Local ad industry dishes on this year’s Super Bowl ads – the fumbles and the touchdowns

The Ad Bowl panel critiqued some of the biggest spots from this year’s game. (Jonathan Spiers)

If you tuned in to Super Bowl LIX last week, you likely saw some commercials with a Richmond touch.

There were 17 ad campaigns shown during the game that involved contributions from 30 VCU Brandcenter alumni, according to VCU. That means this year’s big game was not only the most-watched Super Bowl of all-time, but also the Super Bowl with one of the largest connections to Richmond’s ad community in its history. 

With that involvement in mind, nearly 60 advertising and marketing professionals gathered last week for the Advertising Club of Richmond’s annual “Ad Bowl” event. 

Held at BES Studios on Old Osborne Turnpike, the event included a panel of some of the brightest names in the local advertising scene dissecting and critiquing a host of multimillion-dollar ads that aired during the game. 

Brand Federation CEO Kelly O’Keefe moderated the panel, which included Lindsey King and Frederick Nduna, creative directors at the Martin Agency, Justin Bajan, co-founder and creative director of Familiar Creatures, and Lauren Galanides, senior producer at Arts & Letters Creative Co. 

The Ad Bowl panel disliked some spots more than others, including a WeatherTech spot pictured here. (Jonathan Spiers)

The night kicked off with a viewing of a few ads that Richmonders had a hand in, including the Martin Agency’s 30-second “Ritz Salty Club” spot featuring the famously salty actors Aubrey Plaza and Michael Shannon alongside smiling musician Bad Bunny all trying Ritz crackers.

Also showcased was one of two Richmond-based Homes.com ads featuring Morgan Freeman, Heidi Gardner and Dan Levy. The commercial showed Gardner and Levy reprising their roles as real estate executives debating whether they can legally call Homes.com the best, with a surprise cameo from Freeman at the end. 

The Homes.com ad was created by Los Angeles-based advertising agency RPA. Homes.com is the locally based division of real estate data company CoStar Group, which is building a massive office complex on the downtown riverfront. 

First up to be critiqued by the panelists was a 60-second Pfizer spot created by Publicis Groupe, including agencies Le Truc, Leo NY, Collective, and others, set to LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out.” Sans celebrity cameos, the ad follows a young boy during his discharge from the hospital after beating cancer. 

Panelist opinions were mixed, with Bajan noting that it might have been better suited for a 30-second spot as it came to a “screeching halt” in the middle. King agreed, while Nduna praised the ad for its storytelling. 

The panelists had a dimmer view on WeatherTech’s ad featuring wild grannies set to “Born to be Wild” by Steppenwolf. The spot, created by the brand’s longtime agency Pinnacle Advertising, showed the rambunctious seniors breakdancing and driving wildly while protected by WeatherTech products. 

The spot was not a winner for the panelists, with Galanides saying she felt like she’d seen the same concept done before. Nduna also said it should not come as a surprise that people of older generations can be wild and have fun. 

“I don’t buy that this age group acting in this way should be surprising,” he said. 

The real touchdown ad of the night, according to the panelists, was Mountain Dew’s Baja Blast spot that featured singer Seal’s face on a CGI seal body. The “Seal seal” crooned the lyrics to “Kiss from a Lime,” a humorous take on the singer’s 1994 “Kiss from a Rose” hit, while sing-along lyrics appeared at the bottom of the screen.

VCU Brandcenter 2014 alum and copywriter Gabe Sherman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners worked on the spot. 

The “Seal seal” was a big hit with the Ad Bowl panelists. 

“How did nobody think of ‘Seal seal’ sooner? It’s so good,” King said. 

“I don’t know how you don’t have tears in your eyes after watching that,” Bajan added. “It’s just a celebratory moment of the stupidest idea ever.” 

Other Super Bowl LIX ads touched by VCU Brandcenter alumni included Booking.com’s spot starring Kermit the Frog, which involved 2008 alum Tim Gordon, chief creative officer at Zulu Alpha Kilo NY; Michelob Ultra’s ad starring Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara, involving 2017 alum Jessica Sugerman, art director at Wieden + Kennedy NYC; and Yahoo’s spot featuring Bill Murray, involving 2012 alum and freelance copywriter Phil Hadad. 

A list of the Super Bowl ads VCU Brandcenter alumni worked on is available here. 

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