Disruptive Advertising’s Favorite 2017 Super Bowl Ads

The Super Bowl. A Sunday everyone looks forward to for various reasons—food, halftime, commercials, etc. I love football, food, music, and advertising so yes, I look forward to this Sunday. But I also mourn it because it marks the beginning of a 7 month football drought.

Working for an advertising agency, I felt compelled to watch and take notes of the Super Bowl ads. I’m crazy, I know. Then, I polled Disruptive Advertising so we can present to you the most loved 2017 Super Bowl ads of Disruptive Advertisers.

In no particular order, our favorites are:

Sprint

Sprint’s latest marketing campaign focuses on getting people to switch from Verizon to Sprint. This commercial is no different. It features a dad faking his own death by pushing his car over a cliff to get out of his Verizon bill. At the end of the commercial, he learns he can switch to Sprint and save money.

This commercial exaggerates a pain we all have to some degree in our life—paying bills—and presents a creative solution to getting out of it. In that sense, its relatable and humorous at the same time.

Mr. Clean

In the Mr. Clean ad, Mr. Clean turns up his sex appeal as he cleans with the wife watching.

I loved how this ad used the sex appeal of a man cleaning to turn the normal “sex sells” on its head in this commercial. It was done in a way that got men and women laughing.

Bai

Bai used celebrities and pop culture to sell their product by featuring Justin Timberlake and Christopher Walken in their commercial.

This commercial performed the best with the 20 and 30 year olds who still are hoping for a *NSYNC reunion tour, but also had everyone else singing Bai, Bai, Bai for the rest of Sunday.

Honda

The Honda Yearbooks commercial featured celebrities giving advice on dreaming big through their yearbooks. At the end, it ties in Honda by cutting to their new CR-V with a voiceover saying “here’s to chasing dreams and the amazing places they lead.”

Personally, aside from a love of yearbook (I was my high school’s yearbook editor, head photographer, and high school mascot) and pictures of celebrities during puberty, I’m not sure what the draw is in this commercial, but it seems to appeal to fairly wide array of people.

Squarespace

In Squarespace’s commercial, they feature a frustrated John Malkovich trying to secure his name as a domain by calling the John Malkovich who owns it. Squarespace finishes the commercial by encouraging the audience to get their domain name before its gone.

As a marketer who has come up with the perfect domain name only to find out that its been taken, I enjoyed this commercial. It played into real feelings I’ve had as I’ve gone to a website that’s less than beautiful with the domain I want.

Conclusion

I loved the commercials for this year’s Super Bowl because of the variety of commercials. While all the ones listed here were funny, there were many that subtly presented political statements and cast a needed, more contemplative tone on the day.

I’d love to know which Super Bowl 2017 ads were your favorite and why. Let me know in the comments!