Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in ‘scary’ Olay Super Bowl commercial

Sarah Michelle Gellar is back on TV come Super Bowl weekend and courtesy of a new commercial for Olay. How is it? Well, this one is meant to freak you out, at least for a moment, before getting to its big punchline.

The premise – The former Buffy, the Vampire Slayer star appears here as the lead in a fake horror movie — her home is being broken into and, as the bad guy/possible killer finds her, he eventually just becomes fascinated with how fantastic her face looks because of the products that she uses on it.

Does it work? – This is an incredibly dumb ad that really requires you to turn off your brain in order to enjoy it — the fact that a serial killer is going to stop what they’re doing because of skincare is absurd. Yet, that is a big part of what makes this commercial work. Olay is actually doing something here that the majority of beauty brands don’t, and that is veering off from their comfort zone somewhat into territory that seems a little bit foreign and surprising. There’s a lot of humor here and we do appreciate the attempt at trying something that looks and feels a little bit different.

Do we think that this is going to sell any product? Maybe just on the basis of name recognition for people who casually buy beauty brands. Bringing Gellar on board for the ad is a smart move and we do think that it will be remembered. It’s also a good test for Olay to see just how many female viewers they can court from the big game. The one remaining question that we have is just how much we’re going to see this ad stand out in places they will traditionally advertise — we’re not sure that it is going to work in any of those venues. Grade: B.