AS dangerous as it may be to generalize, it is probably safe to say that few folks think of Marcel Proust as they watch the Super Bowl. But for the advertising bowl that took place inside Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday, it was one long remembrance of things past — with candy bars, mobile phones and beer bottles standing in for madeleines.
Nostalgia is a critical component of the pitches from sponsors on Super Bowl Sunday. After all, the best way to appeal to a mass audience of 100 million or so Americans is usually to fill spots with paeans to the past along with catchy music, stars, special effects, talking babies and endearing animals.
Even so, the salutes on Sunday to bygone eras reached a peak perhaps not seen since the last time Fonzie said “Ayyyy” on “Happy Days.” The reason is, of course, the economy and the belief along Madison Avenue that tough times call for familiarity rather than risks.
How retro was Super Bowl XLIV? Let us count the ways it resembled Super Bowl XXXIV, XXIV, XIV and even IV:
¶There were celebrities of a certain age, on screen or as announcers, among them Don Rickles, for Teleflora; Abe Vigoda and Betty White, for Snickers; and Stevie Wonder, forVolkswagen.
¶Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo, who first appeared together in 1983 as the hapless travelers Clark and Ellen Griswold in the movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” recreated their roles for a spot for HomeAway, a service for renting vacation homes.
¶A commercial for the Census Bureau was directed by Christopher Guest in a style reminiscent of the films he has written and directed, like “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984).
¶There were enough vintage athletes to fill a locker room — or a trainer’s room. They included Lance Armstrong, for Michelob Ultra; Charles Barkley, for Taco Bell; Brett Favre, for Hyundai; and members of the Chicago Bears “Shuffling Crew” who won the 1986 Super Bowl, for Boost Mobile.
¶Among the old-school rock acts heard were Cheap Trick, for Audi; the Electric Light Orchestra, for Select 55 beer; Kiss, for Dr Pepper Cherry; Kool and the Gang, for the HondaAccord Crosstour; and Bill Withers, for the Dante’s Inferno video game sold by Electronic Arts.
¶A commercial for the 2011 Kia Sorento from Kia Motors America featured childhood toys like Sock Monkey and a teddy bear.
¶Executives at Anheuser-Busch InBev changed their minds about leaving the venerable Budweiser Clydesdales out of the game and scheduled a schmaltzy spot about a horse and its pasture-mate, a bull.
Who says nostalgia isn’t what it used to be?
Other sponsors revived several other overused Super Bowl ad tactics aimed at younger viewers.
Doritos, KGB and Motorola, among others, tried slapstick violence. And women were objectified by the likes of Bridgestone, Bud Light, GoDaddy, Motorola and Vizio.
Critters were plot devices in spots from Bridgestone, Cars.com, Coca-Cola, Denny’s, Doritos, American Honda Motor, Monster.com and the TruTV cable channel, formerly Court TV. And the sight gags included men without pants, for Dockers; a depressed robot, for Intel; a bridge made of human beings, for Budweiser; and people behaving like dolphins, forDiamond Foods.
Sigh. It may take an economic recovery, even a boom, for Super Bowl advertisers to start taking chances again.
There were other high and low points among the commercials shown nationally on CBS during the game. The spots were among more than 40 provided to reporters before Sunday night.
ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV The best among the eight commercials for four beer brands were the Budweiser spot that brought back the Clydesdales and a clever Bud Light commercial, reminiscent of the “Whassup?” phone freaks, in which guys emulated the Auto-Tuned voice of the rapper T-Pain. Agencies: DDB Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group, for Budweiser, and Cannonball, for Bud Light.
AUDI Officious “green police” punish citizens who are not sufficiently eco-conscious, but an owner of an Audi A3 TDI with clean-diesel technology drives away scot-free. This misguided spot put the “mental” in “environmental.” Agency: Venables Bell & Partners.
BRIDGESTONE One commercial had a misogynistic punch line — a driver gives up his wife rather than his tires — that was reminiscent of last year’s sour, stereotypical spot about a talkative wife. The second commercial was far better, paying homage to “The Hangover” with a killer whale replacing the tiger. Agency: the Richards Group.
COCA-COLA Cartoons came through again for Coke. In 2008, a spot with Charlie Brown, Stewie of “Family Guy” and Underdog was a huge hit. Two years later, a commercial featuring “The Simpsons” generated warm smiles. Agency: Wieden & Kennedy.
DENNY’S Screaming chickens are silly, but the ad featuring them makes it hard for viewers to ignore that Denny’s is bringing back its popular Grand Slam breakfast giveaways. Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, part of Omnicom.
DIAMOND FOODS It’s two, two, two ads in one as Diamond Foods stuffed a pair of products into a single 30-second spot. Another 30 seconds, even 15, could have made the joke — snackers will do anything for Emerald Nuts and Pop-Secret popcorn — more memorable. Agency: Goodby, Silverstein.
E*TRADE The shtick of the talking baby was refreshed in a clever commercial that compared diversifying a stock portfolio to playing the field. Agency: Grey New York, part of the Grey Group division of WPP.
GODADDY As tired and pointless as the “sexy” spots for GoDaddy were, CBS deserves plaudits for rejecting a commercial the company also wanted to run that some found homophobic. Shame on channels like Comedy Central for accepting the awful ad. Agency: In-house.
HOMEAWAY The Chase-D’Angelo reunion worked because the commercial made a product-focused plea: The HomeAway Web site helps travelers avoid vacations that family and friends will lampoon. Agency: Publicis in the West, part of the Publicis Groupe.
MONSTER.COM Why did a magazine called The Beaver feel compelled to rename itself Canada’s History, but a commercial for Monster.com could be devoted to a violin-playing beaver? Maybe the CBS censors believed it was a groundhog like the one in the wacky spot for TruTV. Agencies: BBDO New York, part of the BBDO Worldwide unit of Omnicom, for Monster.com, and Grey New York for TruTV, owned by Time Warner.
<nyt_update_bottom></nyt_update_bottom>