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Interesting people, insightful points of view and incredible stories on what’s popping and not popping in marketing, tech, and culture you can use to win immediately. Brands, Beats and Bytes boldly stands at the intersection of brand, tech and culture. DC and Larry are fascinated with stories and people behind some of the best marketing in the business. No matter how dope your product, if your marketing sucks your company may suck too. #dontsuck
DC: Brand Nerds. Brand Nerds, Brand Nerds. Oh, Larry. Oh Larry, this is a special one. We might even say this is a Super Brands Beats and Bytes. And when I say super, I mean this is a what's popping Super Bowl 2026 edition of Brands, Beats and Bytes and Brand Nerds You all know that. Uh, I'm gonna say this, I hope I make my daughters proud.
I'm gonna try to say this in the parlance of our, of our, uh, our younger listeners and say, uh, the Super Bowl had advertising in it, and we have thoughts. Okay? We have thoughts, Larry, and we have a guest with us who was here last year. For the 2025 Super Bowl edition. [00:01:00] I was not here, but we had someone here, his name is Tim Spangler.
We lovingly called him "Fill in Frank" from PTI, "Fill in Frank", but Larry, I gotta get a little housekeeping done right now. We can't call someone named Tim, Frank. Okay. And so, and so we gotta clear this up before we start going any further into the show, Larry. Tim has given us some things to think about Brand Nerds he has as to what we maybe want to call him.
Now, what I want to call him is not suitable for public airing, but we're gonna go to some of the options that he has given to us, Larry, and then you and I are gonna decide. Tim, we want nothing from you. No opinion, no response, no nothing. Alright. Uh, that's Tim Spangler by the way, guys, who's in the background?
Here we go. I'm just gonna go through them quickly Larry. And I'm gonna tell you my preference. So instead of [00:02:00] "Fill in Frank" from PTI: Tactical Tim. 10 day Tim. As in NBA Energy. Tap in Tim. Tune in. Tim Tiebreak Tim. Top Seed Tim. Two minute Tim. Different kind of a show. Table setter Tim. Turn over Tim. Take away Tim. Truth teller Tim and Tension Tim. I, Larry prefer. Takeaway Tim.
LT: Oh, that's a good one.
DC: Has very relevant takeaways. And does, since we're talking about football takeaways also goes with football. So that's my choice. But Larry, would you like me to read them again or did one pop out for you?
LT: No, I, I, I, I'm with you on that one.
I have a runner up as Tap in Tim, because that's what we tap into Tim, whenever we really need his great knowledge on the media front, so that's really important as well. So, uh, you [00:03:00] know, Tim, you wanna weigh in? What's your opinion?
DC: I could go either way. I like both of those. Yes.
Tim Spengler: I was worried it was gonna be 10 day, Tim, as in, I have a 10 day contract and I'm outta here, so I'm just, I'm just, uh. Happy that it's not that. But quick question before we start. Uh, yes, because I, I've been mean to ask you guys, I, I didn't see any paperwork come through. So these the same financial terms as what I'm usually on?
DC: Yes. Yes. That would be goose eggs. Okay, perfect. Yeah, that'd be goose eggs. Same thing. We got you last holiday season. We are getting you this holiday season.
Tim Spengler: Okay, perfect. Just making sure.
DC: Alright. Tap in or takeaway. What do you, what do you want to be, Tim?
Tim Spengler: Oh, I'll be, I'll be takeaway. I'll try to be smart.
LT: Good one.
DC: Okay. Takeaway Tim. So Takeaway Tim. It is. And then the other thing I'd like to speak to, I know this is a long setup, Larry, so Please,
LT: Oh, you agree, this is fun.
DC: Oh, thank you. Uh, allow Alami, is that, uh, this was Tim, this was Takeaway Tim's idea was that we come rolling up in jerseys. Okay. This was his, [00:04:00] this was his idea. So we're gonna run through the different jerseys. And dare I say two of the three are on brand. One has been absconded. Okay. One has been absconded.
So I will start. Okay. I have on a hockey jersey, Brand Nerds. You can't see me. It has LV on it. Double zeros. LV is for, I want to get this pronunciation correct because I often hack it. You know, I'm Detroit Public School, so this is Louis Vuitton. Louis Vuitton. Okay. So this is, I have Louis Vuitton on. Now, why do I have a hockey jersey?
Because being from Detroit, the last major professional team to win a world championship, it's the 2008 Red Wings. Go Hockey town. So that's me. Uh uh uh, coming up next is Tim. Tim, what do you have on? Explain it to the brand nerds, please.
Tim Spengler: So this is a New York [00:05:00] Jets jersey. It is a little wrinkle because I use it as a cry blanket and there's some tears that have sort of like salted in and that's sort the wrinkle.
I don't wear it, I just cry into it for the last 15 years.
LT: Yeah.
DC: Good. Um, I was looking at, you know, how different sports franchises have nice little taglines and saying, so Hockey Town is Detroit and the Jets is, you suck. Alright, go. Go ahead Larry. Go ahead Larry.
LT: It's it, I grew up a Jets fan and I've absconded that, uh, fandom long ago since I've lived half my life in California now.
So I feel for Tim on that front in a big way. Um, I am off brand. That's what DC's referring to. Yes. I'm wearing our, our, my son Jake's Raiders jersey, who's a Raiders fan. Uh, he was brought up wrong. Uh, my wife Sharon and I are huge. San Francisco 49 ERs fan, uh, fans, but I do not own a jersey. Uh, [00:06:00] so hence wearing, uh, Jake's Raiders jersey.
So that is where I am. Offbrand, but that's ok.
DC: Thank you. Thank you Larry. All right. Brand nerds. In all seriousness, we are gonna break down today our thoughts on the Super Bowl ads. Uh, and uh, we're gonna give you some other treats, mostly led by Takeaway Tim, 'cause he's a vet of the game. And with that, I'm going to pass, get it Brand Nerds, Pass.
Tight spiral to you, LT.
LT: Thank you Dee. That's, uh, that's great. Um, and as DC alluded to, you know, we have Tim Spangler in all seriousness. There's no one better to have. Tim Tim's been to 19 Super Bowls and has been the lead, uh, media person in many a campaign as it relates to purchasing, um, media for the Super Bowl.
So hence, he is integral to what we, uh, where we're [00:07:00] going and what we're talking about today. So, okay.
DC: And Larry, I'm, I'm sorry to interrupt. Did you say 19?
LT: 19, right, Tim? That's the right number.
DC: Wow.
Tim Spengler: True number, true. Number 19.
DC: That's impressive. Uh, just can you gimme just a second, Larry? I just, I just need to ask a follow on question, uh, to Tim.
Uh, how many of those 19 were the Jets in?
Tim Spengler: Oh, see, I thought we were friends.
LT: Hey, Tim. Ask him how many Lions we in?
Tim Spengler: 0.0.
LT: Uh, it would be more than the lions. See, you set yourself up bad for that.
DC: Okay. But I'm not, I'm not sitting here wearing a Lion's jersey. Okay. I'm, I'm wearing Hockey town. Okay.
Tim Spengler: Joe Willie Namath.
That's the, you know, 1973. That's as good as
LT: we pointing up my number one. That's what the Jets. Okay.
DC: Okay.
LT: The only thing they're known for.
DC: All right. I gotta, okay. I'm gonna be better. I'm sorry, Tim. Uh, Takeaway Tim, I'm sorry. Go. Go ahead Larry.
LT: Okay, so Brand Nerds, here's the run of the show today. This is already a super fun, uh, this is a What's [00:08:00] Poppin Super Bowl LVX edition.
And here's what we're gonna do. Um, there's three things we're going to, we're gonna go forward with. Tim's gonna walk you through some really interesting media tidbits. And some other general media context about Super Bowl 60. And then the three of us will also share some themes that sort of pop for us after that dc Tim and myself, number two, are going, each going to share one ad that we thought was really banging and why.
And then one more ad that was a big bust in why. This means each of us will have two ads that we're gonna, uh, introduce to the group. And we will all, of course, all share our thoughts on each of these ads. At the end, we will each add in some closing thoughts for you to take away. There's the Takeaway Tim, now that is the run of the show.
All right. So, okay, Tim, we know you have some interesting snippets to share, which will lead off into some themes we can discuss. The floor is yours.
Tim Spengler: Yeah, absolutely. Sounds good. All right. So there's about 80 spots in the game. Uh, it's about a [00:09:00] $1.8 billion day for NBC.
DC: Wow.
Tim Spengler: Not bottom line money. Of course, they, they had to pay trillions in multi-year contracts with all, all of the networks and they each get a Super Bowl. They rotate those. This was NBC's, part of their Legendary February, they're calling it. We're all sitting in the middle of the Olympics. The NBA All-Star game is on February 15th, so it's quite a February.
I think NBC used that to their advantage, used that as a platform. Mm-hmm. For brands, their advantage, we'll probably talk about that. The average spot cost between seven and $8 million in the game. Okay. That's the cost for the 30. It's very similar to last year. Actually. There were a few, the last three or four that somebody got in, somebody got out and the person who got in at the last minute had to pay 10 million.
So the price did get to 10 million for the first time. [00:10:00] 10 million by the way, and a match of 10 million. I'd like that in the Olympics, if possible, we can have that conversation was kind of how that went on the other side of the phone. Right. Few spots at 10, uh, with a match. So that was, you know, something, I mean, that's quite something from the days of the first spot was 40,000.
Uh, I remember, I remember the first million, the first million dollar spots were like late nineties. Um, we thought that was a big deal back then. Uh, a friend of mine, it was friend of mine, it was Ian, ran Bush Media and they had 10, we'll talk about beer too. I know today they had 10 spots and beer exclusivity.
That's when you're the king of beers. That was the first million dollar spot, really.
LT: Right?
Tim Spengler: Uh, late nineties. Um, and you know, about 125 million people are gonna, last year, 127.7 million people saw the game. This year's game was, let's say, less exciting. [00:11:00] How much lower will the number be by the time this comes out?
That might, that those numbers might be public. They are not yet. Um, and you know, yeah, those are kind of the NBC facts and figures. Any, anything I missed?
LT: No, those are great. That's great context. Then I think as it relates to NBC, I give them a lot of credit because they consciously did this, Tim right to set it up this way where they would get the Super Bowl, in the middle of their Olympic games and you could see how they're all cross-promoting. And it's, it's actually pretty brilliant when you think about it because you know, the Winter Olympics does not have the mass audience appeal that the Super Bowl does. But I gotta tell you, especially with Lindsay Von falling and all the things that have already happening
DC: Yeah.
LT: And the Olympics, you've gotta believe that that, and, and that's something I don't know, Tim, you know this, I don't think they can track that, but I gotta believe it's helped viewership for the Olympics, uh, having the, uh, Super Bowl Right. Smack dab in the middle [00:12:00] of it.
Tim Spengler: Yeah. There's, so, there's always a lot of variables. Like the last winter Olympics was in Beijing. Okay. It was 13 or 14 hours. Different time zone. Right. Couldn't,
LT: Yeah.
Tim Spengler: There's a lot of reasons why, and this isn't here, this is six hours different from the East coast and nine hours from the west coast. So it's not that anything's perfect, but yes, the promotional platform of the Super Bowl certainly will benefit the Olympics.
And prob yeah, for sure.
LT: And advertisers.
Tim Spengler: Yeah. And then the advertisers who are, you know, a lot were in both. Yeah. Not all, but many, many are in both. This is a moment and this is a moment to stand out and let's go for it a little bit here. Are we comfortable with what we're saying? If we are, we wanna win, don't we? Let's go for it. This is the, this is the time to go for it. Yeah. So the definitely some of that in there too.
LT: That's very cool. So I have you, you again we're, Tim, do you wanna hit a theme that you have? Um, how should we start that?
Tim Spengler: Sure. I, so, um, [00:13:00] I had two big themes. We wanna each do one and then go back around or how do you wanna do it?
LT: Yeah, I only have one big one. So you, you, you start.
Tim Spengler: Alright. So I had a, I had AI everything everywhere and all at once.
LT: Mm-hmm.
DC: Ah, nice.
Tim Spengler: Not only, you know, 15 spots, but three or four where AI was used to enhance the actual spot. Right. Talking about technology. Right. So you got, you got AI in a couple, in a couple different ways.
Um, that influenced this games and the, I, I'll, I'll just stay, stay on that one for one more second. A little reminiscent of the two thousand.com bowl.
DC: Mm, okay. Yeah.
Tim Spengler: This is the AI bowl. That was the.com bowl. New technology now front and center. What happened after the.com bowl the first week of February, or last week of January?
Back in 2000 on March 10th, we had the.com bust, the big one. Not saying we're gonna have the AI bust in six weeks. Yeah, yeah. [00:14:00] I'm just saying that's what happened.
LT: Very interesting. That's a great call. And think about it, D, 15, Tim said there's 80 spots, so, man, I mean, you know, that's a huge percentage, right?
DC: Yes, yes.
LT: And, and I, and dare I say. That's a great theme. And dare I say, I would, uh, challenge anyone, ourselves included to really decipher what the different positionings of are from Claude to o to ChatGPT to et cetera. Yeah. Um, because they, and for me, they melded into the same thing.
Tim Spengler: Right. Good point.
DC: Nice theme. Uh, remind the Brand Nerds of your theme again, Tim, before we go to Larry
Tim Spengler: Ai. Everything everywhere, all at once.
DC: Okay. That's good. I think I've heard that somewhere in Oscar land movies, but I digress. Go ahead, Larry.
All
LT: right, so I'm gonna hit the next one.
DC: Yeah. [00:15:00] You, you? Yeah. You said you had a theme.
LT: Yeah, I got a theme. Yeah. So the theme is being is small tactics. So Tim alluded to, you know, people paid upwards of 10 million. More in the seven or $8 million range. That's a lot of money, man. Dare I say bluntly, that's a shit ton of money and I don't get how you would just be small with tactics. So here, where, here's where I'm going.
If you're not advancing the brand and really, uh, talking about brand and really, uh, advancing the brand, like I said, what are you doing? So here I'm gonna call out GrubHub with George Clooney. They talked about no fees. And you know, at the end of, no, that's a tactic. Do you really need the Super Bowl to tell us that you have no fees anymore?
Uh, Claude Ai, again, one of the ais they talked about, I think there were two spots that they don't have any ads in their ai, again, tactical. And to me, this is really [00:16:00] small thinking to spend all that money on just what our small tactics and really not advancing what your brand is about and your brand message.
What do you think, guys ?
DC: I agree with you, uh, Larry. And, um, I believe that when there is a tactic that many of these brands, companies and advertisers, including their agencies believe can become stunty. They use the Super Bowl as a way to, to talk about that tactic. I don't, I don't agree with it necessarily, but
LT: Right.
DC: I think that's their logic.
LT: Right
Tim Spengler: Along the other side of the, the, the, the, the tactic theme is when it's so much about the celebrity and not about the brand, that's another form of a tactic, right? It's like,
DC: Yes.
LT: Yeah.
Tim Spengler: Talk about the celebrities. What was it for? Did it move? Did it [00:17:00] move the you down? The consideration set is another ver there's always some of that in the Super Bowl as well.
Yeah. Where it's so celebrity heavy, but Yeah. Did it, but celebrity, what, what did what what they say, what's going on? But yeah, I agree. Correct tactics.
DC: Good point. I didn't have a theme, and I should say this Brand Nerds, uh, Tim, Larry and I do not confer
LT: Good one.
DC: On this. So what you're hearing, uh, from each of us is what we're all hearing for the, for the first time from each of us.
So with that said, here is my theme. The Super Bowl continues to be a trifecta of entertainment. What do I mean? You have the game, you have the ads, and you have the halftime show. Yep. So these are the three different elements of the Super Bowl. We put this in context. Uh, Brand Nerds. The viewership of the Super Bowl last year, [00:18:00] 59 was 27.7 million people.
LT: 7.7,
DC: I mean, excuse me, 127.7. Yes. 127.7. Alright. Last year's halftime show by Kendrick Lamar. Brilliant. Was 133.5. Yeah. So more, more people watch Kendrick Lamar during the halftime show than watch the frigging game.
LT: Right?
DC: This is, puts it in in context and of course, far more than $133.5 million had been spent.
On Super Bowl media, not to mention production and celebrities. So that's why I'd say three. Trifecta of entertainment, gentlemen.
Tim Spengler: Shall we say three phases of entertainment?
DC: Three phases, okay.
Tim Spengler: With the football parlors, three phase.
DC: Oh, look at take, look at Takeaway Tim, look [00:19:00] at, Takeaway Tim. Phases, three phases.
Offense. Defense. Special Teams.
Tim Spengler: Yes, sir.
DC: Complimentary entertainment.
LT: Yeah. I, you know, it's funny, we were in a meeting earlier, uh, with our amazing colleague, Joi Noel, and we were talk, just catching up on the weekend, and we asked Joy if she watched the Super Bowl. She said, Nope. I watched the halftime. Right.
So, and she loved the halftime. She loved Bad Bunny. So, you know, this is a theme again, theme, right? That does run, uh, run through, I think, uh, every year. Yep.
DC: One more, one more point there about halftime show. The last five halftime shows, uh, or actually no, the five biggest, I'm sorry. In viewership halftime shows, U2, 2002, 82.9 million.
Missy Elliott and Katy Perry. Twenty fifteen, a hundred eighteen 0.5 million. Usher, usher, baby [00:20:00] twenty twenty four, a hundred twenty 9 million. Kendrick Lamar last year, as I mentioned, 133.5 million. And the ster, the buer drum roll please. 135 million all time record linear tv.
LT: Wow.
Tim Spengler: Very interesting. Yeah. Was there, do you have any stats?
I, I should know this because I was in actually in the middle of it, of the wardrobe malfunction.
DC: I was the middle. I, I don't have that. I, I can let me, I'll look for it, but it's not that I don't think, I would think that'd be more. Probably right after more. Probably right after. More.
LT: So, Tim, you brought it up, you've shared it before, but take us through the wardrobe malfunction, you know, in a quick way how you were in the middle of it.
Tim Spengler: So my client was a OL and it was the a OL. It was, it was MTV presents, the a OL top speed. That was their, that was their dial up content access to the [00:21:00] internet brand. Um, A-O-M-T-V presents the AOL top speed halftime report. So as the, as the word of malfunction occurred, AOL just presented Porn to America.
Oh. Oh. My little less access to porn back then in 2004 than there is now. Oh my. And that was a moment to be, uh, in the stadium with your client and having to deal with the. The fallback of, of that situation. I'll just leave.
DC: Oh my goodness.
LT: Should, should we have the brand nerds, uh, Google what? Wardrobe and malfunction?
Or should we tell 'em what it is?
Tim Spengler: I think they should Google it. But maybe you, you think that you should tell 'em, I don't know.
LT: Just say, we'll just say the party's word. Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake and go and Google it.
DC: Yeah, just Google it.
Tim Spengler: I think it was '04, or '05. I should know the year. It's probably, [00:22:00] it should be tattooed on my brain.
It was one of those years in Houston. It was, yeah. Anyway, that was a halftime to remember.
LT: Yes, it was.
DC: To say the least.
LT: This is great. Tim, did you have one more theme before we wanna move on, or, uh,
Tim Spengler: So here's another big one, and it's, it's, I'm gonna sound a little old school, but it is the history of marketing, the Super Bowl, biggest event of the year in media. In this country. No one's gonna say it isn't. Cars and beers. Where are you at?
LT: Yeah.
Tim Spengler: Ah, yeah, it was, you know, as I said, Anheuser-Busch would have to buy either eight or 10, depending on the year.
LT: Right.
Tim Spengler: Spots to own category, exclusivity for beer. And then there were so many cars in almost every game was huge. There were, I saw less than three of both cars, LT.
LT: Was VW Cadillac had the Formula One ad. Those are the only ones I remember did Toyota, I think. 'cause they had the halftime.
Tim Spengler: Halftime, yeah.
Not a lot. And then the beer, you know, I mean, yeah. So that to [00:23:00] me was a crazy theme. I mean, they sold it out. It was great.
Demand, all the rest of what we said. Right. Similar price to last year. It was not like the price spiked. Right. But still, but crazy how, you know, things just replace categories, replace other categories. It's, but it, to me that just, it just, it made it, it was a theme for me. It's just very different than other Super Bowls.
LT: Yeah, and AI theme is interesting. It is a coincidence, I think. But being again, in the Bay, in the Bay Area, you know, AI like the home of AI now, right now in downtown San Francisco Brand Nerds, that is where all the AI companies are and are only getting bigger and larger right now.
Tim Spengler: Let, let me make one point about that because the Super Bowl is not only the Super Bowl buy.
Is not only for advertisers Yes. To talk to consumers. Okay. It is. That's a B2C play. It's also a B2B play in many. Yes.
LT: Yeah.
Tim Spengler: We've all talked in the past about how to get better distribution. When you go to the guy who's the buyer at Walmart and you've got a product and you [00:24:00] say, I'm in the Super Bowl.
LT: That's
Tim Spengler: right. Well, that buyer's gonna buy more of your product and put it on your shelf. I'm cutting to the chase, making it very simple, but it, it's a play. Here's another play. How about the internal and with our customers or all these tech companies? Yes. And I don't know, Larry, you live out there, how many parties, how many events when the game was in their backyard?
Did, did they go, we have to have a spot because that's gonna, we're gonna bring all of our best customers in. We're gonna have all of our like, you know, that was part of it.
LT: No question that, that, and that always plays a big part. And I think that that got a little bit exponential here because of the, of the setting, uh, and the timing of it all.
Yeah.
DC: Yeah. I, uh, I read, uh, that Cardi B had performances over the weekend, to your point, uh, as did SZA and a connection with Cardi B. Cardi B was also a part, although nascent part of [00:25:00] Bad Bunny's Halftime show she was in, in front of one of the houses on the porch dancing, as was Carol G. And I bet Carol G also had made some money at different parties.
So to your point, Takeaway Tim, these artists who came to town to bless a party. Uh, I I'm sure some of those par, those party brands were in, in the Super Bowl, right?
LT: Yeah. Alright. Should we hit section two? You wanna get to the ads?
DC: Let's, uh, let's do it. I do. I, one thing before we get to the ads though, I do wanna say this.
So I went out, uh, uh, Tim and visited Larry and Sherry, my fiance Ashley and I visited Larry and Sherry. Uh, back in November. We were headed out to Napa Valley to celebrate, uh, my born day. And as I was driving through the [00:26:00] city, uh, with, uh, with Larry, um, and, uh, maybe an Uber, not a Waymo, but an Uber everywhere the eye could see was an AI billboard.
Tim Spengler: Right?
DC: Like literally, I, I felt like I just got dropped into AI land, right?
And, you know, those folks were throwing crazy parties. Which leads me to my question, Larry. We know that Super Bowl tickets are hard to get. They're allocated by big brands and media companies Yep. And organizations. And only a small percentage of them go to fans.
LT: Right.
DC: How hard do you think it was to get tickets in Silicon Valley with all those billionaires and millionaires?
LT: Yeah, I think it was really hard and
DC: ridiculous.
LT: The, but the other interesting thing that happened here, you guys, and Tim, I know you can totally relate to this 'cause of the one Super Bowl that was, uh, in New York,
Tim Spengler: Uhhuh,
LT: You [00:27:00] know, Santa Clara, where Levi's Stadium is, is in the South Bay.
It's right next to San Jose. Actually, it's 40 miles from downtown San Francisco. Oh, okay. I was in San Francisco actually on Friday. Uh, DC and Tim, you both know there was an Adweek function in San Francisco, and so there was, there was things around, but I was at the ferry building, which has a, which has awesome, uh, you know, uh, shops and whatnot.
And I, I was asking one of the people as I working there, as I, I was at this bakery. I'm like, are you getting a Super Bowl feel? She goes, well, I know, I, I asked a, a, um, one of my coworkers like, what's going on? But it doesn't feel that much different. And I was surprised in on Friday in San Francisco it didn't feel that much different.
And what I gather is all the entertaining and was going on in San Francisco, but all the football was in the South Bay. That's where the teams were located and everything. So it was a little bit bifurcated. And the other thing that's [00:28:00] happened that's, that's different with ai, most, most of the Googles and the, and the Metas and all those companies are, are actually closer.
And to Santa Clara in the South Bay in what's really the heart of Silicon Valley. The AI companies are in San Francisco, so again, it's not that far away. It's 40 miles, but it is a little bit of different. So I think it was a little bit, um, you know, disparate in that sense. 'cause it's not like if, if anybody's been to Indianapolis, you know, the Lucas Oil stadium's right in the heart of the city and everything is within like five or six blocks, you know, and you, you can't not feel it when you have an event like that there.
Or in New Orleans, Tim, you and I have talked like at the super Yes. That's the best place. Like you, you have everyone knows.
Tim Spengler: Just, I was just gonna say that, that's why I think New Orleans is the best you and I love the word you used. Yes. Feel it's, you know, you, you're breathing Super Bowl air for an entire weekend.
Yes. No matter where you are. But when the game, you're right. When the game's 40 miles [00:29:00] away, it's a little different. It is what it is. Yeah. It
DC: Alright. We are now going to the. Ad evaluation section. This is where we brand nerds, give our view two categories of ads, bangers, these are the ones we thought one for each of us that, that we pick above all of the others. And then busts. So bangers and bust. We're gonna start with bangers. If you all don't mind, I'd like to lead it off 'cause I want to go last on the bust. Can I, can I leave this one off?
LT: Yes.
DC: Okay. Banger. My banger for Super Bowl 2026 is, I'm not saying it again. I first need to give you a criterion. Here's my criterion.
I've got three points that I want you brand nerves to consider that [00:30:00] I believe make or break a banger or bust. Number one, and this is an order of priority for me. Number one, emotional impact. Did it make us feel something? Did it make us feel something real? Mm-hmm. Because for, for me and Larry, we do this in our business all the time.
Without an emotional impact, nothing else really matters. Mm-hmm. Number two, brand integration. Could this ass belong to anyone else? But if the audience, if they like, they get the joke, but they don't remember the brand, they, they, but they're laughing and you ask them like, Hey, who was that ad for? Yeah. And they say, I don't know.
But it was really funny. The ad has failed. It has failed.
LT: Failed miserably, I might add.
DC: Miserably. And [00:31:00] you said this earlier, Larry, number three, moment mastery. Did it own the Super Bowl moment? Did it take advantage of these 120, 130 million eyeballs at one time? It is a once a year cultural stage. Did it really own it?
So those are my three. Just to revisit again, emotional impact. Make us feel. Brand integration. Make us remember like who made us feel whatever we felt. And moment mastery. Make it unforgettable and in cultural context. Oh, context. Alright, so with all of that, my banger is Lay's harvest. Lay's harvest. Okay?
So brand nerves. In case you hadn't seen this, now there is a farmer,
Tim Spengler: you're gonna feel something
DC: who [00:32:00] is talking about. The Lay's farm where he raises potatoes and they are fresh potatoes that we eat in our Lay's potato chips. He is sitting on the ca on, on this porch in a swing with his daughter, not his son, but his daughter.
And he hands the daughter keys to the farm and says, it's yours now, baby. And the daughter says, now, dad, just one more time. Can we go out and just tend this land together one more time? And then it goes through a series of different snippets where it shows this woman who's now back to being a little girl with her dad on the farm and planting potatoes, and it goes through their history together, and then it ends back on the porch where the father says, no, no, no.
There's no need to do it [00:33:00] together again. It's yours. Oh, the emotional impact. The love of a father and a daughter. The brand integration, everybody knows that's Lays. It's Lays, you can't get around it. I grew up with Better Maid chips. Nobody, nobody's thinking about Better Made chips there. You can't take Lays out.
No, no. It's Lays and then the moment, the the, the whole moment is there is a movement going on in this country right now. Take away Tim and LT. That is about women in sports across the board about elevating our women and that is a cultural thing happening now. They own that moment. My banger is Lay's Last Harvest.
What say you?
Tim Spengler: That would've been fun to be in the boardroom and you guys, both as brand managers have been in these rooms. When that idea [00:34:00] was kicked around.
LT: Yep.
Tim Spengler: It would've been fun. And I obviously it got approved. So the, it was ultimately, it was a yay vote versus a nay vote. I wonder how many people thought that was too far a field.
It's not gonna land. What are we trying to do here? But it clearly does. Mm-hmm. And it's, it's a good one. And for all those reasons you said.
LT: I love everything you said. It's so funny, Dee, it was my number two, oh, number number two. Okay. Number one. But it was my number two. I love that ad. And I have to just say, tell the brand, by the way, Jade's gonna post all the, the, the, the bangers on the busts in the show notes so you could go back and watch them.
Um, uh, what I also thought was amazing was, did you notice, and again this is, comes from a dog daddy, did you notice the golden retriever? The ad too. There was a golden retriever in the ad, and they showed the golden in different phases when they, when they did the flashback of when the, [00:35:00] when the woman was a young girl and the, and the dog was a puppy.
Ah. And now she,
DC: I missed that, Larry.
LT: And, and now the dog is older with a gray face sitting on the porch. So they, they got all the elements like, oh, you, you know, these are Brand Nerds. I'm bringing that up because DC described it perfectly. But even down to that level of detail, to really emotionally connect with people, it was brilliant.
Brilliant.
DC: That, that's my banger. All right. Uh, who wants to go next?
LT: Tim, why don't you hit us next?
Tim Spengler: Sure. I, I thought what Pepsi did was unbelievable. Now my, I, I love your setup, DC. You know, I, I, what I always think about is something gonna work. It's kind of the classic funnel. We all know that the awareness is there because you're in the Super Bowl, so everyone's aware, but the interest and the consideration, can you take me down the funnel?
Does the ad not just [00:36:00] be entertaining, but does it take me down the funnel and your, your, your, your ingredients were kind of some of those things that get you down the funnel? Did you feel it?
DC: Yeah.
LT: Yep.
Tim Spengler: Et cetera. Um, the judo move, the judo move that Pepsi did, stealing the polar bear mm-hmm. And putting it in their ad.
I don't think I've ever seen that. I mean, could Allstate put a gecko in their ad? Could Miller put a Clydesdale in its ad? I, I don't know where copyright starts and ends on these things, but, I thought it was amazing that Pepsi stole the polar bear, put it in a blind taste test and then put it in the, um, what was the company where the CEO and the head of HR were at the concert together?
Canoodling?
DC: Oh yeah, I forgot.
Tim Spengler: Yes, astronomer. Astronomer. The little astronomer takeaway. Yes. I just thought [00:37:00] that that move was really, really interesting. And so I celebrate the balls of that one to say that's my favorite ad of the 80.
LT: All right. This is so good. Oh, this is good. So we, we, we, as you know, are incredibly biased because we grew up in North Avenue and I understand everything, just by
DC: the way, by the way, uh, can you tell them the brand nerd, what that means?
LT: North Avenue? Yes. That, that's Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta. Georgia's on North Avenue. And so as, uh, as brand nerd, you all know DC and I grew up at Coca-Cola, and when I saw that ad, Tim. I felt like that reminds people of Coca-Cola. This is Pepsi's always done this. They always talk when, when you're number two, many challenger brands bring up number one.
Um, the leading brand never has to do that. And so all that does is remind me of that. Coca-Cola has the icon of polar [00:38:00] bears, which is an incredible icon. They have a lot of iconography of Coca-Cola, and that just reminds 'em of Coca-Cola. And so for me, I, I, I just see, ugh, I, that's number, that's Pepsi playing their playbook.
They're going out back, they're using it for the Pepsi challenge. The Pepsi Challenge did work at first, but then Coke pushed it back. And the reason why the Pepsi challenge worked in, in, in my opinion, and DC and I have actually never directly talked about this, is because at the time, Coke didn't know how to react to that.
They, they stayed on the product level and then by coming up with new Coke and by effing up and then coming back with Coca-Cola Classic, they figured out about the emotional connection that Coca-Cola has. So for me, it's Pepsi going, same playbook going to product, and they're using the leading brands iconography.
So it's reminding consumers of the leading brand, not them. So that's why, that's the issues I have with that ad.
Tim Spengler: It might have been, it might have been a fail. I, you know, you might be you. The diagnostics will [00:39:00] always, will always come out. I you might be right. Maybe. Maybe. I totally missed though. I picked a one.
LT: No, it's not that you missed it. Again, it's
DC: No, no, no, no, no.
LT: It's different things for different people. It might play for them. We'll see.
Tim Spengler: Yeah.
DC: Oh, Takeaway Tim. Oh, Takeaway Tim. This is very, very, uh, difficult for me. This is very difficult for me, and it's because I'm biased and I know I'm biased.
LT: Yep. All
DC: right.
LT: We, we admit to our bias.
DC: Yeah. Yeah. So I admit to admit to, so let me give a couple facts, brand nerds. Why would Pepsi do this? Why The answer has to do with their share position.
Tim Spengler: Yep.
DC: When the Pepsi challenge happened, the original OG Pepsi Challenge, Pepsi did this amongst regular consumers, and Pepsi won the taste test.
The reason why they won the [00:40:00] test taste test is because they tested each Coca-Cola and Pepsi. No, no, uh, branding on it, at ambient temperature. And the human taste buds are predisposed to pick that, which is sweeter. And when you have Pepsi. Coke Pepsi's already a little sweeter than Coke at ambient temperatures.
Pepsi is significantly sweeter than Coke, therefore it wins the, the test. So this is why, why they did they, the Pepsi Challenge. And by the way, the original Pepsi Challenge caused the Coca-Cola company to blink in 1984 and launch new Coke, which they abandoned nine months later, maybe less than nine months later, to return back to the original flavor of Coca-Cola, which was called Coca-Cola Classic [00:41:00] upon its return.
Okay, so it's a little history lesson, kids today that went and Coke and Pepsi were neck and neck, and Pepsi passed Coke for a little bit of time back in the eighties. Now, fast forward to today, number one is Coca-Cola in share in the us. About 19. Number two is Dr. Pepper at about an 8.3 share. Number three is Sprite at about an 8.27 share.
And number four,
Tim Spengler: Not that you know the numbers.
DC: Okay, not that I know numbers. And number four is Pepsi. They're number four. This is why they have returned to the Pepsi Challenge. Now my next point, brand nerds, you're gonna have to go look this up. One of my favorite shows, late [00:42:00] night shows coming up was In Living Color. Keenan Ivory Wan's show. Great comedians discovered their, uh, Jamie Fox. In addition to Keenan Damon, Ws, David Allen Greer, and what's my man's name? Uh, probably the biggest star of 'em all at one time.
LT: Jim Carrey.
DC: Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey.
LT: So yeah,
DC: Jamie Fox. The biggest now 'cause he, Oscar winner, Grammy winner. Right, right. But Jim Carrey, so they used to have a film critic show that was a spoof of Cisco and Ebert and Cisco and Ebert used to do two thumbs up.
What Damon, Waynes and Allen, uh, and David Allen grid. They used to do two snaps up, two snaps up. And one of their lines was, hated it. Hated it. I hated it. Okay. I hated this goddamn Pepsi thing. Pepsi cell thing, [00:43:00] because it reminds me of an old line being used one too many times. Imagine if you said at the age of 20, this same line at the age of 40.
LT: Yeah.
DC: Did it hurt when you fell from heaven because you look like an angel. Okay. That is a stupid line. Okay. But it's okay to use it when you're 20. You can't use this damn line at 70 fellas. You cannot use this thing at at seven at at 40 years old. And I feel like Pepsi is using the same line, the old line once again.
Finally, then I'm gonna get off of it. Uh, it we're gonna have to change. Takeaway Tim's name here. Alright, here we go. Here's my, here's my final point.
Tim Spengler: I'm on a 10 day contract. I'm done. That's the 10. [00:44:00]
DC: Here's my, here's my final point.
LT: No, this is great that you elevated this actually.
DC: Hey, uh, Spangler does the name Michael Binder for.
Uh, not Benioff, BYOR Koch, VP of marketing. CMO No, north America. I thought
Tim Spengler: you were gonna out pop culture and he was gonna really bother me. No. If this is a work thing. No, I don't know him.
DC: No work thing. Okay. Yep. Coca-Cola. Uh, so they, he, he came to our B school to recruit us. Shout out CAU.
Tim Spengler: Nice.
DC: Uh, and uh, they showed an ad that had Diet Coke and Pepsi in it, and it was a Coke ad.
And afterwards I'm like, like, why would y'all do that? Like, why would you highlight, uh, uh, Pepsi? And he said, Coke is unassailable. If we can get people for one second to think that Diet Coke and Pepsi are in the same league, we've won. He said, that's the only time we will ever put another brand in our advertising.
I go back to Larry's [00:45:00] point, the Polar Bears Cokes, you just reminding people of Coke. But I will say this, that Pepsi did well. I thought they were going to debase the polar bear and they didn't.
LT: Yeah.
DC: They, they treated the polar bears with respect, and for that, I give them credit.
Tim Spengler: I'm surprised you guys, neither of you had any passion on this topic.
DC: It's, it's a great one. It's a great one, brother.
LT: It is.
DC: All right, Larry.
LT: It's my turn for the banger. Okay. What you got,
DC: brother?
LT: So, I'm gonna also, DC and I have three things, and our three are very similar, but in different order. Here's my three When I'm evaluating a Brand Nerd, so my number one is brand id, including strong use of brand icons.
Okay? 'cause to me, if you don't do that again, if you emotionally connect and you do all these other things, but people don't remember your brand, you've, you, you've lost me. So number one's gotta be brand id.
DC: Okay?
LT: Number two is, does it [00:46:00] advance the brand positioning? What the brand is in, in one's mind and where the brand is and where it's going.
Okay? So that's number two. And then number 3 D, you have this as number one. Is it memorable, compelling, emotionally connecting. Okay, so those are my three in that order. So as I set that up
DC: now, now I'm sorry Larry, just so you know, your third one had three. Just I'm just for the record. Okay. But go ahead.
You, you got, you got like six things, but go ahead Larry.
LT: Okay, but it's emotionally connecting. Let's just leave it at that.
DC: Go
LT: ahead. Okay. So again, it's brand ID advances, brand positioning, and emotionally connecting. Let's just leave it to those three. So with that said, with that said, my setup is my favorite was Levi's and get up off of that thing with James Brown.
DC: Ah, Levi's. Yeah.
LT: Okay. And that ad was incredible. Um, I'm gonna remind you, they literally. Had the camera on people's butts and [00:47:00] probably showed 60 people's butts doing different things all in Levi's. You can't miss the Levi's Id, the little red label, the Levi's on the pants. And they had everything from new, all kinds of Levi's jeans on all kinds of butts.
And it, it was incredible. And to me, it's all, no one can confuse that for anything else. It's advancing that brand positioning because Levi's is really part of everyone's life, right? Everyone, doesn't matter who you are, what you're about, Levi's is part of your life. And to me, the James Brown song, get up off of that thing.
I mean, I, I, I saw it during the Super Bowl and I watched it again today and it was even better the second time. So for me, that was, that was number one. Loved it. What y'all think?
Tim Spengler: I liked it. And we talk about the home game, right? Obviously Levi's in San Francisco. Yes. Uh, yeah. Would they have done that last year or next year?
I don't know. It doesn't really matter. Right? We're just [00:48:00] baseball it with here. But yeah, it was great. It was real. I liked the George Michael Cutaway. I liked the Bruce Springsteen, obviously. Cutaway. Yes. Great. Famous ones there. No, that was great. It's great.
DC: I love that one. Um, I was debating on that, uh, as well.
Um, I will say that, uh, rear ends had a bit of a run in the Super Bowl between that and the tight ends. That was a good,
Tim Spengler: that's right. Which, which also a great ad.
DC: Yeah. Great. Great. A the
Tim Spengler: tight ends, it might be opportunity for Sir Mix a lot next year. I don't
DC: Oh, oh, oh. That, that would've been nice this year.
'cause he's a Bay Area artist.
Tim Spengler: Ah,
LT: see, that's right.
DC: That would've been nice for this year. That's a good one.
LT: By the way, I forgot to say the, the tagline also to, to just put the cherry on top is "Behind Every Original" was the tagline.
DC: Ooh. This, this is. That is really good. Uh, I, I was impressed, so impressed [00:49:00] with that.
And I can sum it up in one word, both the brand, the ad, and the music, which is difficult to pull off in fashion. And the one word is timeless,
LT: Right?
DC: Yeah. Timeless.
LT: And Levi's is timeless.
DC: Yeah, timeless.
LT: Awesome.
DC: That's a great one. That's a great one, Larry.
LT: All right, so we go to the bust. Who wants to hit us?
Who wants to hit the first bus?
DC: I, I want to go last if I could.
Tim Spengler: I'll go there if you want.
LT: Yes, please go, Tim. Because I, by the way, I've changed mine right before the show. I changed mine, so go ahead.
Tim Spengler: Oh, that's interesting.
LT: Yeah.
Tim Spengler: I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go that Coinbase 60 in the first half. Huh?
DC: Explain it now.
Takeaway Tim. Take away Tim. Explain the ad.
Tim Spengler: Yeah. Lemme try,
LT: Try to explain it. [00:50:00]
Tim Spengler: There was some version of a cartoon with words going across with some song from the eighties or nineties, I think, which does not matter. I'm sorry.
LT: No,
Tim Spengler: and it was play on the 2022 Coinbase ad where they put the QR code up and it just shook and people did click on the QR code from three or four years ago,
LT: right?
Tim Spengler: I, I don't even, that's the 60. I don't even, what? Who, I don't even know what that was. I thought that was really, really a zero. Maybe it was over my head. Maybe you guys liked that one too. I I just didn't get it.
LT: I, I'm with you. Maybe, maybe we will let DC who posit. I completely agree with you. Again, this is egregious to me that you spend that much money and people just don't get it and you go, huh?
And, and again, it is, it is not doing any of the things that DC and I and Tim and we talked about what it's doing. And if, if you're, if you're spending that much money and [00:51:00] not communicating anything of value and, uh, and if the inside joke is only inside to a few people, then you shouldn't be on the Super Bowl.
You should be on something else.
Tim Spengler: And you know, the one interesting thing, and we didn't say this, and maybe we could have at the outset. Okay. And it, and I, I think it's, it, it's important to mention in the context of good, good ads and, but really in the context of bad ads, it isn't only about the in game anymore.
LT: Great point.
Tim Spengler: He's about the takeaway at the end of whatever period of time you guys as the brand managers. Right. Good point. Up to 30 days. 60, 90. And so that includes how they play the pre, was there a teaser? Right? What out of a trailer, what did they run in the pregame, what they run in the championship games?
So I I, I'll, I will say that we looked at, we're looking at it here a little bit in a vacuum of how did it do that day?
LT: Yeah.
Tim Spengler: And we're looking at it with picture [00:52:00] thoughts of what's it, what does that mean for the brand going forward? So I, I, I don't want, I haven't seen the whole Coinbase activation that led up to the 60, um, uh, uh, kind of to me a thud.
But it just, I, I wanna just say that as we say, what to me, didn't work. 'cause a lot of 'em shows, there's a lot of really smart people around all of that stuff. And sometimes you take a, you take a shot, right? And you sometimes, sometimes it doesn't, didn't for me.
LT: And just before you go, I just want to add to what Tim said about the social media component is just integral and huge to all of this, what you do pre in the, in the game and then post.
And so we haven't tracked that Brand Nerds, but at the same time, you're spending all this money, it can't, it, it can't be in a vacuum where you've maybe done all this thing surrounding it, but you got no meat in the sandwich, meaning in the 60 in the, in the, uh, in the Super Bowls A dud because people don't get it.
So, sorry, D, but you, the, I just want.
DC: [00:53:00] No, no, no. Okay. Um, okay. Uh,
Tim Spengler: you gonna go deep water again? Because I'll put on, if I gotta put on my, you know, my, my scuba gear again for this deep No,
DC: No, no, no, no.
Tim Spengler: I'll
DC: Takeaway Tim. No, no. Um, since I went to business school. To today, uh, it has been 13,341 days. Okay. Of those 13,341 days, there has only been one day that I have been in embarrassed to say that I am in the brand management business. And that was yesterday when I watched that goddamn Coinbase ad.
Tim Spengler: No way.
DC: Yeah, I was embarrassed, Tim and [00:54:00] Larry.
I was embarrassed for our craft. And, uh, there's an old saying goes back to Mad men days and that kind of thing, that nothing kills a, a great product, like a bad product, like great advertising. Okay? That, that, that's a saying. I don't know if Coinbase is a great product or not. I, I don't know, but that, that, that piece of shit, I, I felt
Tim Spengler: Married in your parlance. Is that not married? I mean, come on.
DC: That's right, Louis. Don't it, it just, it just, I mean, that was in, in, in Charles Barkley provides, that was terrible. That was terrible. It, it makes me, now, I, I'm sure that I'm gonna get a bit of a gag reflux whenever I see the former, the former Staples Center now that has [00:55:00] Coinbase on the top of it. 'Cause I'll be reminded of this ridiculousness.
LT: Well, and D, could I add to, are you, are you complete? 'cause I wanna add to
DC: I'm I am brother. I'm, I'm, yes.
LT: Ridiculousness. We wanna, I wanna take people. Inside this boardroom where you and I and Tim could both have a real good idea of how this actually happened.
And so as they were formulating what they're calling creative and we're, we're really saying isn't, they said, Hey, there's gonna be all this AI special effects in the Super Bowl. Yeah. All these celebrities, ours is gonna stand out. Yes. 'cause we're just gonna have words and graphics on a page. Yes. So it's gonna stop people 'cause it's gonna be so different.
And by the way, maybe that's true. And if you're gonna do that, you best damn have a great message. And that's, that's compelling. And, and I also don't think the Super Bowl is the last place you should be doing that unless you have an incredible idea. Right. [00:56:00] Um, but I guarantee you that's the kind of thing that got them to buy off on this, uh, concept.
Tim Spengler: You're gonna yin while everyone else is yanking. Yeah. Right. You go simple Uhhuh.
LT: Right.
Tim Spengler: Well, I, I, I'm watching it. I'm watching, when I say I, I say we, I say eight people in a room. The, the in theater effect, the power, you know, the whole thing of you're watching this calm by yourself. You don't laugh out loud.
That same joke when you're watching with four people Yeah. And your couch, you laugh, you make a noise. It's just whatever that, that's part of the, that's built into the value and the price. Right. So, no, no. We're all staring at it.
LT: Right.
Tim Spengler: We don't know what I just saw.
DC: Yeah. I, I, I, I, yeah. Yeah.
LT: That's great. Call Tim.
DC: That was, that's, that's a, that's a great one, brother. That's a great, that's a great bust.
LT: All right, so my bust, I'm going to, Tim, you complete. Should we go to mine?
Tim Spengler: [00:57:00] Yes, sir. Yep.
LT: All right. So my bust, I, I don't know what you all think will be interesting 'cause I, I'm, I'm quite sure that some people, uh, will say that they like this ad.
My bust is Uber Eats and the ad with, uh, Matthew McConaughey. Um, and, uh, um, it was Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey and Bradley Cooper.
DC: Yeah. Okay.
LT: And, and so it starts off with, uh, Bradley Cooper's jogging and McConaughey's in a car next to 'em and they're talking about football and then they sort of end up in the store in different places and Parker Poseys there, you know, re reprising her role from that HBO show.
Yeah. And. It's all going through. And one of the, one of the places they go to is Bradley Cooper's Kitchen and there's an Uber Eats bag way in the back there, you know, and then they end up in, in a, in a place. And it's like truly, what in the hell does this have to do with ordering food and Uber Eats and the brand [00:58:00] or anything?
You have wonderful celebrities. We all know the, who these celebrities are. But again, going to the three things I, the brand ID is minuscule. It's, I don't see how it's advancing any brand positioning and it's not funny and it's not a emotionally connecting. So it's big. It's a big eh for me. And it's also goes to Tim's point about there's so many folks who just wanna get celebrities and throw them into this and feeling like that's gonna gravitate, uh, uh, people to the screen and get attention.
But you better damn well do something with it. So that's my bust
Tim Spengler: you. Yeah. All right. Let me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna push sideways on that one. Uh, I don't disagree with anything you said, but that campaign has done so much work already that it doesn't need to push anything down a hill or up a hill for me. Uh, I, I'm speaking me, I'm speaking.
LT: Right,
Tim Spengler: [00:59:00] because those guys are incredibly likable and you're reminding
LT: they are of
Tim Spengler: something I already know about Uber Eats. If that campaign, that's me. If that campaign was sitting in a vacuum and I hadn't seen all of the, the run ups with the McCaffrey and all the other ones, then I would agree with you.
I feel like because of all that heavy lifting, it's done so well. I, I don't know. I, I feel like that reminder is okay. Okay.
DC: I'm with Takeaway Tim and I like to push it a bit further and the headline is timing is everything. So brand nerds. If you don't know the campaign, the joke is that football is not really about sports.
It is designed to sell more food. This, this is what they do, so, right. Uh, we all know that, uh, Bradley Cooper, I think most of us know along with, uh, Kevin Hart, but in this ad, it's Bradley Cooper before the Super Bowl [01:00:00] and in the Super Bowl, but before the Super Bowl to take away Tim's point is a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan.
LT: Yep.
DC: Big Les fan. And in one of the ads, not in the Super Bowl, he's discussing in front of a boardroom how he has some angst about this thing of conspiracy of his eagles. Are not playing football to win championships, but to sell wings, chicken wings, birds. And then he also has a joke in the same uh, execution about, that's like Baker Mayfield being a baker.
So this is the whole deal and they have other ads about that. So the stick is football used to sell food. Now let's come to the sup Super Bowl. You add in another star, Matthew McConaughey, and they carry on [01:01:00] this joke. They talk about a fork. They break off two of the things. This is a cold post. They show the Hall of Fame Canton.
That's supposed to be a juicer, right? All of these jokes are funny. The problem is, to your point, Takeaway Tim, we already got the punchline. We've been getting the punchlines for the last. Six months. So I believe because of the timing, it was a waste of money. 'cause of the timing. If they had started this campaign with that Super Bowl spot and then followed it up with the stuff we've already seen, I would say it's brilliant.
I, I would say it's brilliant, but in my mind, no. So I'm gonna be with Takeaway Tim here. This is a push. Wouldn't have spent my money this way, but they did it. Timing off.
Tim Spengler: Here's a question. Maybe you guys know this answer on timing. [01:02:00] How many homes does, does the Uber Eats. Ticket count, traffic count, spike incredibly on Super Bowl Sunday.
Ah,
LT: ah, I would think it would.
Tim Spengler: I mean, or have we just done so much food prep at Trader Joe's that we need, I, I don't know any other Sunday we know it's gonna be more than the average other, whatever.
DC: Right.
Tim Spengler: So I, I love the moment thing. The timing is everything. Uh, I, I don't, so I, I as you're saying that, uh, DC I was like, it's making me think yes, is it a yes but or a yes.
And because does that ah, good point there still matter because it's not too late to order, order your wings or order your whatever in the middle of the game. I, it'd be probably the answer's yes, but, uh, good one. A good one for us to know.
LT: Yep.
DC: That would be a good one to know. Yep.
LT: Alright,
Tim Spengler: Steve, you
LT: got, you're up.
DC: Okay. All, [01:03:00] I gotta set this up. I gotta set this up. All right. Speaking about timing, so it's the first ad block in the second quarter. Mm-hmm. 11 minutes, 16 seconds in the A position. So Brand Nerds and those who are not in the marketing. The A position is the first ad that you see in a block of ads in the, A position is a T-Mobile surprise ad featuring the Backstreet Boys.
Now, I could do without MGK button at the end. Uh, I'm, I'm, I'm digressing a bit. I don't know that if I were he or his people, I would've allowed him to be the, the, the brunt of a joke, uh, that everybody was there to see the Backstreet Boys in Times Square. Now they're gone, and you're here with a mom and her daughter expecting to see the Backstreet Boys, and they're disappointed that they got you.
That aside. So it's, it's [01:04:00] the second quarter. And the Backstreet Boys, they come on with all their Glory 62nd spot, doing their thing, going through Times Square with all of the people. Now it's still the second quarter, still the second quarter, but now it's right before halftime, 32 seconds remaining for halftime.
And in the a spot again. First spot here is Goodwill Dunking. Goodwill Dunking. Yep. And Brand Nerds. This ad has, it's, it's a, it's a sitcom spoof set to Dunking dunk Dunking Donuts in a store led by Ben Aflac. And it's a spoof of the movie Goodwill Hunting, except they're calling it Goodwill Dunking. In this ad are the following celebrities, in addition to Ben Aflac, Jennifer Aniston, friends as Rachel. Matt LeBlanc, Franz as Joey, [01:05:00] Jason Alexander Seinfeld as Costanza Jasmine Guy, a different world as Whitley. Alfonso, uh, Alfonso,
LT: Rio
DC: Rubio. Fresh Prince of Bel Air as Carlton Ted Dancing of Cheers. Sam. Jale, white Family Matters, Urkel. And then the bonus is Tom Brady. Tom Brady. So let's review. It's in the second quarter after the T-Mobile ad has, uh, aired with the Backstreet Boys and MGK and Druski.
Drewski is, as you all know, a uh, influencer. That's seven celebrities. Alright, so the production costs, not the media piece, the production cost, including the celebrities. I'm putting it easily. 10, $15 million. Gotta be easily 10 $50. Okay?
Tim Spengler: No.
DC: No?
Tim Spengler: How much those guys weren't there. That was AI [01:06:00]
DC: In the, in the T-Mobile spot?
Tim Spengler: No, no. T-Mobile. I thought you're talking about the Dunking spot.
DC: No, no, I'm the T-Mobile. T-Mobile.
LT: I thought you're talking about the Dunking spot too.
DC: No, no. Okay, I'm sorry. So the T-Mobile spot is air. So second quarter after the T-Mobile spot is aired. Backstreet Boys. MTK. Druski. Right? Seven celebrities.
Okay. Now after, again. Now Goodwill Duncan, they got nine celebrities,
LT: Right?
DC: Nine celebrities, Ben Aflac, Jennifer Aniston, and Tom effin Brady. That ain't no AI on Tom effin Brady. He wasn't in no goddamn sitcom. Alright, that's Tom Effing Brady. This is, this is millions of dollars and this is Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's production company Artist Equity.
Immediately following the Goodwill Duncan. So immediate act disappears. There's another ad that comes on. So this is after a corner copia of celebrities, [01:07:00] this fucking PowerPoint presentation, karaoke style. Everybody Coinbase comes on. Okay. This is after nine celebrities. Okay? Straight trash homie. Shout Randy Moss.
Who said straight, straight cash homie. Straight. So they, they, so I'm with you. Take away Tim. They are using a Backstreet Boys song called Everybody After T-Mobile has used the actual Backstreet Boys. Backstreet Boys. So in the same quarter. In the same quarter, not in the same block, but in the same quarter.
The ad looks like it was created by someone at Upwork. At Upwork, okay, Z. So back back to my three now. Zero emotional impact. Zero brand integration. Say for the last few seconds. Zero. Mastery of the moment. I'm embarrassed for our [01:08:00] craft. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm embarrassed for our craft. So I'm with you Takeaway Tim.
It it's not only that it was bad, it was the context
LT: right
DC: Against the other ads. Dunking Donuts is gonna give me nine celebrities and you're gonna give me a fucking PowerPoint. That's what, in the same block, that's what you're gonna give me.
Tim Spengler: When you buy a spot in the Super Bowl, you do know who you're with. You do know what you're next.
LT: Thank you. I was gonna ask you, and also Tim, as you say it, you, do you pay more or is it relationships? How you get what D was saying? The, the, you know, when you're in a block that you get the A spot. How does that work?
Tim Spengler: All, all of that. All of that. Who, who are you? Who is this company I'm doing business with?
LT: Right.
Tim Spengler: To get the A or they're gonna somebody else I don't do a lot with. You kind of screwed me on that big deal last year. Now you come back, you want a Super Bowl spot, I might clip you a hundred. I, the all, all of that is in there,
LT: Right.
Tim Spengler: In the negotiation as to who pays what [01:09:00] for what. Um, but you do know, it's interesting what DC is saying because you do know, you get the format, okay?
You get the run of show,
LT: Right?
Tim Spengler: You in the game, they will show you who's in the game and where they are, and you first know. Okay, I'm buying the spot, I'm in this moment. It comes out of the second quarter. It's the, the two minute warning of the halftime, whatever it is, you know, everybody that's in that pod with you.
Gotcha. You know, second, right before you know, which is, you know, leading out, maybe there's a billboard, two Billboards, it's a movie trailer, it's Cheetos and it's Coke. And then we're moving to, you know, so all, you know, every single second of that. And I, I wonder. If any of that mattered, did that, did that further yin their yang when they went even more.
LT: Right.
Tim Spengler: Whatever that is. Did we, uh, mentally, so we're gonna have to look at the minute by minutes on this one. We have to because did people mentally take a break? Maybe not. Okay. 'cause we're all leaning in. I told [01:10:00] you the movie theater effect.
LT: Yep.
Tim Spengler: Did people mentally take a break after just seeing nine celebrities in that thing in a row?
And I'm now trying to figure out did they, were they even there or not? Yeah, Tom Brady was, but some of those other ones, Ted Danon did not, you know, was not there. Okay. That was not his, his face was from another time in a different body, new current body moving in a video Ted Danson's face from another time.
Anyway, then moving into that, did we take a little mental break for a second? I, I don't, it's it'll be interesting to see. It'll be interesting to see.
DC: Uh, Larry, I do want have one more, uh, thing to show to Brand Nerds But go ahead Larry.
LT: No, I was gonna say it was so bad. You know what goes through my mind guys?
'cause we've been there. We've all been there when this has happened that could, they have had another creative and for whatever reason that did that fell through and that this was the backup. It's so bad. You got, you. You wonder if that was the case.
Tim Spengler: The night before The network said no, and they took it to the top and then it had to run with BII mean, I don't think, [01:11:00] but it's funny.
It's happened. It certainly happened.
LT: It happened anyway.
DC: Yeah. Uh, I don't give them that much credit. Yeah. Um, because I, I could, if, if we can take the Brand Nerds behind, um, the curtain here, backstage past how these decisions get made, I can envision something like this in the conversation. Um, Hey, NBC, you know, we, we buy a lot of media from you all a lot. And we are in a growing area. You know this, this is a growing area here, and so we're gonna be buying a lot more media. So while we can't. We're not gonna try to force your hand for us to be in the a block in the first quarter. Like right in the first. We don't, we, we can go later, but we gotta be in the first half.
Okay, great, great. But we want to be in a special place in the first half. Okay. How about this? We've got Goodwill dunking [01:12:00] happening.
LT: Yeah.
DC: And, uh, brand nerds, maybe not as familiar of a term now because we are in this fragmented media space, but back in the day there was something called Lead in, lead in, and they had a lead in conversation with these folks at Coinbase.
This, everybody's gonna watch this spot. It's got Ben Aflac, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Jason Alexander, Jasmine, guy Alfonso, uh Roberto, Ted Danon, Jaleel White, and Tom Fing Brady. This is a great lead in. Yes. Coinbase says that's a great lead in. We want to be there. And to that, I gotta go old school. I gotta go Fred Sanford.
Rest in peace. You big dummy.
I bet this how, that's how this went down, man. This is, you are [01:13:00] gonna go after nine celebrities with a PowerPoint presentation for 60 seconds. And at the end, at the very end, you are gonna put everybody, Coinbase, you, you think people are going to get up during the game and join in karaoke because you've got it in the background so that people will hop up in just before halftime.
Just before halftime and do a karaoke thing. You idiots.
LT: Yeah.
DC: Idiots. Okay. I'm done. I'm done. I'm just done.
LT: This is, this is great. Uh, you know, and brand nerds. The point here is that, and let's segue to the close here. The point here is that, um, when you have something such as the Super Bowl that's [01:14:00] unmatched, it's the only time in all of Western society where people want to watch the ads.
Tim has talked to us a lot about this, about how, especially the younger generation, they get pissed off when they see ads in anything. We,
Tim Spengler: there's no neutral. Yeah, there's no neutral. Right now it's either I'm leaning right to the ads, which is once a year. Then the rest of the year I'm, I'm leaning away.
LT: Right? So, so now you actually have people who want to see your ad. And so with that, that's why you will pay the premium. It's not just for the eyeballs, but it's for the whole effect to be part of something that you cannot get at any other time. And so the, the uniqueness and specialness of that occasion has to be leveraged to the hilt.
And so that's where, you know, and honestly, guys, we didn't talk about this. But I feel [01:15:00] like a lot of people missed the mark because, you know, we didn't talk about the Budweiser ad, you know? Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, I, I'm my favorite Super Bowl ad of all times from 2013 with the Clydesdale was a young Clydesdale, and, and the, the farmer who brought him up.
And that the parade, I cry every time I see that ad. Yeah. This ad for me was again, and it goes to Tim's theme of Ai, you know, with, with getting the eagle on it. It does the three things. I was going through my, you know, it does brand id, you can't miss it. Clydesdale, you know, and the Eagle's on the label with Budweiser.
Does it advance the positioning? Yeah, I guess so. 'cause it's American beer. And, you know, is it emotional? Because they get into the, but for me, it pissed me off quite honestly because I found it incredibly inauthentic if there is such word. Right? And so, closing with my closes, with Tim's opening theme of ai, you better be authentic and you better understand the occasion that you're in as it [01:16:00] relates to this special platform of Super Bowl that people are leaning in.
And if you don't fully take advantage of that, uh, like, like we talked about with the ads that we feel really hit the mark, um, you know, why you win the Super Bowl. Th that, that's my, uh, my closing thought. Tim, D what's you guys are thinking?
Tim Spengler: I'll go. I'll go. So let d we'll go d go. Last, um, um, this is gonna be, I might, maybe I'm over my skis on this one, but I just, I want to be able to say this.
Did you see Ricky Martin in the halftime show? Yes. There. Yes.
LT: Yep.
Tim Spengler: You know what? I'm watching that thinking. That is the long lost third David from the Heineken ads. That is Matt Damon and David Beckham's, long lost third brother.
LT: Oh,
Tim Spengler: I him in the next Heineken commercial. He looks like he fit right in.
LT: Wow.
Tim Spengler: That is the third long, and we'll have the Hispanic thing in there. [01:17:00] That'll broaden it out. Yeah. I want the long lost third brother to be Ricky Martin with some other name, da David or something. That's my funny, that's my final thought.
LT: That's awesome.
DC: Uh, I'm gonna do two, one brand related and one uh, and one not.
Um, if in any one of these 80 plus ads, you can line them up and let's say you used AI and you did a AB test. You did the ad with the brand that bought the ad and then you, that's A, and then B, you did the same ad and replaced the branding with one of your competitors. Would it make a difference?
LT: Right.
DC: But would it make a difference? And I, I dare I say, most of those 80 ads, you could do that AB testing and it wouldn't make a difference at all. Like the Claude [01:18:00] ad, for example.
LT: Yep.
DC: Which was a really good ad that could have been open ai.
LT: Yep.
DC: It could, it could have been Gemini. I
LT: understand. Mm-hmm.
DC: And so that's my, uh, first, uh, sort of closing thought.
LT: Yeah. Just one, one quick thing. That's one of the reasons why I love the Levi's ad. Ain't nobody else could do that.
DC: Yeah, no. Nobody else could do that. No. It would look dumb.
LT: Yep.
DC: If someone else tried to, tried to do that, you're not gonna have, I don't know, Amir. Try to try to do that.
LT: Yep.
DC: My second takeaway is.
Statements can be made without them being political. And that's the halftime show in Bad Bunny's halftime show. He had a couple actually get married.
LT: Yeah.
DC: Yes. They actually got married. That was a real wedding. And when I saw it, I thought to myself, I wonder if that's real. And then I thought, knowing this dude and his people, it [01:19:00] is real.
LT: Yep.
DC: And uh, at, at the end of his set, there was an American flag being carried. And behind that American flag, flowing along, right behind it were the flags of innumerable Latin Hispanic countries and places around the globe. Bad Bunny's Message to me. Was love.
Jade: Mm-hmm.
DC: And in this day and age, I believe to quote, uh, another famous Beatle, we, we need, we need More Love.
And that may be all we need.
Tim Spengler: Hmm. Right.
LT: Well, well said Dean. And it actually, he had it on the scoreboard. Love conquers Hate. It was a, it was a big in, in the, in the back again, that was so well produced.
DC: Yeah.
LT: Um, and, and that was [01:20:00] the, the ending image.
DC: Yep. Yep.
LT: Ending Image. Man, guys, this was so fun. We could go on forever about this.
Um, I think the Brand Nerds have, uh, have gotten our, uh, our real good thoughts and whi which is awesome. So we're gonna, we're gonna hit the show close. So thanks for listening to Brands, Beats and Bytes the executive producers of Brands, Beats and Bytes are Jeff Shirley, Darryl "DC" Cobbin, and Larry Taman, Jade Tate and Tom Dioro.
That is he. And if you do like this podcast, please subscribe and share. And for those on Apple podcasts if you are so inclined, we love those excellent reviews. We hope you enjoyed this podcast and we look forward to next time where we will have more insightful and enlightening talk about marketing.