Our top five Super Bowl LVII commercials
By Assisi Azzopardi on Tuesday, February 14, 2023
With Super Bowl ads reported to have cost a record-high average of $7million for a 30-second clip, it was more important than ever for companies to break through the noise! So, who were the heroes? Famous Campaigns has analysed our transatlantic neighbours’ Super Bowl ads to reveal (in our humble opinion) the top five…
Coming in at number one, is Booking.com’s ‘Somewhere, Anywhere’, featuring Melissa McCarthy. McCarthy sings that she is determined to go ‘Somewhere…anywhere.. a beach house, a tree house, honestly I don’t care’ – highlighting to viewers that booking the holiday is half the fun. The 30-second clip jam packs a whirlwind musical of hotel tours, vacation rentals and McCarthy sporting a variety of wigs; the creative was developed by Zulu Alpha Kilo, with Mindshare managing the media planning and strategy. The online travel agency’s ad amassed a whopping 99.5m YouTube views – making it the current champion for the highest number of YouTube views* for the 2023 Super Bowl ads
Taking the second spot, is T-Mobile’s ‘New Year. New Neighbor’, with John Travolta, Donald Faison and Zach Braff; the ad sees Travolta move into a new neighbourhood as himself – an American acting icon, where he describes setting up home internet as a ‘pain’. Enter Faison and Braff – who exclaim with the delight the benefits of T-Mobile’s home internet. Oh, and did we mention that these exchanges are during a cover of Grease’s iconic ‘Summer Night’s’? By the end of the clip Travolta is more than convinced about T-Mobile’s home internet, with the trio exclaiming ‘Tell me more’, just like the musical. It’s, therefore, not a surprise that T-Mobile’s ‘New Year. New Neighbor’ was the second most viewed Super Bowl ad of 2023*, with 35million views.
UberEats promoting their Uber One membership service, also deserved a place in the top five Super Bowl ads of 2023. The 30-second clip features the hip-hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and his team – who state on behalf of him that ‘Diddy don’t do jingles’, when questioned by executives of Uber if he would produce a song to promote Uber One service. However, by the end of the corporate meeting, Diddy and his team agreed that they would produce one hit song for Uber One, NOT a jingle!
Next up, is Pepsi’s ‘Great Acting or Great Taste?’ ad – which is Pepsi’s first Super Bowl advertisement in three years and sees Ben Stiller reprise his infamous Zoolander role. The ad makes fun of the typical transactional relationship between advertisers and celebrities, as Stiller speculates whether actors tell the truth when they plug a brand – which also shines a light on consumer scepticism towards advertisers. The 57-second advert (solely featuring Stiller) also formed a longer 4-minute ad, which featured both Stiller and Steve Martin.
To conclude Famous Campaign’s top five Super Bowl ads of 2023, is Disney100’s ‘Special Look’ clip – to mark Disney’s 100th anniversary that will take place later this year. The 90-second commercial highlights the company’s milestone anniversary and shines a light on the distinctive old and new Disney films, from Mary Poppins to Avatar, which encourages fans and storytellers to reflect on the legacy and magical moments of Disney.
*Stats found in Variety article
