Storytelling, going stale and Super Bowl commercials

It’s that time of year—where brands spend a big chunk of their advertising budget for 30 seconds of your attention during the biggest game of the year: the Super Bowl. 

While Bad Bunny might’ve secured himself as the Halftime highlight, we were keen to see which brand stories stuck out during commercial breaks. 

After covering some of the most noteworthy Super Bowl ads in Episode #54, we pick up on the common story shapes, tropes and visual tools that these shiny ads utilize. What still works? What is getting stale?

We invite GhostRanch Creative Director Jeff Carter and Technical Director Steve Sheets to weigh in on this and dissect a few of their favorites.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet?

ALL the ads we reference:

1. MANSCAPED - “Hair Ballad”
2. Budweiser - “American Icons”
3. Xfinity - "Jurassic Park…Works”
4. Coinbase - “Everybody”
5. Dunkin’ Donuts - “Good Will Dunkin”
6. Apple - “1984” (1983)
7. Pepsi - “The Choice”
8. Squarespace - “Unavailable”
9. GrubHub - “The Feest”
10. State Farm Insurance - “Livin’ on a Prayer”
11. Mountain Dew - “Puppy Monkey Baby” (2016)
12. InstaCart - “Bananas”
13. National Kidney Foundation - “Detect the SOS”

And of course:

• Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show