Super Bowl Sunday advertising is as competitive as the game itself. With the best slots going for £62,000 a second, a minute in front of that record-breaking 111 million strong audience came to £3.7 million. No pressure then…

Chrysler feat. Eminem

Budgets like these only attract the big players, and the luxury car manufacturers were out in force. It’s a shame, however, that some of them tried to distract the viewer with silly storylines and elaborate special effects rather than, you know, saying anything good about their product. Although the gimmicks were entertaining, I was left with little memory of each model.

The strongest competition came from Mercedes, Chrysler and Audi. Chrysler’s commercial presents their cars as being ‘imported from Detroit’, the hard-hit and hard-hitting Motor Town. Detroit-born Eminem puts the car through its paces and an aggressive voiceover presents Chrysler as the product of a town that’s seen it all. At the end of the day, this ad’s ‘It’s as much about where it’s from as who it’s for’ message does as much for Chrysler as it does for Detroit itself.

Surprisingly, Mercedes cars featured in two different car ads this year, only one of which was their own. Audi chose an unusual approach in its ‘new luxury’ message, contrasting the trappings of traditional decadence – grand house, furs, jewels, a Mercedes – with their car; a modern but equally luxurious alternative. Although the point was clearly made, using a competitor’s car as a comparison came across as a cheap dig, and if anything gave a bad impression of Audi. After all, if you need to stoop to low blows, how confident are you about your own product?

Reassuringly un-leftfield

The Mercedes ad had the simplest concept and overall was the most successful in terms of lasting impression. Examples of its cars, both modern and vintage, escape from their homes around the world and race to the unveiling of the new series. This serves to remind the viewer of both the new line being released and Mercedes’ history of producing great cars. This is a clever and uncluttered ad, and as one of the cars plays the ‘oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz…’ tune on its radio it is guaranteed to have kept Super Bowl viewers humming long after the Green Bay Packers took the trophy home.