Super Bowl Car Ads - Touchdown Pass or Missed Extra Point?
Around Super Bowl time some of the top auto makers come up with the big bucks needed to get an advert in front of possibly the year's biggest TV audience. If you sell cars, nothing can kick off your season like getting it right on game day.
The big question is, do they? Here's the potential game-winning line-up, but are they the precision six-point pass that gets you on your feet cheering, or the fumble on third and long that has you burying your head in your hands?
So here we are with the first play, an update on Matthew Broderick's popular film, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". It's clearly a big budget production, and there's plenty going on, but unfortunately for fans of performance cars our hero isn't in the Ferrari of the original - he's in a Honda - and not a tuned sportster but a CR-V. As a take on the original film it's not bad. It's certainly not The Fast And The Furious though.
Next we definitely have a supercar - The new Acura NSX hybrid - and who do you think want's one? It's those two well-known car collectors (and comedians), Jerry Seinfield and Jay Leno. The problem is, there's only one vehicle available. Seinfield takes up most of the advert, trying to convince the salesman that he should get the keys. We won't spoil the end, but for us it's a shame you don't see the new NSX in action.
Third we have all the elements you need in a mini-movie: vampires, a great soundtrack, and a decent story. Good-looking car too. This time the advert is from Audi and as you might expect it's slick and well produced. There's even clever a twist at the end. It may not have you laughing out loud, but we think it will raise a smile. Certainly good enough to make you want to see it again - and isn't that what any good ad should do?
We're at the mid-point now, so what do you expect at half-time? Someone to put on a really good show. Something with a bit of magic. It comes from Kia and it's a minute-and-a-half that brings you an overdose of fairy dust, a race track, a rocking sound track from Motley Crue, a guy on a rhino, kickboxing... no, I'm not making this up. You've really got to see this one: very silly and quite superb.
Our fifth offering is from Cadillac, and what you might call a "classic" card ad - short, to the point, and pretty much all action. The car in question is the Cadillac ATS, built as a direct challenge to the BMW 3-series. So what do you do if you want to take on arguably the world's best sporting compact? You take your car to their back-yard - the fearsome and legendary Nürburgring. If the car lives up to the advert, it's going to be an interesting ride.
The sixth slot goes to Hyundai, a manufacturer following on from their 2012 North American Car of the Year award for the Elantra with not one, but a whole gang of adverts. Just before kick-off there's "Rocky" - you'll soon see what we mean. Among the others is "Cheetah" - an actual big cat in a drag race with their impressive Velostar Turbo, and "Think Fast" - how to administer CPR using a Genesis Coupe R-Spec. Now we've said that, you just have to watch, don't you.
Last - and whether least or not is up to you - are Volkswagen. You know it's going to be big budget, you expect it to be unique - but there's been some controversy surrounding the teaser that has already aired. The version to be shown during the game is supposed to inspire dogs - and people we guess - to get leaner and fitter like the new Beetle. Yes, it's an ad for the beetle. Sorry we couldn't finish off with a grand performance car battle as the clock winds down, but sadly we don't make the ads.
Now if that was us, Lamborghini Aventador meets Ferrari 458, just the motors as sound track echoing back off canyon walls...
About In Sixth Gear:
Here at In Sixth Gear we understand the kind of passion the big game evokes - it's the same kind of passion we have for performance cars and it's helped us build a nationwide reputation for exceptional aftermarket performance auto parts and accessories like the superb ADV.1 wheels. The other ingredient is unrivaled customer support. We find what people need whether that's a wheel nut for a vintage vehicle, or a sought-after supercar from our carefully selected range of sports cars for sale.