Stella Artois Super Bowl commercial revives Carrie Bradshaw (sort of)

For their Super Bowl commercial this year, beer company Stella Artois clearly thought they needed a touch of Sex and the City. Why else would they go out of their way in order to bring in Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw? This is an ad that actually includes two big names, as you eventually see Jeff Bridges also make an appearance as his character from The Big Lebowski in The Dude.

The premise – Carrie (or at least someone who the company wants you to think is Carrie) arrives at a fancy bar and then orders a Stella Artois rather than a cosmopolitan. When that happens, the entire place goes into disarray. When The Dude orders a bottle, there’s also some surprise. Eventually, Carrie and The Dude have a toast and that’s the end of the ad — which definitely starts out like a commercial for Sex and the City.

Does it work? – The idea here is to show mostly that there is a wide range of people who enjoy Stella Artois, and with that, maybe you’d be surprised by the taste of the beer, too. It’s an effective concept to raise the profile of the brand overall. We do like the splash of humor midway through, as many of the patrons respond with shock to the idea of Carrie wanting this over a cosmo.

Of course, there is a natural problem we can’t get around — we can’t, in our head, envision Carrie the character actually going into a bar and ordering this. That’s not a slam on the brand, but rather our own perception of the character. We don’t really love turning TV characters into something else for the sake of commercials, especially since Sex and the City was on premium cable and never had to rely on advertising at all. It is a funny ad with a clear message to it, though — we’re willing to look past the logic of it enough to recognize that there are probably a lot of people out there who will think this is one of the better ads of the day. Grade: B-.

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What do you think about this commercial? Be sure to share below! (Photo: Stella Artois.)