GoPro’s Super Bowl Ad Looks a Lot Like Red Bull, Circa 2012
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When we heard GoPro was going to be a Super Bowl advertiser again this year, we were prepared for something epic. And while the event the camera brand chose to feature is definitely a monumental moment, it's also … kinda old.
GoPro today unveiled its 30-second Super Bowl spot, which shows the first moments of skydiver Felix Baumgartner's 24-mile plunge to the earth way back in October 2012. Baumgartner and sponsor Red Bull used seven GoPro cameras to document the Stratos jump, and GoPro's Super Bowl ad serves mostly as a teaser to the eight-minute short film created from all that footage. (Which you can also see below.)
Leveraging this partnership to create Super Bowl ad content makes sense on one level, but the decision also banks on the hope that Red Bull itself hasn't already sucked all the marketing marrow from the bones of this extensively publicized event.
Even last October, Red Bull released its own nine-minute video recapping the jump from Baumgartner's point of view. While the new Stratos video hosted on GoPro.com reveals a few new angles, it's essentially just the same thing we saw last October, which was the same thing live viewers saw a year before that.
In a statement, GoPro acknowledges that it's treading a bit of a worn path, but the brand is confident the Stratos jump still has a lot of excitement to offer:
"While many people are familiar with the Stratos event, what most don’t know is that GoPro rode shotgun during the jump, documenting every moment with seven HERO2 cameras. We want audiences to understand the insane versatility of GoPro cameras, from baby walkers (see our Baby Dub Step Super Bowl commercial from last year) to outer space. We want them to experience the Stratos event again, for the first time, through our video story, and with the out-of-this-world imagery that only a GoPro can deliver."
Millions have viewed Red Bull's footage, but clearly there are millions more who missed the hoopla the first few times around. Will they be impressed with GoPro's example of the great heights its devices can reach and document? Or will they miss the GoPro logos and just wonder why Red Bull is still running an ad from 2012?
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