SuperBowl Ads: The Element of Surprise

The SuperBowl is home to two things: great football and really expensive ads. A good game can have people talking about it for days, but a good ad can produce results that will last much longer for the product or service being advertised.

In 2010, Frito Lay launched an onslaught of ads in an effort to promote its Doritos brand through humor and comedy.

The ad possesses some key factors that made it successful and resonant. First, it used the element of surprise. Reversing societal roles, the child became the disciplinarian in the scenario when he reprimanded the adult male. This was an unexpected and humorous plot twist to the more generic “guy picks up girl for a date” plot.

In this past Super bowl, one of the ads that stood out the most to me was Steven Colbert’s endorsement of Pistachios.

As of lately, Pistachios has been running commercials with a humorous tone, but this one had one big difference: The ad depended on two separate commercials that ran 30 seconds apart. The first part of the ad starts with Colbert pointing out that he is a celebrity and that he is doing a commercial for Pistachios. Nothing exciting goes on in this first part other than the fact that he has a huge eagle next to him. After an unrelated commercial passes, Steven Colbert comes back, covered in head to toe Pistachio branding. His office is also covered in branding, making an attempt to stay in consumer’s minds.

Both these ads had a few things in common: they both relied on humor, they are both food products, and they both had the element of surprise near the end. They were both also fairly easy to produce and had both products present during the commercial.

These ads had more things in contrast than in common though. Pistachios relied heavily on its celebrity endorsement while the Doritos ad had no celebrity in it. The Doritos ad took place in a home while Pistachios in Colbert’s office. Moreover, the Doritos ad had many rough cuts while the Pistachios ad had only one front camera angle for both commercials.

What I liked best about the Pistachio ad was that it was deliberately making fun of itself. Colbert’s tone and what he said made fun of the fact that he was a celebrity talking about a brand. It was very clever and definitely memorable. The Doritos ad was also very memorable. It has been four years and any one who hears “keep your hand off my momma, keep your hands off my Doritos ”will know what they are talking about.

However, it’s important to point out the stereotypical nature of the Doritos ad. Three sentences describing how its stereotypical. By some, the ad might seem offensive or a poorly researched and produced advertisement to target at African Americans. Though the ad was successful, it is worth noting the risk involved in running with this strategy.