Let me be honest with you: I’m one of those people who watch the Super Bowl solely for the advertisements. Sports have never been a huge interest of mine, but I am always fascinated to see what advertisers come up with given the huge budgets they allocate to the event. But when it came to the Super Bowl this year, I felt let down by the biggest names in advertising.
For one, it was surprising to see who did, and didn’t, show up. Coca-Cola and Budweiser were noticeably absent this year, while Indeed, Scotts Miracle-Grow, and Vroom all aired their first Super Bowl ads. This influx of new and unusual brands getting their 30-60 seconds of fame on national television should have been a breath of fresh air, right? Well, not necessarily. According to AdWeek, 19 of the 33 ads that had been released before the Super Bowl starred at least one celebrity, and it seems celebrity is what we got. Celebrity romance and celebrity shenanigans overwhelmed our screens and left a lot to be desired from major brands. What went so wrong this year?
Well, I think that a lot of these companies were afraid to take risks. First, Super Bowl ads are massively expensive, so brands want to make sure they utilize their budgets as well as possible. This leads to the over-saturation of celebrity endorsements that we saw. The pandemic has left us isolated, exhausted, and in desperate need of distractions. So, advertisers did what they thought their audiences would want: mindless entertainment from recognizable faces. And for the most part, that’s what we got. However, one brand stood out to me for doing the unexpected. Let’s talk about it.
Oatly’s bizarre introduction to advertising in the Super Bowl turned a lot of heads. This 2014 ad was written by CEO Toni Petersson, and was actually banned in Sweden after dairy lobbyists sued the company. However, Oatly decided to bring the ad back for their Super Bowl slot, and I think that they blew away their competition. According to Twitter, some people loved the ad’s quirky nature and authentic feel, while others absolutely despised it, even going so far to refuse to use Oatly products from now on. But Oatly’s ad succeeded in one area, regardless of its reception: people noticed.
At the time of this ad re-airing, I had just begun a discussion of mindlessness and mindfulness in my Breakthrough Thinking and Creativity Class, with this idea that most people spend their lives going from place to place like zombies. We don’t notice what is right in front of us. The onslaught of ads showcasing celebrity after celebrity essentially mimics a form of mindless consumption. By subverting our expectations of what a Super Bowl ad should be, Oatly managed to catch viewers attention and drag them out of their mindlessness, at least for a short time. Everyone had something to say about the ad, whether they loved it or hated it.
But, Madeline, you may ask, how is this ad taking a risk? Well, a 30 second spot at the Super Bowl costs 5.5 Million dollars, which is a lot of money to spend on an ad that could have been made by anyone, really. In fact, there’s almost a sense of dissonance between the humble brand identity and the exorbitant amount of money spent, which was a risky move for the company. I feel like we have extremely high expectations when it comes to Super Bowl ads. We expect blockbuster presentation and big-name stars, and Oatly’s ad does none of that. It subverts our expectations of what a Super Bowl ad is, by doing the opposite of what we expect. In that sense, I would say that this ad is truly innovative due to its simplicity.
As an oat milk fan, I definitely have some bias towards Oatly as a brand, and perhaps that’s the reason why I loved this advertisement so much. Regardless of how I felt about the 30 second spot, I think we can all agree that Oatly got us to care about their ad. We cared enough to notice how the ad made us feel, and to me, that’s the signal of a truly successful, creative endeavor.
So, how did you feel about Oatly’s Super Bowl ad? Which ad was your favorite? Let me know in the comments.
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