patiently for their forever homes or worse—to be euthanized," she wrote. "They are also encouraging purchasing an animal online; the animal could be sold to someone who runs a fighting ring, someone who abuses animals, or to someone who cannot adequately care for the animal. Animal rights are no laughing matter and to portray them as such is cruel and irresponsible."
PETA director Colleen O'Brien weighed in on the controversy with a statement to Adweek: "Go Daddy's now-yanked commercial showed that anyone who sells a dog online is a callous jerk. PETA liked that about the ad. The sale of animals online and from pet stores and breeders should be roundly condemned, and it was today. GoDaddy did the right thing by swiftly promoting adoption. PETA's message is that when you buy a dog from a pet store or a breeder, a dog in an animal shelter dies."
On YouTube, the clip received more than 800 comments, many of them negative. Dog breeders and animal rescuers alike critiqued the spot for sending a negative message.
"Puppies thrown in a cardboard box in the back of a pickup?" asked one anonymous commenter. "Most likely being transported from puppy mill to broker since no mother in sight? No health tests on parents? Breeder too lazy for a proper kennel name?"
Several breeders defended their industry by joining in the chorus of those angry at the spot. "Proper breeders make sure their puppies go to good homes!" noted one. "They do not send them to just anyone not knowing how or where the dog will be treated, etc. A good dog breeder loves their puppy enough to take them back and keep them if they can't find a good situation."
But in the end it appears to have been the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Monterey, California, that sparked a decisive response from the CEO:
You don't need a big-screen TV to watch Super Bowl XLIX. With the growth of digital platforms, there's plenty of ways to view the game. Whether you're more comfortable keeping tabs in real time with social media or you just like to watch the 30-second spots, we've created this handy flow chart to help you navigate a plethora of options. Don't worry: For those of you who hate football and commercials, we've got you covered, too.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is running a 30-second spot during the big game's third quarter, Adweek has learned. The ad will push Jublia, a topical solution approved last June by the Food and Drug Administration that's designed to treat onychomycosis, a fungal infection of toe nails.
The spot, "Tackle It," was created by healthcare shop Harrison and Star and will feature football-based animation from digital shop Th1ng. The brand's marketers don't plan to tease its commercial before it appears during Sunday's game.
Valeant's Super Bowl ad purchase—which will cost roughly $4.5 million—comes on the heels of a Reuters article from December that indicated that the Quebec-based company wanted to push Jublia and a few other new products hard while it scales back on acquisitions.
The billion-dollar pharma player, which develops products in neurology, dermatology and branded generics, said the commercial represents an evolution of Jublia's ongoing multichannel campaign, which includes digital and print ads.
Sequels are tough. For every Godfather Part II, there's a Godfather Part III. But Budweiser and Anomaly had such a big hit with "Puppy Love" on last year's Super Bowl, they couldn't resist going back to the well for another look at the "Best Buds"—the Clydesdales and their favorite golden Lab. (Bud's actually calling it the third installment in a trilogy, counting 2013's "Brotherhood.")
And so here it is: "Lost Dog." Like last year's ad, it was directed by RSA's Jake Scott. We won't spoil the plot, such as it is—the title tells you most of what you need to know. The Clydesdales, of course, come to the rescue of the wayward puppy, whom you'll remember from the first ad has a tendency to roam and isn't too concerned for his own safety.
Once again, music plays a key role here. This time we get a reworked version of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the Proclaimers, performed by Sleeping at Last. It's a slow, acoustic version—more downbeat and poignant-sounding than last year's choice, which was "Let Her Go" by Passenger. ("Brotherhood" was set to Fleetwood Mac's classic hit "Landslide.")
"Lost Dog" is nicely produced, and will be well liked. But "Puppy Love" was a richer, more engaging story—that spot's subtle parallels between the puppy/Clydesdale and the horse trainer/puppy adoption owner built a real connection over 60 seconds. This spot leans more on simple cuteness. It's a decent sequel—but perhaps not a world-beating one.
Anheuser-Busch sent over these facts about "Lost Dog": • Eight puppies—seven females and one male—are featured in the spot, all of which were just 11-12½ weeks old at the time of filming. • Seven Budweiser Clydesdales underwent training for three months to fine-tune their skills for the ad. • It was shot at a ranch outside Santa Barbara, Calif., in early December. • Actor Don Jeanes reprises his role as Budweiser Clydesdale trainer for a third time. Don is originally from Houston and now lives in Los Angeles.
The ad premiered on NBC's Today show Wednesday, which aired some behind-the-scenes footage as well:
