2015: Always “Like a Girl” by Leo Burnett
After a wave of purpose-driven advertising, Always’ “Like a Girl” may look like old hat. But at the time, it was groundbreaking. The P&G brand championed female self-esteem by turning the meaning of the phrase “like a girl” from an insult to a positive statement of empowerment. The campaign sparked a conversation about gender stereotypes in society, and inspired numerous other brands to reexamine their gender portrayals and purpose marketing playbooks.
2016: Snickers “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” by BBDO
Snickers’ “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” is a Super Bowl ad classic, so it’s hard to pick just one chapter from the campaign. In 2016, the Mars brand put a wickedly funny twist on Marilyn Monroe’s famous scene from The Seven Year Itch, when her skirt blows around a New York City subway grate. It’s a grumpy Willem Dafoe, not the blonde bombshell, playing out the scene in a difficult movie shoot. But after a bite of Snickers, he transforms into Monroe. Eugene Levy also makes a cameo.
2017: Squarespace “John’s Journey” (in-house)
Squarespace, the website building platform, has become a regular fixture in the Super Bowl with shorts starring high-profile creative talent, from Zendaya to Martin Scorsese. In 2017, it gave the spotlight to actor John Malkovich, who wanted to launch his fashion career. With the brand’s signature wry humor, the ad followed Malkovich’s journey as he ran into hurdles when trying to build a fashion website. As seen in this campaign, Squarespace may be pitching a seemingly dry tool, but it’s ultimately about championing people’s creative ambitions and showing a different side to the talent we think we already know.
2018: Tide “It’s a Tide Ad” by Saatchi & Saatchi New York
Tide went meta when it bought an ad in every quarter of the 2018 Super Bowl. Each spot riffed a stereotypical Big Game commercial: a car ad, a beer ad, a deodorant ad, and more. All of them, through various twists, turned out to be pitching Tide’s detergent. Actor David Harbour played a wry, omniscient narrator. The campaign took over the Super Bowl and went on to win big prizes, including a prestigious D&AD Black Pencil.
