Buick Super Bowl 2017 commercial features Cam Newton, Miranda Kerr, and pee-wee football
The Super Bowl is such an interesting proposition for advertisers, since you want to be both edgy and also conservative at the same time. You want to push the envelope, but not so far that you run the risk of offending someone with your content. Sometimes, you get executives doing what they think is edgy, but it ends up being edgy for them and not really anyone else. This is precisely what Buick seems to be doing for their new commercial airing during the big game.
The idea of it is fairly easy to set up: Miranda Kerr arrives at a pee-wee football game in a red Buick convertible, which leads to someone commenting “if that’s a Buick, then my kid’s Cam Newton.” Lo and behold, Cam Newton is suddenly destroying children on the football field.
What worked – Star power never hurts, and Newton’s one of the most recognizable figures in the league right now. He follows in the tradition of Peyton Manning, another Super Bowl quarterback who’s done a billion commercials over the course of his lifetime. Also, the car looks nice, so there’s that.
What didn’t – This feels WAY too similar to some of the Snickers commercials from prior years who feature people transforming into celebrities when they “get a little hungry.” Also, we’ve seen the whole adult-athlete-pummels-children-at-their-sport premise before. There’s nothing altogether original here, and from a branding standpoint, it’s also rather weak. The commercial doesn’t really tell you anything about the car other than that it looks nice.
Also, is this really the best use of Kerr? She’s only in this for a second at the end.
Overall – In a vacuum, maybe this is a great commercial. The problem is that we’ve seen so many other commercials that are similar to this – there’s nothing memorable here, and there are many other car commercials airing tonight that are doing things that are more interesting. Grade: C.
What did you think of the ad? Share now in the comments, and head over here to get some other commercials from the big game! (Photo: Buick.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx2PMnSzCB4
