Hasta La Creative!

Ad Age is counting down to Super Bowl LVII. In the days leading up to the game, which will air on Fox on Sunday, Ad Age will bring you breaking news, analysis and first looks at the high-stakes, Big Game commercials—all in our Super Bowl newsletter. Sign up right here to get them via email.

Halfway home

We are four days away from the Big Game and 30 commercials have already been released. In last year’s game, 57 ads ran for 54 brands (excluding movie trailers and TV promos), consuming 39 minutes and 30 seconds of air time. So, about half of the ads that will run this year are out.  Not that we are counting…

Read more: Super Bowl 2023 commercials released so far

Humor remains the dominant theme. Even Google is going for laughs with a celeb-filled spot that shows how its Pixel phone can fix photo imperfections; Amy Schumer uses it to erase ex-boyfriends from old shots. That is a major departure for the brand, which last year ran an emotional spot plugging “Real Tone” tech that accurately captures diverse skin colors. The campaign went on to win a Cannes Grand Prix.

Are there any award winners in this year’s batch of Super Bowl spots? You be the judge, but so far brands seem to be avoiding taking any creative risks at all in favor of appealing to the masses—and the usual Super Bowl ad tricks are everywhere: visual gags (Hellmann’s shrunk Jon Hamm and Brie Larson); old movie references (John Travolta spoofs “Grease” in T-Mobile’s ad that was released today); and music … plenty of music—including a “Safety Dance” placement in TurboTax’s ad and Uber recalling a whole bunch of catchy old songs with help from “Diddy.”

TikTok mania

Among the new(ish) trends this year is just how many brands are trying to extend their campaigns on TikTok. That is not a surprise, given how the platform has steadily risen in popularity for brands. But given how much political scrutiny the app is under—including calls from some lawmakers to ban it—it is still a bit eyebrow-raising that so many marketers are embracing it now, on advertising’s biggest stage.

Kia released its ad today starring a desperate dad who forgot his baby’s binky—but the brand is also encouraging viewers to watch three alternate endings exclusively on its TikTok channel. (Will people still be hungry for more ads after watching about 60 of them Sunday?) Doritos even used TikTok to cast its ad—Angie Yadao-Payad, who appears in the spot, won the brand’s TikTok dance competition, which the PepsiCo brand says drew more than 1 million videos in three days.

Another big trend is brand partnerships—Ad Age took a deeper look at the brand tie-ups last week. But since then, another big one popped up—NBCUniversal’s streamer Peacock in its ad makes references to other in-game ads from M&M’s and Google.

Brands are also using the game to experiment with Web3 marketing. Read more on that here.

Check out Ad Age’s Super Bowl blog for real-time Big Game updates.

Where’s Joe?

One person who might be missing from this year’s game is Joe Biden. There is a tradition of the network airing the game to air an interview with the sitting president during pre-game. But Fox says Biden has yet to commit to a sit-down, according to media reports. The Hill notes that the interview would be handled by Fox News, which “has aggressively covered Biden’s campaign and presidency, with several of its leading prime time hosts routinely criticizing his administration, policies and family business dealings.”

One Fox News personality is guaranteed airtime: Fox plans to run a 15-second spot during the game plugging the Fox News late-night show “Gutfeld!” that stars Greg Gutfeld, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

And now for a word from your local station …

While national Super Bowl ads get most of the attention—as well as love and hate from ad reviewers—some of the most revealing marketing moves occur via local ad buys. Consider e.l.f. Beauty, which for years has enjoyed sales momentum with social and digital marketing, and barely any TV. But now the brand has bought a Super Bowl spot to run in several expensive markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The ad includes a big-name star, Jennifer Coolidge. So, what is behind the brand’s first big TV ad foray? Read more here from our interview this week with Chief Marketing Officer Kory Marchisotto.

Upon further review

Speaking of local ads, in some cases they outshine national ads creatively. That was the case with a 2012 campaign from Old Milwaukee, starring Will Ferrell, which began with mysterious clips of the actor popping up on YouTube and culminated with a Super Bowl spot that only ran in one market in Nebraska. The ad made our list of underrated Super Bowl ads compiled this week by Ad Age Creativity Editor Tim Nudd. 

Read more: 17 underrated Super Bowl ads from the past 17 years

Says Nudd: “Let’s hope we get more of these types of ads this Sunday—not world-beaters but well-made gems that leave us with a smile and a better feeling about the brands behind them.”

For a complete look at Big Game commercial history, check out Ad Age’s Super Bowl ad archive.