Brands Battle It Out During Super Bowl LIV For A Slice Of The Action
Pizza has become synonymous with Super Bowl Sunday and is now Domino’s second busiest day of the year behind New Years, with the fast food giant selling over two million pizzas in the US over game day.
This week marks national pizza day and to celebrate we’re sharing our Super Bowl insights through the medium of pizza! As well as some amazing pizza-themed facts from this year’s Big Game!
Top 4 Happiest Ads of Super Bowl LIV
The winner of this year’s happiest Super Bowl ad goes to Jeep’s “Groundhog Day”! The ad featured Bill Murray as Phil Connors from his 1993 classic, “Groundhog Day”. The spot aired during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl on February 2, 2020, which to no coincidence is actually Groundhog Day!
🍕 Super Bowl Pizza Fact! 🍕 Little Caesars made its first Super Bowl debut this year! Little Caesars was also the only pizza chain to purchase a 30-second in-game spot. Pizza Hut ran two pre-game ads called “Lawyers” and “Calling All Carnivores” but didn’t run anything during the game.
Although Little Caesar’s “Best Thing Since Sliced Bread” did not rank in the top five for Happiness, it did achieve a high Happiness score of 14%, just above the US norm of 13%. The ad itself came in 16th overall out of the 44 Super Bowl spots we tested.
Top 4 Saddest Ads of Super Bowl LIV
The saddest ad this year goes to the NFL’s 60-second spot featuring retired Wide Receiver Anquan Boldin’s story about his cousin, Corey Jones, who was killed during a police shooting in 2015. The ad pushes for social justice reform and introduces the Players Coalition which was co-founded by Boldin and Eagles player, Malcolm Jenkens to help end social injustice and racial inequality for future generations.
Being an election year, the Super Bowl was able to capture the advertising budgets of two presidential candidates: Mike Bloomberg and Donald Trump. While Bloomberg’s ad came in second for saddest ad after the NFL’s, Trump’s “Stronger” was not far behind, ranking fifth in our Sadness lineup.
Bloomberg’s “George” advert had Calandria Simpson Kemp share the story of her son, George Kemp Jr., a young NFL football player who was shot and killed in 2013. Sadness is definitely felt as you watch this ad about a mother speaking about the loss of her child. Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign wants to highlight Bloomberg’s efforts to combat gun violence.
Top 4 Most Inspiring Ads of Super Bowl LIV
This Super Bowl, there were a lot of ads with a purpose. Microsoft used their spot to introduce Katie Sower, the first female offensive coach of the Super Bowl. This ad was ranked as the most inspiring ad of Super Bowl LIV according to our EQ data. The second most inspiring ad in our lineup is Secret’s “Secret Kicker #KickInequality” ad which aims to, as the hashtag says, “kick inequality”. Both ads scored highly for Inspiration as they both address female empowerment!
🍕 Super Bowl Pizza Fact! 🍕 Although Budweiser’s “Typical American” didn’t score in our top five for Inspiration, it did come in ninth, scoring 14% and it also ranked fifth for Warmth. The spot recites negative “typical American” stereotypes while showing clips of Americans doing the most untypical things. In one instance, the narrator says “Americans showing up uninvited” while showing a clip of a Sgt. Mason Miller, home from 7,000 miles away, to surprise his father at his office.
These wholesome clips are likely a huge reason for the sensation of Warmth in the ad. One of the people to appear during the end of the ad was Champion Pizza founder and CEO Hakki Akdeniz. Akdeniz came to America in 2001 to pursue the American Dream but with very little money, he ended up homeless. He turned his life around and gives back by hosting a special program every week to help the homeless.
