Dogs win the super bowl ad lineup, surveys show
From Ben Affleck to Snoop Dogg, celebrities were all over Super Bowl ad breaks. But it was one suprising set of stars that stole the show.
Ads with canine co-stars pulled a disproportionate degree of emotional weight in a Super Bowl filled with famous faces, alcohol brands and entreaties to explore Christianity, according to the first consumer surveys about the commercials.
The winner of USA Today’s annual Super Bowl Ad Meter was a commercial for dog-food delivery company Farmer’s Dog Inc. that tracked one chocolate Lab’s relationship with its owner from puppyhood to old age.
Two more ads in the top six featured man’s best friend, said USA Today video journalist Ralphie Aversa, at least if you include a Bud Light ad that depicted the married actors Miles Teller and Keleigh Sperry dancing through a customer-service call with their dog Bugsy. The Bud Light ad took sixth place in USA Today’s popularity contest, for which more than 150,000 people registered to participate, according to USA Today parent company Gannett Co.
Amazon.com Inc. took No. 3 with a story about Sawyer, a dog whose loneliness is resolved by a puppy who arrives in a crate ordered online. Dunkin’s ad starring superfan Ben Affleck with a cameo by his wife, Jennifer Lopez, took No. 4 on the Ad Meter.
The USA Today rankings had some overlap with other results.
Research by Ace Metrix, a unit of TV ad measurement firm iSpot.tv Inc., crowned Jeep’s Super Bowl commercial as the most likeable of the night.
The ad shows wild animals dancing as a pair of Jeeps drive by blasting the song “Electric Boogie.” Jeep was followed on the Ace Metrix likability ranking by Amazon’s commercial at No. 2, Disney’s celebration of its 100 years of movies and TV at No. 3 and Farmer’s Dog at No. 4.
PepsiCo Inc. snack brand PopCorners’ homage to TV meth drama “Breaking Bad” and rapper Snoop Dogg’s tribute to Skechers sneakers, meanwhile, were judged to be most successful in persuading respondents to consider buying the products in question, according to Ace Metrix.
Activity on social media revealed more winners, according to researchers. Streaming-video service Tubi, owned by Fox Corp., easily scored the most mentions on Twitter with a prank ad designed to make users think their TVs were malfunctioning, according to social media software firm Sprout Social. Tubi earned more than double the mentions of runner-up PopCorners, Sprout Social said.
But both brands fell well behind Rihanna’s cosmetics line Fenty Beauty, which didn’t buy an ad during the Super Bowl but scored 16,432 mentions after the pop star applied some makeup during her halftime-show performance, according to Sprout Social.
PopCorners generated the most mentions across social-media platforms leading into the game among advertisers that released their ads or teasers ahead of time, while Alicia Silverstone’s starring role in Rakuten’s “Clueless”-themed ad was the most-discussed celebrity appearance before kickoff, according to social-media measurement company Synthesio, which tracks platforms including Twitter, Instagram and Reddit.
Mr. Affleck and Ms. Lopez were the No. 1 and No. 2 Super Bowl-ad-related celebrities mentioned on social media both during and after the game, Synthesio said. Ms Silverstone dropped to No. 9 after the Rakuten ad aired.
The lowest-ranking Ad Meter entries promoted the Las Vegas residency of Irish rock band U2, Mars Inc.’s M&M’s and Temu, an e-commerce platform launched in the U.S. last year by a Chinese company.
M&M’s successfully stirred up publicity weeks ago by claiming that its “spokescandies” would go on “indefinite pause” after changes to their appearances proved to be “polarising.” But in ads that aired both during and after the game, the brand revealed that its candy icons weren’t, in fact, going anywhere.
“In past years, we’ve seen the majority of Super Bowl conversation generated in the weeks leading up to the Big Game,” a Mars spokeswoman said. “Each element of this campaign was designed to deliver humour through the lens of our purpose, and we wanted to use the weeks leading up to the game to explore a full story arc to engage with consumers.” That narrative failed to resonate with consumers during the game and left many scratching their heads, according to USA Today’s Mr. Aversa.
Temu bombarded viewers by airing the same 30-second ad twice during the game and twice after the game. A spokeswoman said the brand wanted to raise awareness of its low prices, but the message didn’t make a strong positive impression on the Ad Meter.
Viewers’ unfamiliarity with the Temu brand can’t explain the weak showing, Mr. Aversa said. “Before last night, a lot of people didn’t know what The Farmer’s Dog was,” and that ad did well, he said.
The Wall Street Journal
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