BOLD Continues Tradition With Its Super Bowl Smackdown Meeting
In light of Super Bowl LV, BOLD followed tradition with its beloved Super Bowl Smackdown meeting this Tuesday, February 9th. Members got to vote on the biggest commercials of the night while discussing popular pop culture and advertising trends. Known as one of the biggest nights for advertising, the Super Bowl is an exciting time for members as they get to watch and analyze the most anticipated commercials of the year. The commercials featured in the smackdown included: M&M’s vs Amazon Alexa, Doritos vs Cheetos, Uber Eats vs DoorDash, Bud Light vs Michelob Ultra, TurboTax vs Rocket Mortgage, and Toyota vs Anheuser-Busch.
With the Super Bowl being the most-watched television broadcast of the year, advertisers face the challenge of trying to target massive audiences. This year, Bud Light did just that with its new Lemonade Seltzer commercial. The commercial revolved around the notion that 2020 was a “lemon of a year” and showed people getting attacked by a lemon shower to symbolize how tough 2020 was for most. Account Executive Morganne Stephenson commented on the commercial’s relatedness, “one of the main things you learn in advertising is to ensure that your audience can relate, Bud Light played on the whole “when life gives you lemons” quote and how crappy 2020 was, which makes people relate to them and want to try the new flavors and experience something nice for the new year,”.
The Super Bowl would not be complete without the tear-jerking commercials.
Anheuser-Busch delivered a heartwarming commercial centered around the phrase “let’s grab a beer” which made it a fan favorite amongst BOLD members. Creative Director of Digital, Juan Hernandez said “I’m not a huge beer fan and it still made me want to go grab a beer with a friend. The commercial was relatable because, without calling back to 2020, it was able to hint at the hardships people were going through and how grabbing a beer was a way to console with a friend.”
After voting on the night’s biggest commercials, members chose the Amazon Alexa Michael B. Jordan commercial as the winner of the smackdown. The commercial featured movie star, Micheal B. Jordan, as the new Alexa vessel for an infatuated wive. Its quick-witted humor and star power made the commercial the perfect contender as this year’s smackdown winner. “I feel like humor was a common theme throughout this Super Bowl, to have more lighthearted commercials rather than very serious ones,” pointed out BOLD president, Carlos Ortiz. Amid difficult times, this year’s advertisers decided to use humor as a way to give audiences a smile and a brief taste of normalcy.
Before the end of the meeting, BOLD members weighed in on The Weeknd’s Halftime Show which created division among viewers. Many BOLD members agreed that the show lacked in overall production and sound quality, really missing the “wow factor” that previous halftime performers have been able to bring. BOLD Account Supervisor, Ashley Nunez, commented on the performance “ It might have been the fact that audio was not good and we could barely hear him but there were so many different factors that I just did not find it enjoyable. You can’t compare this year’s performance to past years.”
What were your favorite Super Bowl commercials? What were your overall impressions? Let us know in the comments below!
BOLD is a student-run strategic communications agency at Florida International University. Click here to learn more.
Written by: Alejandra Chahine, Director of Public Relations