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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, March 29, 2024

Super Bowl 2016 Ad Round Up

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Actor Sir Anthony Hopkins was featured in a Turbotax commercial during the Super Bowl this Sunday.

Super Bowl 50 (Roman numerals are temporarily out this year) is over and the Denver Broncos came out on top, defeating the Carolina Panthers 24 – 10. For those who aren’t particularly interested in football and who think Coldplay has degenerated into grotesque self-parody since 2008 (this writer included), the highlight of the game wasn’t the football or the half-time show but the ads. With the cost of a 30 second commercial now sitting at an eye-watering $5 million (according to Advertising Age, the cost of a commercial increases by roughly 11.1 percent per year), the pressure was really on for modern day Don Drapers to make the most of their limited, super-premium air time.

Here, in no particular order, are the Daily’s top three Super Bowl commercials.

1. Sir Anthony Hopkins – TurboTax

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjouupYFH0g

It’s no secret that A-List celebrities appearing in Super Bowl commercials don’t have any particular loyalty to the product they’re endorsing (it’s doubtful that Hopkins uses TurboTax himself or that Kate Upton adores “Game of War: Fire Age”), but TurboTax’s ad dares to poke fun at the concept of a celebrity sellout. The minute-long ad begins with an interviewer asking Sir Anthony Hopkins if he would ever consider selling out and Hopkins responding by saying “I would never tarnish my name by selling you something, not at all” as he sips from a TurboTax branded teacup. The joke at the core of the ad is that because TurboTax absolute zero is free, Hopkins couldn’t be selling it, because after all, as Hopkins puts it: “it’s free, there’s nothing to sell.” The ad both effectively lampoons the stereotypical celebrity endorsement and fixes the fact that TurboTax is free in the minds of the audience. The spot concludes with Hopkins petting a dog named TurboTax.com that is incidentally wearing a TurboTax branded dog sweater, as the bemused interviewer — like the audience — tries to figure out if he buys Hopkins’ logic.

2. Death Wish Coffee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_3H_Y5QUWw

Intuit Quickbooks paid for this 30-second ad for boutique, extra-caffeinated coffee, Death Wish.The commercial features a storm-battered Viking long ship furiously rowing towards a watery precipice, as a burly, bearded man reminds the rowers that the purpose of life is to die a glorious death and that all aboard the ship shall soon see Valhalla. All of this action happens over an appropriately intense soundtrack, supplied by background music masters “Two Steps from Hell.” As the long ship pitches over the waterfall, a man’s mouth appears and swallows it whole, before the camera cuts to the same man (a bearded Williamsburg hipster type) standing in a well-appointed home and lowering a coffee mug, before smiling approvingly at whatever he just imbibed.

The ad acknowledges the coffee’s name by featuring characters who do in fact have a death wish, while the approving shrug and smile of the coffee drinker remind the audience that putting this coffee in ones’ body is not tantamount to suicide. Expect to have a hard time getting your hands on Death Wish over the coming weeks.

3. Audi R8 – Commander

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diU_09jb4bI

The premise of this ad is simple. An aging astronaut sits in a melancholy stupor, reflecting sadly on his past glories, specifically a mission to the moon. His son, seeing his father’s state, knows just what to do and invites his dad to drive his new Audi R8. The R8, with its advanced dashboard and extreme power, reminds the astronaut of flying the spacecraft that took him to the moon all those years ago and instantly banishes his depression. The ad ends with a shot of the R8 driving along a winding road at night with the moon looming large in the sky. While comparing the sensation of driving a sports car to that of flying to the moon may seem like a stretch, the ad nevertheless elicits a smile and is rendered extra poignant with the late musical titan David Bowie's song “Starman”(1972) providing the ad’s soundtrack.