Super Bowl Ad Round-Up

February 12, 2024

It’s that special time of the year again when all of us at the Adam Brown Social Command Center get to gather ‘round the TV and watch Patrick Mahomes slay the Super Bowl.

From Taylor and Travis (Tayvis?) to the new Hellmann’s mayonnaise cat, we have plenty of themes to discuss from ads that kept us glued to the couch and the overtime play everyone is calling “rigged.” Here is your Super Bowl 2024 round up:

Around 10:20 pm February 11, 2024, when overtime was starting for Super Bowl LVIII, people had posted about it on social media. A lot. Like, more than 1 million times. Those posts had 7.14 BILLION impressions. The posting peaked around 8 pm:

A graph that shows the Y axis starting at 50,000 and ending at 400,000 representing "mentions", and then the X axis starting at the left at 6 p.m. and ending at 10 p.m. for the run time of the Super Bowl LVIII game, shows an arch starting at 100,000 mentions and rising to its peak at 350,000 mentions at 8 p.m. before a slow descent to 75,000 at 10 p.m.

What topics dominated conversation? Unsurprisingly, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift made their way into an otherwise normal keyword grouping:

A circular graph displays the different keyword groupings that were used in social media mentions around the 2024 Super Bowl. In puce is Travis Kelce, green is Superbowl LVIII, light blue is game, purple is Superbowl Sunday, bright blue is Superbowl 2024, and in turquoise is Kansas City Chiefs. Each main category has additional keywords related to them.

What countries talked about the game the most? Obviously, America is invested, as are our English-speaking friends, but who could have seen Sri Lanka being the fourth most-interested country?!

A graph shows the countries that had the most mentions about the Super Bowl, starting with the highest number at the top, 346.04 thousand in the United States; 19.83 thousand in the United Kingdom, 19.11 thousand in Canada, 10.21 thousand in Sri Lanka, 8.5 thousand in Brazil, and 8.3 thousand in France.

Much will be written about the game, but what about the ads? With ads costing an average of $7 million this year, a lot is on the line for some of these brands. Let’s take a look at some of the good, the bad…. And the confusing.

Mountain Dew Baja Blast

A screenshot of a commercial shows a bored-looking Aubrey Plaza sitting on a bench while children play with pool noodles all around her and people in the background celebrate at a birthday party.

Aubrey Plaza starred in the ad for Mountain Dew’s new flavor. In her classic deadpan, seemingly emotionless expression, she claims to be “having a blast” in a variety of non-exciting and non-fun circumstances. The spot gets a fun cameo from one of her old “Parks and Rec” co-stars.

On social media the reaction was very positive and prolific— with more 46,000 mentions, almost all of which were positive:

DunKings

A still of a Dunkin' Donuts commercial shows Ben Affleck, front and center, with three other men in the background all dressed in matching orange and pink Dunkin' Donuts branded track suits with a big banner stating "The DunKings" hanging above them in the background.

Several teasers and promos have appeared on social media featuring Ben Affleck getting hyped for SOMEthing…and now we get to see what it was for. He appears with several other famous Boston-ites (Tom Brady, BFF Matt Damon…and Jack Harlow and Fat Joe?) to crash a JLo’s recording session in the music studio. It was pretty funny, very absurd, and only slightly cringe (which Damon acknowledges).

A word cloud shows the popularity of certain words associated with the Dunkin' Donuts commercial, with words such as dunkin, affleck, ben, commercial, dunkin' damon, donuts, Matt, and Brady as the largest.

Dove: It’s a hard knock life

Exciting news for Super Bowl fans and advocates of female empowerment alike—Unilever’s Dove is making a comeback to the big game after an 18-year break! Their ad is set to spread positivity with a focus on encouraging young girls to stay active in sports.

A still shot of the Dove commercial shows a pre-teen girl or teenage girl in a purple swimsuit with a black strip running vertically down the side looking at her body in the mirror of a locker room. The words "45 percent of girls quit sports by age 14" is written across the image.

Featuring a catchy rendition of “It’s A Hard Knock Life” from Annie, the commercial showcases girls competing in various sporting events while addressing the alarming statistic that 45% of girls drop out of sports by age 14 due to body image issues.

A circle graph states "What are the top themes of discussion?" and then shows the themes in different colors in the circle: Girls' Sports is renderd in purple, Female directors confirmed in the big game in bright blue, Riley_Gaines_ in teal, Dove Self-esteem project in puce, Great SuperBowl ad in green, and women in light blue.

While sparking important conversations about empowering girls, the ad does receive some mixed feedback, with both positive and negative sentiments surfacing around its execution.

A screenshot of tweets discussing the Dove ad shows:
KacieJoMarta Nicklas stating "What's up with all the #SuperBowl adverts being for menopause dove etc. wtf was the weird pedo ad by #dove?

and

woke up an optimist states; That Dove ad was happy then got sad / real quickly (eyeball look emojis twice) # Super Bowl

and

Shannah Hayley states "Can't not LOVE the girl's sports ad from @Dove!!! #SuperBowl

and

OGHoneyBadger states "@Dove are you kidding me with the girls sports ad? What about the men inflitrating women's sports wow are you that ridiculously stupid self unaware and woke I might have some of your products in my bathroom givento me by somebody. I'm gonna throw them away #SuperBowl

A screenshot of tweets from Twitter/X shows responses to the Dove ad including:

suspiria1966 states "Very nice ad by #Dove supporting body confidence—a country that does not embrace throwing boys into competitions against them. #SuperBowl #SuperBowlAds

and

Shattering Glass states "How about #Dove spending big $$ on a #SuperBowl ad promoting keeping girls in sports?!!! We need to provide more opportunities for girls. And better to keep them in sports far beyond 14 years old. #StrengthInSport #InvestInWomenAndGirls !

Statefarm: Like a good neighbaaa

State Farm’s Super Bowl commercial brings together legendary duo Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito for a hilarious reunion!

A still of the Super Bowl State Farm commercial shows Arnold Schwarzenegger on the left and Danny DeVito on the right, both wearing matching red State Farm branded polos, while a house in the background is visibly on fire.

Schwarzenegger stars as the comedic hero Agent State Farm but encounters a humorous hiccup when he hilariously mispronounces the company’s familiar slogan as “neighbah” instead of “neighbor.” While the ad aims for laughs, it also faces criticism for potentially toeing the line with caricature, particularly in the context of such a high-profile event like the Super Bowl.

A bar shows three different measurements taken regarding the State Farm Super Bowl ad on social media. First box shows Mentions at 23, Reach at 4.23 million, and then that 11 mentions were positive and 11 mentions were negative, for the net sentiment score.

You can check out highly negative sentiments on #AgentStateFarm.

A bar graft asking "What is the sentiment across popular hashtags?" weighs the negative sentiment on the left in pink and the positive sentiment on the right in green, with the measured hashtags being compared. Starting with #superbowl, the sentiment shows slightly more positive, but then #agentstatefarm shows a mostly negative response, then #statefarm shows that the positive response was larger than the negative but there was some negative response, and below that #marketing, #marketingtwitter, and #arnold had smaller responses that were all positive.

Responses on X/Twitter show mixed feelings on the state farm ad, including:

Azam stating "Ok I take it back #StateFarm ad cracked me up #neighbaar #SuperBowl

and

Trent Odom states "@Statefarm increasing my rates for that trash #SuperBowl ad

Hellmann’s Versus Reese’s

Mayo fan or not, you’ve got to admit the Hellmann’s Super Bowl commercial featuring a talking cat was classic. The ad featured weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) touring around with her talking pet cat that could only say one word, May-ow.

Within the food category of Super Bowl ads another commercial had us LOL’ing at the TV. Reese’s always tends to knock it out of the park whether it’s their chocolate making or sense of humor. The ad followed the reactions of a group of Super Bowl watchers (not unlike us) reacting to their new caramel Reese’s peanut butter cup.

Both ads are worth a watch but also left us wondering, which brand reigned supreme in terms of garnering social media attention? Check out the graphic below made with Sprinklr analytics:

A graphic asks "Who had the better Super Bowl ad?" and shows a picture of the new Reese's Caramel Big Cup candy on the left and Hellman's Real Mayonnaise on the right.

Below the Reese's are stats that state it had 1.15 thousand mentions, 9.35 million reach, and 68.7% positive sentiment score.

Below the Hellman's shows that it had 3.14 thousand mentions, 4.04 million reach, and 73.6% positive sentiment score.

It turns out that Hellmann’s was mentioned more frequently online with a higher rate of positive sentiment from content creators. However, Reese’s had significantly more reach across social media platforms, so who is the real winner here?

All I know for sure is that I will absolutely be trying the caramel Reese’s cup the next time I stop at a gas station and need a little treat. I will also continue putting Hellmann’s in my cart and mayo on my sandwiches, just not in my coffee.

Super Wicked Ad

Musical theater fans UNITE. The highly anticipated “Wicked: Part One” teaser trailer aired at the start of #SBLVIII giving fans a peak at Hollywood’s take on the classic musical. Starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, the first screening of the trailer garnered a whopping 118,000 mentions across socials and reached over 707 million feeds within the first hour after its debut.

Fans had plenty to say in response to the ad, as displayed in the Sprinklr graphic below, comments were mostly comprised of various combinations of “OMG.”

“Wicked: Part One” arrives in theaters Thanksgiving 2024.

A circle graph asks "What are th top themes of disussion?" and shows the various keywords that were used to describe the "Wicked: Part One" teaser trailer.

Each keyword is rendered in a different color, with "trailer" in puce, "good" in green, "Arianagrande" in light blue, "Wicked Teaser" in purple, "Wicked Looks" in bright blue, and "OMG" in turquoise.

Each keyword has additional related keywords associated with it.

That’s all we’ve got for this year’s Super Bowl round up. Let us know your thoughts or if you think we missed any other iconic ad moments. Until next year we will be patiently waiting and making confetti angels wearing our red and yellow. Go Chiefs!