BBDO New York is taking home the inaugural Super Clio for the best commercial in Sunday's Big Game. The agency's Brady Bunch ad for Snickers, featuring Sons of Anarchy actor Danny Trejo and Steve Buscemi, is the latest rendition of the "You're not you when you're hungry" pitch, launched in 2010. And it shows the campaign's jokes are only getting better over time.
The spot won out over three other finalists:
- Loctite's "Positive Feelings" by Fallon, Minneapolis
- Always' "#LikeAGirl" by Leo Burnett, Chicago
- Nomore.org's official NFL Super Bowl ad by Grey, New York
The BBDO commercial shows Marcia Brady brushing her hair and being so grumpy that she turns into villain Trejo (a frequent collaborator of filmmaker Robert Rodriguez). According to Clio, judges chose the commercial for "originality, innovation and stand-out celebrity cameos." Snickers released a Super Bowl teaser on Jan. 21 and the full 30-second spot on Jan. 29, after consumers generated 2.5 million hits in social media requesting to see the ad before the game's kickoff on Feb. 1. BBDO executive creative directors Peter Kain and Gianfranco Arena, who have worked on the Snickers' campaign since its 2010 debut with Betty White, were behind the winning effort.
McCann Worldgroup global creative chairman Rob Reilly came up with the idea for Clio Creative Bowl recognition for advertising's biggest annual event and served as a judge.
"It's really difficult to create a version of the same campaign every year and to keep it fresh," he said of the winning spot. "While you can say you've seen a similar version of the Snickers creative before, we should also applaud the fact that they found a way to keep it fresh and inventive."
BBDO's Kain said it was especially tough for him and his partner, knowing the commercial would mark the brand's return to the Super Bowl after a three-year absence. "You don't want to deviate, but we knew we needed something fresh so we decided to tell the story in the context of the TV show, which is burned into people's minds even though it was only on the air for four years."
Lining up the rights to the show and getting the celebrities on board was complicated enough. But the two BBDO executive creative directors also had to watch all four years of episodes to find a scene in which the Brady parents, sitting on the sofa, interact with the family's two daughters, Marcia and Jan, in just the right way to enable mouth replacement voiceovers.
Clio Creative Bowl judges included Ted Royer, chief creative officer, Droga5; Gerry Graf, founder, chief creative officer, Barton F. Graf 9000; Glenn Cole, founder, chief creative officer, 72andSunny; Colleen DeCourcy, global executive creative director, Wieden + Kennedy; David Lubars, worldwide chief creative officer, BBDO; Susan Credle, U.S. chief creative officer, Leo Burnett; Steve Simpson, North American chief creative officer, Ogilvy & Mather; Rob Schwartz, New York CEO, TBWA\Chiat\Day; and Tim Nudd, creative editor, Adweek.
The Super Clio trophy was presented to BBDO this afternoon, Feb. 2. Adweek and Clio are owned by affiliates of Guggenheim Partners.