Barbies, Vadges, and the Super Bowl
The Requisite Super Bowl Ad Edition
Let’s take a time machine way back to 2019. Skincare brand Olay had a Super Bowl ad. So did Bumble, the dating app made for women. The ad world had woken up to the fact that (gasp) women watch football. In fact, about 47% of NFL fans are made up of women. But it took a while for ads to wake up from their cheap-beer-and-big-truck-soaked reverie of masculinity to realize that there was, as Cindy Gallop so often says, money to be made from appealing to women.
This year didn’t have skincare companies or women’s dating apps, but it did have a few ads of note for women.
The much anticipated Gwyneth-Paltrow-takes-a-bite-of-her-vagina-candle from Uber Eats was one. The past couple of years have seen many ads taking on the stigma around lady parts, including this gem with Annie Murphy of Schitts Creek. The recent hullabaloo about adidas’s (non-Super Bowl related) sports bra ad starring 25 pairs of boobs demonstrated that we’re not quite there yet in terms of being able to address women’s bodies without a bit of hullabaloo. But Uber Eats’ Gwyneth cameo was a perfect wink, although she does have a strategically placed thumb.
Barbie made her appearance, along with Anna Kendrick and an aspiring young house hunter. Drenched in pink, and very femme, Rocket Mortgage made a play for women who are a large part of the home-buying audience; women’s homeownership rate was 61% in 2019, and more single women own their own home than single men (we all read Virginia Woolf, right?).
And finally, there were trucks off-roading through mountains. Racing even. In the mud! Who was behind the wheel? None other than SNL’s Leslie Jones racing my forever-crush Rashida Jones. Oh, and Tommy Lee Jones made a cameo along with a Jonas brother, don’t ask me which one. Leslie’s face brings to life the joy of driving fast.
In more Super Bowl truck ad news, Chevy recreated the opening sequence of The Sopranos. The one retracing his steps is none other than his daughter, Meadow Soprano, played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Here’s a lovely side-by-side of the sequence and the ad.
The most noteworthy thing being it wasn’t really a thing. In prior Super Bowls, targeting women was worth a headline, and now it’s just part of the landscape.
See? It’s that easy.
Other moments of note:
Kudos to Google for taking on a real issue, then getting Lizzo to make a song for it. Always appreciate action first, then ad. And truly depicting the beauty of all skin tones.
The Sopranos ad had a glimpse of the new Goethals bridge, with designs by none other than my husband.
The Coinbase ad, 60 seconds of a bouncing QR code, was a joy. A hint of nostalgia with the throwback to the bouncing DVD symbol, cheap as hell to make, and of course, tapping into the post-pandemic popularity of the once-barely-used QR code.
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You’ve just read Framing, a biweekly newsletter about culture, marketing, and business by Anita Schillhorn van Veen. I’m currently Director of Strategy at McKinney, on the lead team of Ladies Who Strategize, and a writer over at my other favorite Substack Why Is This Interesting.
I put this out for free because I enjoy writing and thinking through problems—if you enjoyed this, buy me a coffee!