Amuse Bouche #25 - Super Bowl vs. The Olympics Commercials

Welcome back. This is Amuse Bouche and I'm Bridget. Here you're getting a little bit of Bridget before our weekly release of Dinner Plus Drinks on Sunday. And this week we're talking about commercials. Exciting, right? Before I dive in, I just want to apologize. I know we've missed a couple weeks of Amose Boosh. Um, quite frankly, we've just had sick kids and a lot of changes at work and just uh a little bit of overwhelm, to be honest. So I had a really awesome episode that my lovely, lovely um technology cut off 10 minutes of, and it was such a good one. So I got a little upset about that. Took a week off. So I'm back, and this this just uh this is the first thing that kind of has to go if we can't handle it all. So I'm back and I'm talking to you about commercials. Ha ha. So when the Super Bowl and Olympics collide, like the nerd marketer in me gets excited. So I went to school originally for advertising in PR, and I actually, like generally speaking, like commercials. Uh my husband gets super mad. Most people hate them, I find, but I really like them. Um, when I was like when I was in school as my whole childhood, I don't know when it changed or stopped, but like commercials were part of watching TV. Netflix, Hulu, all of that was just like not as prevalent, and you couldn't pay to not see commercials. So we would spend our precious like three minutes of commercials making food, running to our room, like getting another blanket and waiting for our sibling to yell, it's on from the living room. I'm guessing you can relate. So that's fun, but like those times are gone. I kind of miss them because I did use my commercials as like my productive time. So I felt like watching TV was more productive. Um, so now literally my kids cry when a commercial comes on. Uh they're they're a little better now, but like I don't know, a couple months ago, my daughter was watching, I'm sure Spirit, which is their most beloved Netflix show about horses. Um, and she just started sobbing. I'm like, what is wrong? It was a commercial, and she just like didn't know what that was. And so it dawned on me like a million other things that like our our kids just are growing up not understanding what commercials are. So I had to like stop and explain. It's fine. This is a commercial and this is normal. Uh, you know, and whatever. I probably went a little too far for my two-year-old to care. But um, anyway, two huge, two huge sporting events happening right now, right? The Olympics and the Super Bowl. Well, the Super Bowl is over, the Olympics are almost over. So two huge sporting events just happened. Um, the Super Bowl is known for its commercials, uh, but as I was like glued to watching the Olympics because, yes, I know there's all kinds of controversy around the Olympics, I still very much like watching the Olympics. Um, I was glued to watching it, and I got to wondering like why we don't ever really acknowledge Olympics commercials. And I mean, I know why. Like it's spread out over two weeks. It's not necessarily like you're not watching live events and it's all spliced together because it's, you know, halfway across the world. Um, and obviously companies are not spending as much as they are at the Super Bowl, where the Super Bowl is a few hours of captive audience. The Olympics is two weeks, and you know, I I understand why we're not, but I also still don't because quite frankly, I the Olympics commercials have been way better in my opinion. Um, I remember sitting in a marketing class in high school dissecting Super Bowl commercials the Monday after um with Mrs. Shermanhorn. And I yeah, I remember sitting there dissecting them in college. Like I wrote, I don't know, it was like some sort of senior thesis or seminar paper on Super Bowl commercials. So I and like the ROI that companies receive from them. So are they worth it? How much are they paying? What's the most expensive? I wrote a whole research paper on it, like back when we were learning how to properly cite things. Um, so anyway, so I nerd out on these commercials every year for the Super Bowl, and then I love when they happen to coincide with the Olympics as well. So Olympic commercials versus Super Bowl commercials. I'm gonna just make note of a few commercials that stuck out to me from both sporting events. I found like when I was writing my notes and outline that like definitely I paid more attention and wrote more about the Olympics commercials, because honestly, there was a lot going on with the Super Bowl, and mostly I just wanted to watch the halftime show. Um, so you can do a quick Google search and find any of these commercials I'm talking about if you haven't seen them or if you want to find them. Um, but here we go. So starting with the Olympics. The one that I've seen like a hundred times that keeps sticking out to me, and not because it's like anything exceptional, but um, it's a Visa commercial. There's two Visa commercials that stuck out to me, and uh they what I found that Visa was doing is just they changed their taglines on a couple commercials, but used the same kind of footage, which like good on you, go ahead. Um, but the one that keeps being shown is a whole bunch of people skiing down a hill. There's like skiers, but there's someone on a kayak skiing down a hill. There's Paralympians, there's kids in tubes, there's ski jumpers, and it says, when more of us play, more of us win. So yeah, I know. But like, and then the other Visa tagline I love is everyone celebrates the finishes, but what about the starts? And what I like about these is like all the feels, right? They made me feel something and they stuck in my mind. And like I I don't care that it's Visa, it's like I have a Visa card, it's not making me get more Visa things. Um, but I am talking about it. And I saw my first Visa commercial, this first one two weeks ago. So I think, I think on here I've expressed my love for sports before, but maybe not if I haven't. I love sports. Um, I love playing them, watching them, but what I really love is like they truly have shaped who I am when I really look back. Um, we were a big extracurricular family. Like we did all the extra things, which I am grateful for. I um, you know, playing sports, I played club sports a lot of my life, as well as high school and grade school sports at a higher level. And um, you know, it it sports have allowed me to travel. They shaped who I am, they they taught me how to work as a team. They, you know, they've taught me how to lose. Um, so I really do think it's taught me a ton. So touchy-filly sports ads always get me. So there's a there's another one, um, like one um it's Procter and Gamble. So they prepare commercials ahead of time for when a certain athlete wins a medal. So when Chloe Kim won her medal, spoiler alert if you're not watching the Olympics, um, I'm sure you've heard that by now. It was last week. Um, so when she won, there were two commercials, and it's her essentially like talking to her parents. And those always get me because like your parents are the ones that first get you into this. And I'm at that age with my kids where it's the delicate balance of like giving them all the opportunities to play the sports, but not forcing it upon them. Um, so I'm it's just on my brain a lot. So the Proctor and Gamble Chloe Kim commercials are like, you know, when I was younger, it's her voiceover saying, here's one of them, I'll just quick read it. When I was younger, I needed you right there with me to feel safe and confident like I could do anything until I realized that even when you weren't by my side, you were always here, always with me, because you were always there, I am here, you know, at the Olympics, great. So, you know, it's it's cheesy, I get that, but like it's true, and it just it is hitting the target audience, which is me, right? I'm buying the Proctor and Gamble products. I am the mom of young kids going through this exact same stuff that Chloe Kim's parents went through. So um, great job. I just love when you can see, like, I know the work that goes into creating a marketing campaign, and obviously Proctor and Gamble has pays their marketing people a lot of money to be very good at their job, and they are. So great job. Uh, there's another Chloe Kim one that's like so awesome. Um, and this one was actually congratulations from Teen Toyota. So she must be sponsored, I'm not sure. Um, but it that one was really cool too. So I just wanted to make sure I mentioned Toyota as well. So great job. Okay, the next one that I wanted to mention is like what I'll call the black horse. One I didn't expect to see, but it was an Etsy commercial. So I started noticing Etsy doing commercials around the holidays, and there was a really cute one about like um a young man and an older woman, and I think he was like walking her from her bus stop and something about a pair of mittens, whatever. That was a Christmas one. So this one um is uh about dreamers and how artists are always told like that doesn't pay the bills, and it's it's really kind of sad. Um but it it starts out and it says, like, you know, as kids we're told to follow our dreams, um, but then we chased our dreams and we were told we were being unrealistic and we were being told to think about our future. And they specifically um show at that point a family of Asian descent, which I just feel like I see. I watch a lot of like cooking shows, and I see a lot in those shows too, um, people saying, maybe of Asian or Indian descent, like, hey, I was told that I needed to be a doctor, but I really wanted to be a chef. And you know, so so anyway, um, saying, like, think about your future. And then the quote that stuck out was passions don't pay bills. And so it just kind of it's like, well, we can't actually do this thing you told us to dream about as kids. But then, you know, it winds up and it says, Dreamers make their own victory, find greatness in the making. So I thought it was an interesting thing to throw during the Olympics because um I was reading an article about someone on the creative team, and they're saying like it it puts these, um, like it compares these athletes and artists. They're both pursuing a passion. It's just that our country really praises athletes over artists, for example. Uh, so it's this common link between makers and athletes, their dedication to the craft and how they're focusing on like their certain skills and precision, and like it's their lifelong passion. So I thought that one was really snuck up on me and should be paid more attention to. I I don't know if people were just, I think it was more of a general like, we're just trying to get you to purchase things from Etsy or know Etsy exists, or if they're trying to recruit more makers, but either way, it stuck with me. I thought that one was really cool. So great job. Um, then one thing I just wanted to acknowledge that I felt like Olympic commercials did especially well was what I call like the classic tactic, which is silence. I remember seeing the first commercial that I was like reading an article about it in college. I remember it being a big deal. A commercial that decided to be silent, and or um at this time it was silent, um, but even ones that don't have voiceover. So it makes you look, right? If you're like kind of multitasking and suddenly your TV set goes silent, you're gonna look at it and pay attention and read the words on the screen. So I felt like a lot of Olympic Olympic commercials not necessarily went silent, but just didn't have voiceover and had music, which makes you be like, okay, what's going on on the screen? Um, so there was a good one for um Omega Watch, which is like an official Olympic partner. Um, and it's said, you know, it said we measure on the screen. And then the third word constantly like clicked through and it was said we measure precision, we measure anticipation, talent, willpower, bravery, determination, dreams, passion, etc. etc. So that one made me look. So it did a classic thing. Uh, you know, I'm like, I love madmen. I love a good tagline coming out of an ad agency, a good catchphrase. It and that's what sticks with me. So, like, whatever. Great job using the classic silent technique. I paid attention to it. Um, and lastly, uh Comcast did a commercial, did a series of commercials about basically little kids watching. So this is should be mentioned during the Olympics, this should be mentioned during all times of every day. Little kids are constantly watching. So if they see a similar, a like person on the Paralympic Games or in the Olympics, they feel like, oh, I can do that. I mean, I saw it happen with my kids. I watched Elliot watch Nathan Chen's figure skating. So my son Elliot, I watched him watch um Nathan Chen figure skating, and he's been figure skating around the living room ever since. So it's like really cool, it happens, it totally works. When kids watch something on TV, they think like they believe they can do it too. So hooray! On to the Super Bowl. I'm not as passionate about the Super Bowl ads because quite honestly, in general, I just feel like Super Bowl ads are like trying so hard. Um, there's just like a couple I'm gonna talk about, which are these won't be surprising to you at all. Um, there was a, you know, a future LeBron to a 2003 LeBron. I thought that one was kind of interesting. Uh their little tag was Fortune Favors the Brave, and it was a freaking crypto commercial. The number of cryptocurrency commercials was just shocking to me. Um, but I'm old and I don't, I don't know. That's weird to me. Um, I did find the Jim Carre cable guy commercial really entertaining. It was a Verizon 5G commercial. Uh it's like not making me take action. I already have Verizon, um, but it it was entertaining. My again, my kids were watching it nearby and like asked me about it because I kind of giggled out loud and had to try and explain the cable guy. It wasn't, I don't think it was actually Jim Carrey in the commercial, but they did a very good job finding his likeness. Um, as always, I would say the ones that will always stick out to me and be the best are Anheuser Busch. They're they they're Clydesdales. Um, they had a In the Home of the Brave, Down Never Means Out, and it's a Budweiser Clydesdale and dog commercial, and it's about a hurt horse. So, like this dog, it's like freaking lassie, okay? They just take the like America approach, and their commercials are always good. They have gobs of money. They, when I did my research paper in college, were the company that spent the most money on Super Bowl commercials. Um, so hooray. And if you aren't living under a rock, you certainly have heard about the commercial where you, the Coinbase commercial where you had to scan the QR code and then their website crashed. Fascinating. Like, didn't you think you were gonna get thousands and thousands of people on your website at once and you did not think how to fix this? But unless that was a strategy, like everyone's still talking about that commercial. I I didn't actually see that commercial. Um, I wasn't staring at the screen at the time. Uh, so you know, I missed that one. Um but the last one that really surprised me. I hate like commercials for shows that are gonna be on that network. I think it's such a waste of ad space. I mean, like, obviously, very smart, yay. But but there was one for a show called Endgame, which I've never seen. Maybe it's a movie, you might get mad at me. I'm not really sure. But it was Bow to the Queen, and it was a damn good commercial. It made me maybe want to watch the show even. So overall, I would say Olympics commercials try and like give you the feels, right? And mostly I just think every commercial is basically Visa. That's not true, obviously. I just told you a whole bunch that weren't Visa. But overall, I would say they they give you like that touchy-feely, and there's always a family uh aspect usually coming from Procter and Gamble. Um, and then Super Bowl commercials are just they try much harder. It's more expensive. Still, Anheuser Busch is always gonna be at the top. There's always too many car commercials, in my opinion. I like get excited and then I'm like, oh, it's just another truck commercial. Um, and then there's always like some weird of the times ones. Like this year it was cryptocurrency and Coinbase. So uh, and then since I can remember, the shocker to me will always be how much money Doritos spends on Super Bowl ads. I don't get it. I feel like that's an odd place to spend their money, but it must be working because they've been doing it for a decade at least. So I could go, you know, I say this every Amose Boosh that I could go on talking, talking about commercials, but I'd be so curious if there was commercials that you loved or hated. Um I could go on and on and rank every Super Bowl commercial, but that's boring. You can find articles that do that, and you don't have to listen to me talking about it. So send us a note at hello at dinnerplusdrinks.com if you have a commercial that you loved or hated, or you think my analysis is insane, that's fine too. Thanks so much for listening and tune in to Dinner Plus Drinks, which will be released on Sunday. Have a great weekend.