Super Bowl 50. The strategist ate my homework.

By Gonzalo López Martí            LMMIAMI.COM

The verdict: Madison Avenue 2016 is desperately trying to release the social media Krakken at every turn. Still, methinks creatives are not consuming enough amounts of memes, Vine and Snapchat. Plus, planning is prevailing. Big time. Taking refuge in the warm womb of strategy is not enough, folks. Too much tried-n-true stuff. Madison Avenue needs to innovate way more. Yeah, I know, easier said then done.

Disclaimer: the below is just my personal opinion based on first impressions in chronological order. I made a point of not overanalyzing the material or looking up spots on YouTube to review them after the fact. I’ m sure I missed a few due bathroom runs or while cleaning up guacamole from my shirt. The spot titles are of my making, solely for identification purposes.

Snickers – Willem Defoe
The holy grail of ad campaigns: a clever proprietary formula that pretty much writes itself. Formulaic in a good way. In this case: aging Hollywood badass mutates into Marilyn Monroe. A solid workhorse of a campaign that seems to be doing the trick for the brand.

Sofi:
WTF?

Avocados from Mexico
A good attempt at irony that seems to beg for a script rewrite. Or two.

Hyundai – bears
Didn’t care for it. Animatronic pseudo cute zoological banter.

Apartments.com:
I kind of like the effort they put into the whole crazy extravaganza. Made me look. Script could use some polish.

Mobile Strike – Arnold
A misdirected Guvnor Schwarzenegger plus a barrage of cheapo SFX. Thumbs down.

Paypal – new money
They essentially produced the strategy and used the brief as script. Hey, bad advertising does work sometimes. This is one of those cases. I get it. Whatev. Next.

Audi – retired astronaut
Some people loooove this spot. I’m not sure. I find it kind questionable in various levels.

Mountain Dew – strange creature
Good enough for teenaged potheads. Underachievers have disposable income too.

Taco Bell – Quesalupa
Another very expensive extravaganza. Next.

Marmot – talking marmot
Ok, I get it. Another animatronic cutesy piece of ironic hipster wannabe mumblecore comedy. Does the trick. Drives the message and the brand name home. I guess. Stay away from Cannes.

Squarespace – real talk
These guys keep raising the silly ante. Takes a certain recklessness to air this type of snapchatty urban mental fart on the Super Fricking Bowl. Hope they’re making money. My gut feeling tells me they’re too niche to shell out this kind of cash to reach America with its bladder full of beer. Not sure how it might be paying off for them. I guess they know what they are doing.

Buick – wedding
Millennial hipsters, please buy a Buick. Look, we even added a cameo by Emily Ratajkowsky for you viewing pleasure. Nice try, wrong director methinks.

Advil – mashup
Doritos? Mountain Dew? No, ibuprofen. The drooling pill-popping generation is coming. I’ll hate to say I told you so.

Dollarshaveclub.com – talking razor
This guy is making a lot of money and getting complacent.

Acura NSX
The 80s called, they want their car commercial back.

Rocket Mortgage
Branding overkill. Playin’ it safe.

Skittles – Steven Tyler
Something’s not right about this spot. I guess it does the trick though.

Prius – getaway car
Good strategy, good creative and the right budget to make it happen. Ain’t Apple’s 1984 but it certainly is a good piece of professionally executed advertising, with nice little touches like the choice of The Wire character actors. Wouldn’t mind having it in my portfolio.

Pepsi – memory lane
This is what Pepsi does, it is their comfort zone and they do it right. Is it a brilliant memorable spot? No, just a solid piece of professionally executed advertising.

Amazon Echo
Super Bowl ad 101. Crosses the Ts and dots the Is. Not Cannes material but made look.

Domestic Violence – text message thread
Ominous in a subtle way. A well crafted, simple, inexpensive yet fairly impactful PSA.

Subaru – puppies
When in doubt: puppies, babies or domestic bliss. Can you seamlessly cram it all in one 30 sec spot? Go for it. Can’t blame them. The formula never fails. Just don’t waste the 600 euros it costs to send it to Cannes.

Doritos – no dogs allowed
If you’re 8 years old I guess this is funny.

Mini – defy labels
Another spot written by the strategist with notes from the account executive. They just shot the mood board with celebs and a music video director from the 90s. I’m not bitching here. If the client’s happy, I’m happy.

Turbotax – Anthony Hopkins
A skit from Benny Hill circa 1976. With Hannibal Lecter. Sure. Why not. The kind of stuff your average 29 year-old tormented copywriter with personal hygiene problems will bitch about. Shut up and go to your bedroom. Just so you know, this is the kind of shit that pays your semi monthly allowance.

Honda Ridgeline – sheep
I’m saddened and deeply disappointed. It hurts because I worship the brand and really like the product. Truly a missed opportunity.

Budweiser – not this, not that
The strategist put together a desperate mood board 10 minutes before the presentation and the client thought it was an actual TV spot. Happens all the time. Another nail in the coffin of the broad appeal domestic beer category.

Jeep – 4x4ever
Another case of client approving the mood board written and produced by the strategist with YouTube snippets. In this particular case, they might have allowed a creative to spend 20 minutes proofreading it. The production values are reasonable. Hey, once again, if the client is happy, Gonzalo us happy.

Schick Hydro – transformer razor
The kind of idea a trainee would have. His or her first day at the agency. Before lunch break. Disclaimer: I ain’t saying it won’t sell razors.

Jublia – football old stars
Boy big pharma has big bucks. I need myself one of those clients. Do you work at the marketing department for a big pharmaceutical company? Please, please call me.

Coke mini can – Ant Man & Hulk
Creativity by committee, copy tested in at least 24 DMAs and vetted by every single hack in the legal department. With a prodigious budget. The CEO likes it? The board likes it? I like it too. Everybody’s job is safe. Business as usual.

Axe – teen angst
The strategist lives in Williamsburg and says this is good stuff. He has a British accent. He’s very skinny too.

Kia – Christopher Walken
My bet is this is the typical case of a great script that barely survived a series of fatal focus groups.

Drake – cell-phone
Penned by a top notch copywriter with an evil streak. Drake plays along beautifully. Flawless pop culture timing, pitch perfect comedic timing, everything fits like a glove in this spot. Possibly my favorite. The campaign needs more executions to actually sell cell-phones but it is a home run for the brand.

Helen Mirren – drunk driving
A great attempt at doing something different. Kind of falls short because it awkwardly attempts to sell beer too. Still it is a nice simple spot.