Who won advertising’s Super Bowl?

-By Jess Graham
The first Sunday in February is perhaps the biggest day in Ad Land’s calendar, and whilst the main event may be a game of American Football, on an international scale, it is the hotly anticipated ads that receive the most attention.
With a 30 second spot during the 2014 Super Bowl costing around $4 million, it’s easy to understand why Newcastle Brown Ale couldn’t (or more likely didn’t want to) shell out this type of budget on media alone.
Instead, they opted to put their marketing budget towards a highly entertaining online content campaign that focuses on ‘The Mega Huge Football Game Ad Newcastle Could’ve Made” and pokes fun at marketing and the spectacle that generally is Super Bowl commercials.
The campaign’s stand-alone website, www.ifwemadeit.com, includes a mock storyboard version of the ‘ad’, an endorsement by Keyshawn Johnson and real life focus-group videos. It also features the hilarious clip of actress Anna Kendrick discussing the ad they ‘almost’ made, which has had over five million YouTube views to date.

Ultimately, for an ad that never existed, it has certainly gained a significant amount of exposure and popularity, with some ironically declaring it ‘The best Super Bowl commercial of 2014”. It just goes to show how sometimes thinking outside the (idiot) box can pay off in a big way!

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