Car brands were by far the most represented category in this year’s Super Bowl advertising. No surprise and certainly no major shift from prior years. But since cars do tend to dominate, I thought it would be important to single them out and celebrate them as a category. Because the category is rich!
First up for me would be Ford. The spot came early in the night, as we were gearing up for what would be quite the game. While not as emotionally driven as some of the others, It was the most future-forward-looking of the lot, which I found intriguing.
Everyone at my Super Bowl party was happy to see the spot from Honda. Clever and inspiring is how we all characterized it. “When you start out, you might not know where you’re going or what you’re doing.” We can all relate.
The surprise of the night came from Hyundai with a real-time salute to our troops where the brand allowed some of our finest to celebrate the Super Bowl with their families. It came at the end of the game (before OT), and was a culmination of what they’d been watching and filming all night long. Bravo!
Certainly the most talked about car ad came from Audi. It got a lot of buzz pre-game, with everyone commenting on the cultural statement that the brand was trying to make. “What do I tell my daughter?”
To be fair, there was a lot of conversation about how relevant any of this messaging is coming from a car brand. Fair point, except for the spot from Ford which portrayed very clearly how their innovation can help family life. But I would argue that cars in general are a huge part of American culture, as are many of the themes that were presented by the advertisers. Progress, ambition, fear, safety, protection, family...we all have these things in common so I personally see no reason why a car brand can’t tackle any one of them.
I’m glad to see that they tackled them.