NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Boston accents got poked. 鈥淕roundhog Day鈥� got 鈥� surprise 鈥� resurrected, complete with Bill Murray. Google pulled out tears, and Cheetos and Doritos danced.
All to the tune of $5.6 million for 30 seconds 鈥� to reach 100 million people with your product.
During advertising鈥檚 biggest night, Super Bowl Sunday, marketers battled it out to bolster their brands. Some got it exactly right. Some didn鈥檛. Here鈥檚 your Monday morning quarterbacking rundown.
Best
Hyundai
The automaker released its ad early, but it still drew fans during the game. Boston-affiliated celebrities including actor Chris Evans, John Krasinski, Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch and former Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz discussed a Hyundai feature that lets car owners park remotely with exaggerated accents that make 鈥淪mart Park鈥� sound like 鈥渟maht pahk.鈥�
Jeep
Super Bowl Sunday was on Groundhog Day, so someone had to do it. Fiat Chrysler painstakingly recreated the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day,” including the town square and other locales, with original actors Bill Murray, Brian Doyle Murray and Stephen Tobolowsky. The twist: instead of a Chevrolet truck, Murray uses a Jeep Gladiator truck. FCA Group marketing chief Olivier Francois said the ad worked to demonstrate the versatility of the Jeep truck since Murray does something different every day.
Google鈥檚 90-second ad stood out by not using humor or celebrities. It features a man reminiscing about his wife, using the Google Assistant feature to pull up old photos of her and past vacations. The ad is set to an instrumental version of 鈥淪ay Something鈥� by Great Big World. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so hard to write earnestly and not make it cheesy,” said Julia Neumann, executive creative director at ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day in New York. 鈥淭his was really, really well done.鈥�
Cheetos
Cheetos used nostalgia effectively, appropriating the 30 year old MC Hammer classic 鈥淯 Can鈥檛 Touch This鈥� 鈥� still an earworm after all these years. The snack-food ad features a man with bright orange Cheetos dust on his hands who uses it as an excuse not to move furniture and perform office tasks. Hammer himself 鈥� 鈥淗ammer pants鈥� and all 鈥� also kept popping up to utter his iconic catchphrase.
Doritos
The brand added a silly danceoff to 鈥淥ld Town Road,鈥� the smash hit of the summer by Lil Nas X. In the Western-themed ad, Lil Nas faced off with grizzled character actor Sam Elliott with silly, sometimes CGI-enhanced dances moves at the “Cool Ranch.” Billy Cyrus, who features in the song鈥檚 remix, also made a cameo.
Planters
Planters teased its Super Bowl ad nearly two weeks before the game, releasing a teaser that showed its Mr. Peanut mascot seemingly being killed. The “death” of Mr. Peanut went viral on Twitter. But when Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash, the marketing stunt suddenly seemed insensitive, so Planters paused its pre-game advertising. The actual Super Bowl ad was relatively inoffensive, with a baby Mr. Peanut appearing at the funeral. 鈥淏aby Nut鈥� comparisons to 鈥淏aby Yoda鈥� and 鈥淏aby Groot鈥� sprung up online.
Worst
Avocados from Mexico
Avocados from Mexico have carved out a niche with humorous ads featuring avocados, but they may have veered a little too far into “random” territory with this effort featuring a home shopping network with fake products such as a baby carrier-like device for avocados. “I thought the Avocados from Mexico spot felt like a random and gratuitous use of celebrity,” said Steve Merino, chief creative officer of Aloysius, Butler & Clark in Wilmington, Delaware. 鈥淣ot only did it not make sense to have Molly Ringwald as your spokesperson, it was also a bit of a distraction.鈥�
Pop-Tarts
Kellogg’s went for quirky but ended up with a bland spot that isn’t likely to be remembered. In a pseudo infomercial, Jonathan Van Ness of 鈥淨ueer Eye鈥� describes the new Pop Tarts pretzel snack. The idea is that Pop Tarts adds pizazz to pretzels, but the ad itself failed to have much spark.
Squarespace
Winona Ryder went back to Winona, Minnesota 鈥� which she is named after 鈥� to create a website for the town. But nothing much happened in the ad, which shows Ryder in a snowdrift on her laptop being confronted by a “Fargo”-like cop. There’s a more involved marketing campaign with Ryder, but the Super Bowl ad didn’t communicate much.
Hard Rock International
Hard Rock International went all in on its first Super Bowl ad, maybe too much so. It enlisted Michael Bay for a frenetic commercial showing a frenzied heist caper involving Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, DJ Khaled, Pitbull, and Steven Van Zandt 鈥� but some found it hard to follow.
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