Google and Uber One score touchdowns
Every February, the best of the best meet in front of screaming fans and gut it out for a shot at greatness. They leave it all on the field. And when it鈥檚 over, a winner is declared: the best Super Bowl commercial.
And yes, they also play a football game.
This year, three days before the Super Bowl, the Public Relations Student Society of America Loyola chapter invited two School of Communication professors and a roomful of students to view 鈥� and debate 鈥� the best of the commercials released before the big game.
Google, long known to play second fiddle to Apple when it comes to creative, emerged victorious with its ad for the new Pixel phone with in-camera photo editing.
鈥淕oogle鈥檚 鈥樷�� commercial was a brilliant product demo done with Super Bowl-worthy style, a great music track, celebrity cameos and humor,鈥� said Chuck Rudnick, instructor in creative advertising.
The students loved it, too, awarding it 3.66 on a 4-point scale.
"Google's pixel ad is a great example of combining informativeness and entertainment at the same time, and it shows the product benefits in a smart yet relatable way to the consumers," said Jing Yang, assistant professor of digital advertising.
Humor is a great way to earn attention for a Super Bowl spot. 鈥淭he agency is always trying to create a spot that will get people in a bar to stop talking because the ad is so compelling,鈥� said Rudnick.
PRSSA President Hannah DeBok set up real-time voting so students could rate the ads, and PRSSA Communication chair Ceceilia Voss tabulated the results. All rating was done before the professors talked about each ad.
鈥淗aving the ability to do a live poll during the event added a fun interactive element, but it was also eye-opening,鈥� said DeBok. 鈥淭o see how Loyola students ranked Super Bowl ads compared to global media critics like Ad Age was an unexpected benefit to the live polling; seeing our favorite commercials ranked highly in the media was encouraging. Loyola students are able to analyze, critique, and articulate their opinions 鈥� and the professionals agreed!鈥�
Not all spots came up winners. Students thought Hyundai鈥檚 electric car ad featuring Kevin Bacon as a dorky dad fell flat. And T-Mobile鈥檚 attempt to revisit 鈥淕rease鈥� with John Travolta didn鈥檛 engage them.
鈥淭oo soon!鈥� said one student, referring to Olivia Newton John鈥檚 recent death. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know him, but he鈥檚 gross,鈥� said another, about Travolta.
The students also didn鈥檛 connect with the bromance between T-Mobile spokespersons Zack Braff and Donald Faison (JD and Turk on 鈥淪crubs,鈥� which was last produced in 2010).
鈥淒on鈥檛 forget that our students are a very narrow demographic,鈥� said Rudnick. 鈥淭hey may or may not be the group advertisers mean to target.
Other high-scoring ads were 鈥淒iddy Jingle鈥� for Uber One (3.54), 鈥淪tallone Face鈥� for Paramount Plus (3.48), 鈥淐ash Back Clueless鈥� for Rakuten (3.26) and 鈥淏reaking Bad鈥� for Popcorners (3.17).
鈥淯ber tapped into nostalgia in a meta commercial about how to make a commercial,鈥� said Rudnick. 鈥淭he result was a funny series of classic tunes rewritten to sell Uber One and get stuck in your head.鈥�
As the US media landscape has demassified, the Super Bowl remains the largest, most viewed event in our culture.
鈥淎nything that sells for $7 million for 30 seconds is worth talking about,鈥� said Rudnick.