Super Bowl 2025 Ads Recap

Summary

Podcast Summary: The CPG Guys – Super Bowl 2025 Ads Recap

Episode Information:

• Title: The CPG Guys
• Hosts: Peter V.S. Bond & Sri Rajagopalan
• Episode: Super Bowl 2025 Ads Recap
• Release Date: February 10, 2025

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Introduction

In this special episode of The CPG Guys, hosts Peter V.S. Bond and Sri Rajagopalan delve into an extensive recap of the Super Bowl 2025 advertisements. Recorded live on the evening of the game, the hosts provide an in-depth analysis of the commercials aired during the event, discussing their effectiveness, creativity, and impact on consumers.

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Ad Spending Overview

Peter V.S. Bond opens the discussion by highlighting the astronomical spending on Super Bowl ads:

• Total Ad Spend: Approximately $500 million for the 3.5-hour event.
• Average Cost per 30-Second Spot: Around $8 million, with variations based on ad length and prominence.

Notable Quote:

"The total cost of advertising in a three and a half hour, three hour, 40 minute event today was approximately half a billion dollars."
— Peter V.S. Bond [04:12]

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Evaluation Criteria

The hosts established three primary criteria to assess each commercial:

1. Emotional Impact: Did the ad stir emotions in viewers?
2. Immediate Purchase Intent: Would the ad inspire an immediate purchase?
3. Buy Enablement: Did the ad provide mechanisms (like QR codes) for lower-funnel activation?

Key Insight: Only two ads met the third criterion of buy enablement, indicating a missed opportunity for immediate consumer engagement.

Notable Quote:

"There were only two ads that had the third one in there."
— Sri Rajagopalan [05:24]

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Pre-Game Ads

The discussion begins with the pre-game advertisements:

• National Anthem Performance: John Legend delivered a heartfelt rendition accompanied by piano, setting an emotional tone.
• Fox's "The Huddle" Segment: Featuring Brad Pitt, this ad emphasized unity with the tagline "Bound by the promise and driven by the pledge, we rise together."

Notable Quote:

"We could just enjoy the game."
— Peter V.S. Bond [07:35]

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Commercial Breakdowns

1. Celebrity-Heavy Ads

• Observation: 90% of the ads featured celebrities, including Tom Cruise, Dan Levy, Morgan Freeman, and Ben Affleck.
• Impact: While star power attracts attention, it may not always translate to consumer action.

Notable Quote:

"Almost in every ad, Did you notice that?"
— Sri Rajagopalan [08:08]

2. AI and Technology Themes

• Integration of AI: Several commercials incorporated AI elements, reflecting current marketing trends.
• Critique: Despite the incorporation of advanced technology, many ads lacked engaging call-to-actions.

3. Family and Positive Messaging

• Common Theme: Many ads focused on family, hope, and anti-hate messages, aiming to resonate on a deeper emotional level.

4. Notable Ads Reviewed

• Mission Impossible 6, Final Reckoning: Rated positively for its brand consistency and excitement.

  "I'm gonna give a yay as well, Peter."
  — Sri Rajagopalan [09:15]

• Martha Stewart Sketches for Skechers: Enjoyed for its creativity and relatability.

  "I thought that was kind of cute for Martha Stewart."
  — Peter V.S. Bond [09:29]

• Pfizer Cancer Ad: Received a lukewarm response due to its lack of emotional connection.

  "It doesn't make me want to go out and invest in Pfizer."
  — Peter V.S. Bond [10:31]

• Doritos – "UFO Detected": Appreciated for its irreverent humor and brand consistency.

  "I'll give it a thumbs up."
  — Peter V.S. Bond [15:18]

• NFL's "Stand Up to Hate": Commended for its powerful anti-hate message featuring Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady.

  "I liked that message quite a bit."
  — Sri Rajagopalan [21:14]

• Fetch Rewards: Highlighted for its extensive use of QR codes and live winner announcements, though questioned for its high acquisition cost.

  "It was probably very effective."
  — Peter V.S. Bond [54:26]

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Halftime Show and Associated Ads

The hosts also touched upon the halftime show:

• Performance: Kendrick Lamar headlined, accompanied by Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam, emphasizing unity and patriotism.
• Ad Integration: Some ads seamlessly bled into the halftime performance, enhancing their emotional appeal.

Notable Quote:

"Sammy Jackson dressing up as Uncle Sam for what's going on in the country."
— Sri Rajagopalan [39:13]

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Post-Game Ads

Post-game commercials continued the trend of high celebrity involvement and varied messaging:

• Budweiser Clydesdales: Maintained brand nostalgia with a modern twist.
• Nike's Empowering Messages: Focused on empowering women and athletes, aligning with contemporary social movements.
• Ayurveda and Wellness Brands: Mixed responses based on relevance and execution.

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Consumer Acquisition Insights

A significant portion of the discussion revolved around the effectiveness of high-budget ads in driving immediate consumer actions:

• Fetch Rewards Analysis: With an $8 million ad spend and a customer acquisition cost of $4 per user, Fetch needed to acquire over 2 million new users to justify the expense. The hosts expressed skepticism about achieving such numbers solely through ad spend.

Notable Quote:

"Two million people are not going to download the Fetch app and become new."
— Peter V.S. Bond [55:34]

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Memorable Highlights and Ratings

Both hosts shared their favorite ads based on emotional impact and effectiveness:

• Sri Rajagopalan's Favorite: T-Mobile's Starlink Ad for its innovative approach and timing.

  "I'll give that one a thumbs up."
  — Sri Rajagopalan [57:21]

• Peter V.S. Bond's Favorite: NFL's Brad Pitt "The Huddle" Ad and Tom Brady with Duracell for their emotional and nostalgic appeal.

  "I loved it."
  — Peter V.S. Bond [57:21]

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with the hosts reflecting on the overall quality and memorability of Super Bowl 2025 ads:

• Quality Trend: A noticeable decline in lasting memorability compared to previous years.
• Engagement Strategy: High celebrity involvement doesn't always equate to effective consumer engagement.
• Future Episodes: Commitment to making Super Bowl ad recaps an annual ritual for deeper analysis and comparison year-over-year.

Final Remarks:

"Compared to previous years, the quality of these ads is memorable has been diminishing."
— Sri Rajagopalan [57:48]

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Takeaways

• High Spending vs. ROI: Massive investments in Super Bowl ads demand significant consumer acquisition, which might not always be feasible.
• Emotional and Immediate Engagement: Effective ads often blend emotional storytelling with clear call-to-actions.
• Celebrity Influence: While star power draws attention, its impact on purchasing decisions varies.
• Emerging Trends: Increased use of AI and technology in ads reflects the evolving marketing landscape.

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For more insights and detailed analysis, listeners are encouraged to tune into The CPG Guys podcast and participate in their ongoing discussions about the ever-changing CPG and FMCG eCommerce landscape.

Transcript

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Retail media is rapidly becoming the go to channel for brands, aiming to engage consumers with measurable performance along the path to purchase. Retailers are increasingly empowering brands to accurately target meaningful audiences based on their longitudinal purchasing behaviors and execute media impressions across on site, off site and in store channels throughout the entire marketing funnel. For brand marketers, effectively incorporating retail media into their marketing budgets is essential for growth in today's omnichannel landscape. To address this critical need, Cornell University has partnered with the CPG Guys, along with leading industry executives and visionaries from around the world to launch the first ever retail Media Strategy Executive Education program. This immersive four day program at Cornell Tech May 5th to the 8th, 2025 brings together industry thought leaders and renowned faculty to share best practices for building compelling retail media platforms. You'll discover how to collaborate on creating best in class tech stacks, measure performance to ensure brands Access the necessary KPIs based on Campaign objectives and establish strong partnerships between brands and retailers. In addition, the program covers optimizing brand strategies using AI driven campaign design at scale to achieve marketing goals. By the end of the Retail Media Strategy program, you'll have gained a deep understanding of the retail media ecosystem and how both brands and retailers can accelerate organizational transformation to thrive in the future of performance marketing. See the link in the digital liner note to this episode to learn more about the Retail Media Strategy Executive Education Program at Cornell Tech May 5th through the 8th, 2025 welcome to the CPGuys Podcast. Your hosts, Sree Rajagopalan and Peter Vs Bond explore how brands and retailers engage in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys. Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the CPG Guys Podcast. I'm pvsb, your co host and when I'm not podcasting, I serve as head of Industry and Client Relations at Flywheel, the E Commerce Accelerator division of Omnicom. I have with me, of course, my co founder. He is the patriarch of the Raj family media empire. He's out in la. It's the man called Sri Sri. How are you today doing awesome.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I am very excited for this special episode we decided to do sponsored by and brought to you by none other than our friend Jack Shannon at recess.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, we're very excited to have Jack sponsor this episode and we're recording this actually the evening of the Super Bowl. And why are we doing that people? We're doing it because we're going to do a recap of the television commercials that we saw throughout the game. So very exciting to do this with You, Sri, before we get to that, I just want to. I'm going to dispense with our normal boilerplate commentary of podcasts to listen to and everything else. I'm just going to ask our guests to do one thing before we launch into our conversation. Could you just do us this one favor? One favor. If you're on Apple or Spotify, just go to the main page, not the episode page, but the actual main page of the CPG guys podcast. Scroll down in the section where it has a star rating. Give us a rating. You can give us whatever number you want. We like the number five. But if you could do that one thing for us, we'll dispense with everything else we normally talk about at the beginning of this episode. So just do that and then come right back. So you can hit pause and come right back. And now I'm assuming you've resumed the podcast episode. Thank you for giving us a rating. We are greatly appreciative. So, Sri, why don't you give us some of the big. Before we get into this assessment, what were the stats? How many commercials did we count, give or take? Because it's debatable whether some were commercials or they were just pushing television shows for the network. I mean, how many did you count?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So we counted approximately, I would say 60 commercials. If you wanted to start getting exact numbers. I think you and I matched at 58 commercials. You multiply that by $8 million for a 30 second spot. Arguably, some were 15, some were 60. The total cost of advertising in a three and a half hour, three hour, 40 minute event today was approximately half a billion dollars.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Holy moly. That's a lot of money.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I didn't do mental math. I actually used my calculator.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

That's a lot more money than West Schrol gave away at the end of the game in the Fetch Rewards sweepstakes. We'll get to that later. But wow, that was pretty big. So, Sri, you had said that it would probably be good for us to assess these advertisements in a number of different ways. Notably, did it stoke emotions of the consumer? Would you buy the product immediately and is the ad buy enabled? I. E. There's some measure of lower funnel activation, particularly through a QR code. Right. Why don't we.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I'll tell you. Disappointed. If we use those three criteria. There were only two ads that had the third one in there. Just two.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

So I was going to say there are only two. It was Liquid Death and Obey it.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

But in today's omnichannel times, when the consumers 360 always on. I mean, the amount of time people were texting me during the game, it was just insane. People engaging on LinkedIn with our post, we did one minute before the game today. We are not in a world today where you want to do offline sales to everybody who put an ad out there and you didn't have some sort of immediate conversion mechanism leading to the next step. Eight million bucks. You missed the bus.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Sree, I think you and I would agree that if this were streaming on prime, there would have been a heck of a lot more, at least Firestick remote control activation of these advertisements.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Amazon figured out five different ways for people to shop for stuff immediately on the Amazon app. The website Alexa, you name it. Store, you name it. It's. That's a miss in my eyes overall, in a world which is 360 and omnipotent. But let's get started. Those are the way we rated them. We're going to talk about every single ad. We don't. If we had a minute for every ad, that would be a whole hour. So, Peter, let's get going. Let's open up with pre game. What do you think about the national anthem? John Batiste, you know, he's in the same genre. John Legend, that's what he's known for. Sat down, played the piano. Kind of enjoyed that. Kind of enjoyed that.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I thought it was great. You know, I like the pre game. There were some commercials. There were some emotional, heartstring kinds of moments. The one that caught my attention was actually the. The. I don't know if you'd call it an ad. It was certainly a bit that that was being put on by Fox in the NFL and it featured Brad Hutt in a. In a segment called the Huddle, which was designed to talk about unity and bridging the difference and coming together as Americans. They used the term bound by the promise and driven by the pledge, we rise together. We celebrate the urgency of now. That one really caught my heartstrings. Sri. I was right off the bat, I was thinking, okay, this is a moment when America, with all its deep divisions can come together and just enjoy a night where we're not red versus blue. We're not one party versus another. We could just enjoy the game. So I really like that.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

No doubt about it, Peter. But I want to top just three, four things that stood out for me. And then we're going to go ad by ad. You know, number one, the presence of celebrities in 90% of the ads. It was Just insane celebrity almost in every ad. Did you notice that? Then.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Cruise, Dan Levy, Morgan Freeman.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

That list is just a huge list. Ben Affleck. I mean, second thing was AI. AI came by repeated times. I was kind of expecting that. I wasn't expecting what type of ads would show up, but they were pleasant. AI was certainly there. And I loved all the powerful, positive, family oriented, hope related messages, anti hate messages. There was a lot of them. Those were the big three themes. So let's start getting into it. Peter, Mission Impossible 6, Final Reckoning. Did you expect that?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Well, yeah, pretty much. It's like, if there's gonna be another Fast and Furious, there's gonna be another Mission Impossible movie.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

This is the final reckoning, though. I thought his character.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

In 1983, I went to what was billed as the last who concert in Toronto. Do you know how many more decades the who played after that concert? Okay, I don't buy it. Tom Cruise will come back, Peter.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

We have to rate it. Going to have to read May, yay or nay?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It was yay. It's a good.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I'm going to give a yay as well, Peter. So next one was the Martha Stewart sketches ad. I love that one.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It was AI generated, really liked it. I would go out and buy jumping.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Skipping sketchers, like 15 second AD.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

What? I own a pair and I don't know, I own a pair of those and I love those shoes. And maybe I'm a little pre biased by having bought them before the commercial, but I thought that was kind of cute for Martha Stern.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Peter's got a yay. I got a May. I got an A. First quarter, Peter starts with controversial penalty on fourth and conversion by Jalen Hurts. But the very first stat we saw right after that was celebrity filled Java dunking.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Oh, God. Okay, let me tell the audience. I hate coffee. I can't stand the smell of coffee. The thought of Casey Affleck immersed in a, in a vat of coffee, cold brew, whatever it is, I have no interest. Yeah, Bill Belichick was in, in the commercial. That's nice. But, you know, a little, little, little too much for me. Maybe, maybe I miss Matt Damon celebrity Phil Power ad.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

But I'm going to go with you on this one. There. Yeah, from there we saw the kid who woke up from bed. Cancer patient.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

What do you think, Pfizer? Here's the thing. It didn't really pull at my heartstrings. You know, the kid was boxing because the music was a little too like, you know, mama gonna knock you out. It was just a little too. It wasn't. It didn't make me sentimental. It just. I watched it and then all of a sudden, oh, it's a Pfizer commercial. It doesn't make me want to go out and invest in Pfizer or do anything. So I don't know what the point of it was.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, I don't know what the connection was other than there was a. The message was there. Fight cancer from their first quarter. Continues. MSC Cruise, Drew Barrymore. The ad was May. I mean, I don't know. I did Google MSC Cruise just because I'd never heard of it. Viking.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I know Carnival. I know Viking, I know all those. I'd never heard of msc. So I was wondering, are they a fly by night operation? What's going on? So I just kind of passed it over and said, well, nice that you made your money, Drew, but I don't think I'm going. I'm not a Cruise person to begin with.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

On that one we agree. Flying Fishes by Little Caesars with Scotts Eugene.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

That it was actually. I don't remember the last time we had a father and son appear in two different super bowl commercials in the same year. But Eugene Levy appeared in the Crazy Puffs Little Caesar. It was, I think it was only a 15 second spot. It was really short straight. But.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

But I'm going to stay neutral on that one.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It was okay. Okay. The next one was. And I really don't want to get too political, but there was an ad for Fox News and they showed their. Their news coverage around the world and their tagline was Fox News Channel for all America. You know what? I think we all know that MSNBC is not for all America and Fox News is certainly not for all America. So I, I think there's a. There's enough lying and gaslighting in the world. I don't want to get into it here.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, I'm going to skip that one, Peter, because I don't believe most of the news outlets really are for everybody. You got to use VPN and VoiceOver IP to get outside the country to really get you.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

You really do watch News America or something.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I actually loved the T mobile ad.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

On Planet Earth with all the children.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

500,000 square miles of Earth are not covered by cell service.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I love the fact that they're making Starlink as a beta available free of charge for a certain period of time. So I think that's really. I love that. I think that was a really good. The Next one was homes.com and it featured Dan Levy, Eugene Levy's son from Schitt's Creek. It had Heidi Gardner and Morgan Freeman. Okay, so it's a homes.com, so it didn't have a QR code, but it's advertising its company name, which is a URL. So, I mean, in that. In that respect, I guess it was technically shoppable. But homes.com isn't really a place where you go to buy consumer goods. And it was a little too cheeky for me. You know, it didn't hit the work.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

For me, the Peter. But I'll give it a neutral because of who was in the ad. But who's buying homes? I mean, we just had wildfires in la. Interest rates are at record high. I was going to say who's sitting on the market? Down payment. So I don't know, but. But holmes.com came by twice. Is it the best? Then we had the Ray Ban meta partnership with the glasses, with Chris Hemsworth. Did you catch that one?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I thought that was Harry Hamlin. Was that Chris Helmsworth?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Maybe. Maybe it was Harry Hamlin.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I don't know. In the art gallery. I don't know that it made me want to go out and buy the Ray Ban Google Smart Glass or the. Pardon me, the Ray Ban.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

That glass. As I was interviewed by Meta Prosperity, that interview is actually out on Facebook and Instagram. Y'all check it out. I wore those glasses. They are actually awesome AI simulation VR glasses. I don't know. Is it affordable? 299 bucks for the everyday person. So I'll stay neutral on that one. Followed by the Fox IndyCar.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

They pop up a couple of times. They're basically advertising that for the first time, Fox has both the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500. Okay, great. That. I. I don't really look at that as a creative ad. It was just, hey, guess what we've got coming.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

But good audience to send the message.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Good. No, absolutely. Doritos. UFO detected for you. Doritos are for the. For the bold. I thought it was a irreverent commercial. Yeah, it kept Doritos in my name. I'll give it a. You know, if I had to go thumbs up, thumbs down. I'll go thumbs up.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, it's Doritos. I'm never going to give Doritos ads anything but thumbs up. Not because it's my Alma water Frito. Is that Delete?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

How about these circle water bottles?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I do. I didn't know what was going on in the ad. Then I Googled it.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Later, like, why am I going to buy this water bottle? Sree, how many water bottles do you have from conferences?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So we actually counted it today because my wife was opening the closet and saying, do you want to bring any more water bottles home? And I said, you're looking for one. And she opens the closet. 37.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

37. So needless to say, the circle water bottle advertisement will have zero impact in the raj family.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

That's 8 million bucks, Peter. Connect everything to the spend of 8 million bucks. Like, was it worth it?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Make it really like Sree. So this featured actors Willem Dafoe and Catherine O'Hara. Granted, more of our generation, Right? They were doing a pickleball tournament commercial and they were being fueled by their appreciation for Michelob ultralight beer. Okay.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I liked it, Peter.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I liked it too. I'm a younger generation. I don't know. Maybe if I watch Schitt's Creek, I know who Catherine O'Hare is. Willem Dafoe is a little bit more our generation. No, Gen X, not so much Gen Z. So I bet a bunch of people were looking at him saying, you know, maybe they recognized him as the Green Goblin from one of the original Spider man movies. But short of that, I don't know if it. It resonated with the younger generation.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

The only thing I'll say, Peter, is I think that ad was targeted for our generation. So because of that, you and I could resonate. I'm pretty sure our generation resonated. We are going to give that one a thumbs up. What about the next rich salty crackers?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

There was one more sri. There was Disney plus in between. Between.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Oh, that's right.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, it was. Okay. See, that's. By the. By the evidence. By. By the evidence that you didn't even notice that it didn't land. I like the Ritz cracker ad. Ritz cracker is appreciated even by salty people. I loved how they. They were in character as kind of like grumpy, salty, grouchy people. I liked it. I thought it was good.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, I like that they were very clear. It's a salty cracker. It does help with the messaging that. That's clear. I'm not going to say thumbs up. That one's neutral. How about penguins with Red Bulls with the message it gives you wings? What was that about?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Okay, it's the same style of every Red Bull commercial that's been out for 20 years. You know, it. It's a new it. It doesn't feel new. Sri. I'm not going to give it a thumbs up for that.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, it didn't feel like the usual edgy Red Bull commercial. So I have the same issue as you unable to give it a thumbs up. Squarespace. The only reason I'm going to give Squarespace a thumbs up is they actually showed one of my favorite places on Earth, the Cliffs of Moore in Ireland.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Is that what's going to get you to build websites through Squarespace?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Absolutely not.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Exactly. Okay, so that's what.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I just kind of liked it. But I'm not giving it a thumbs down.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I would much rather give a thumb thumbs up to Juno Temple. Who. Who. Who carried someone to their flight. I don't remember who the actor was or the celebrity was. I think his name was Miles. I'm not sure who he was, but. Pardon me.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

No, I get it, Peter. Totally get it. I'm with you.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

You know any commercial with Juno Temple from. From Ted Lasso, and this was. Was for Oikos Web.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I think localization might have changed because the app that I got when you got that was Wedding Interruption with the Law Brothers, a local LA firm. And with the third ad, which had a QR code and when you scanned it, it took you straight to the website. All kinds of legal issues.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Oh, my goodness. All right, that was Q1, right? That was the big. That was the big.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Your best ad in Q1. What are you going with?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I am gonna go. I'm gonna go with. I'm gonna go with Ulta.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I picked t Mobile, the 500, 000 square mile starling. They also said, yeah, that was pretty good.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

That was pretty good.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

3 until July. CPG guys are going to call in and get there free until July 2nd quarter starts with a dumb, illogical throw on. Third down would have been a punt, but killed the field goal for the Eagles. But they won. It didn't matter at the end of the day. So the very first ad that came out of that was Baja Blast with the seals. What did you have? What do you have?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I have Mountain Dew Blast.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Mountain Dew. Baja Blast with seal.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yes. Yeah, that was that. I did have that and with seals.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

And the last part of that ad was actually sealed.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I know. That was good.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Kiss by Rose. That guy.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It's not going to make me laugh.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

It made me laugh.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It did. But it didn't make me want to buy Mountain Dew. I did like the. The ad that followed, which was Instacart with all the famous brand mascots running in. I love that. The Kool Aid guy, the Cheetos Chester Cheeto. I kind of like that.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Agreed. Agreed. Yeah, Chester Cheetos instacart part. Good partnership right there. What about the sloth bears?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Okay, so in my household, the. The two women in my household think sloths are the most interesting funny creatures in the world. They love the movie Zootopia, where the sloth police station is moving super slow. And so to them, it was the best commercial ever. It was for Coors Light. It was okay. I don't know if it'll make me buy Monday's light.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, Monday's like Monday beer.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, Monday beer.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

What do you think you're gonna make a news about a new Monday beer introduction? This is the forum you do for.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

That for me, Bob Geldoff. I don't like Mondays. I don't like Mondays.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Oh, that's because you're still in corporate America. I wake up every day feeling the same. Excited.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

The next ad was a public service announcement by the NFL, and it was called Stand up to hate, and it featured Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady. They started off by telling what they hated about each other, and then it transitions into this hate is really stupid. So it was definitely them saying, we got to stop hating. And they took two people who come from very different lifestyles and put them together to talk about how we have to end this hate. I liked it. Anything but I liked it.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

My hats off to the NFL and Roger Goodell for his mission of sticking with anti hate as a theme. Family messages through the show. And the entire show really felt family oriented. There was not a minute that I didn't feel otherwise. And then the next ad was, you know, the FanDuel. FanDuel betting app. No, no, no. You can't do that. Guess who was the star of that? Eli Manning. On a day when he's been rejected.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Manning brothers were there.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

It was ejected for the hall of Fame. First ballot is my man. Two Super Bowls beaten Brady twice straight.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Purely though great celebrities. I think it was a horrible ad.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

It was horrible ad. I'm gonna give it a thumbs up because it's Eli unhappy he wasn't elected to the hall of Fame.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Two thumbs down just to outweigh you in that respect.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Extracted cities, premiere, whatever. Never seen that before.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Uber eats. So this was an interesting1. Matthew McConaughey was featured as someone who was talking about how the NFL was in a conspiracy to sell more food. And it. It was a. It was a timeline of different eras within the NFL, all featuring to Matthew McConney dressed up as a different character. And I. I Thought it was funny. I, I think they overdid it on the celebrities. But you know, Matthew.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Manning, I mean that was Uber put a lot of money into that.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, they did.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I and I'm gonna give it a thumbs up even though it was overdone because if again, if you're gonna put that kind of money. This is the photo.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Far be it for me to get on the bad side of our dear friend Christy Argelin. He's head of Uber advertising. I'll give it a thumbs up as well. The next one was a bunch of old women in a classic sports car and it was an advertisement for WeatherTech.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

What was happening.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Well, here's the interesting thing. If WeatherTech is telling me they can design a car liner for any car no matter how old it is because they were using some vintage cars, then you know what, that actually if I'm someone who has a classic car and I know that I can get a floor liner that's, you know, laser designed by WeatherTech to fit that car, that might well make me go and buy a car liner, you know, a well liner from, from WeatherTech. So yeah, you know what?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Maybe I don't know what was going on in that ad. So it's a 15 second spot bet again. The thing I geared to 4 million use of $4 million. The next one was the taxes cake. Intuit TurboTax. I, I thought it was a weak until I saw sitting on the lounge chair and cutting the taxes the easy way.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

That's what it was.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Cutting the Texas cake.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Peter.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Wink, wink.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I'm not upset. I'm not going to give it a thumbs down. I'll give it a thumbs up. Google Pixel 9 mobile phone watch. Chronicling a daughter growing up now, intuitively you think how many times are you going to switch phones between now and the time your daughter grows up? Probably a lot. And yeah, they were advertising as Google Pixel 9. Maybe by the time she graduates it's Google Pixel 22, I don't know. But it was fine. It didn't offend me, but it didn't make me want to go.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Emotional connection, daughter growing up. I've seen that you have my kids.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Pixel because of it.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

No, I'm not pretty sure I was going to go buy a Google Pixel either because we are Apple people and it's not going to change at this point. But I don't think you and I were the target market. Here comes the next one.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Country roads take me home to the place I belong West Virginia own the dream by Rocket Mortgage and what a a plus plus in my eyes for multiple reasons. 1. Oh, time the ad to play and then immediately get back in the stadium.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Let into the show. So go back to the show. What are they singing in the stadium? Take Me Home, Country Road. It was one of two commercials that bled into the show after the commercial ended, the other one being Peyton Manning's commercial.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

And Peter, that song has a special meaning for me. Let me go out and just say why. When I first came to this country, went to school at Virginia Tech, I'd feel lonely. For some strange reason, John Denver song Country Roads made me feel upbeat again when I listened Take Me Home. I can't explain it to you, but that song has a soft spot.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It's a classic American anthem. Everybody knows it.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

To me, that rises way to the top, maybe as the best ad, not because of the quality of the ad. Cmo brilliance to time it with what was going on. Then we had two sacks back to back of Mahomes. He was intercepted. You know, I'm going to leave the game alone. And then we moved to what is greatness.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, it was a Jesus gets us ad. So it was people helping people and it was talking about embrace what Jesus was really about, which was, you know, helping the poor, helping other people, being charitable, reminding us that that is what the true spirit of Christianity is. I thought it was an uplifting.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Normally, Peter, I'm not into religious ads, but this one, I'm actually going to take it on a very positive spirit because I think it was on the same lines as a positive message. And you're 100% right, Peter. It was about the true meaning of Christianity here to uplift each other. And it closed with a message that said, lift up the receiver and I'm here to help you. Right. So I like that message quite a bit. Followed by one of the ads I think both you and I liked a lot. Liquid Death. It had a.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

That was. That was a whole bunch of professionals policemen drinking on the job. Drinking on the job and being fueled by liquid death. And at the end, it taught me one thing. I did not know that Liquid Death had released a cola version.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I didn't know.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

And they had a QR code right on the cola. I didn't get my camera up fast enough because they only showed it at the end. So I wasn't ready to scan the QR code. So I don't even know where it went. But you know, they had something there.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Powerful again. Very powerful. Right place, good use of the. The money. Gordon Ramsay Pete Davidson Hex clan.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah. So the Gordon Ramsay has taken to Area 51 where Space Force tells him he has to cook for some aliens. And he's like we've developed this super special plan. He's like hexcloud, I have that in my kitchen already. And then all of a sudden Pete Davidson shows up. It was bizarre. I don't get it. It doesn't necessarily make me want to buy any more Hexclad man. I can't give it a thumbs up. It just wasn't that great. We had a really good one tree. We had Tom Brady show up and it was him with. You know, Tom is in the booth during the show and he's there with his. With his co anchor and all of a sudden Tom's talking and he just falls over and some guy runs up, opens up a little panel in his arm and pops out the dead batteries that are not branded. And in go the Duracells and all of a sudden Tom comes back to life. I love that commercial. I thought it was.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I liked it because it was Brady and kind of comes back to life. But the only thing I'd say is I thought Tom Brady was the Energizer bunny. So it was disappointing to see Durasil right there.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Apparently. Apparently not. And then another. Another winner chat GPT they had a black bouncing dots that turned into stipple pictures pixel and stipple stipple portrait if you don't know what the term is. S T I P P L E. They're basically the style of art that the Wall Street Journal uses for its head cuts. I loved it. Progress starting. I thought that was great. Big thumb up. Big thumb up. Then one I didn't like. Now sri Heather campaign commented on Heather from Epsilon commented on my post on LinkedIn. Said I can't wait to hear what Peter has to say about the coffee mate commercial. And here's what I say. That was flipping around. I don't wanna. I have no interest in drinking one. I don't like coffee. But even if I did because of this commercial, I would not buy coffee.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I'm a coffee guy. I'm not buying that thing.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Very next thing Heather. I hated it. I hated it.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I have no idea what that was. Heather, you got your answer. Both of us are going with the mayor. Next message was the somebody I must.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Oh yeah it was. It was the NFL for youth organization sisters. It was great. It was awesome.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Every kid can be somebod NFL sponsored for family connections. That's up to the NFL. Love the message, thumbs up Dodge Ram Gold Deluxe.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I didn't get it. I didn't know who that guy was.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Dinosaurs, meteors. There was a lot going on. The only thing, Peter, the only reason I'll give it a neutral is because it ended with a message. Drive your own story.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, that's fine. Now, the next one was probably the most eagerly anticipated ad. It was the. The. The return of Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan eating in the classic diner from the scene when Harry Met Sally. And, well, it's called. It hits the spot. And Meg. Meg Ryan goes into her classic gyrations when she adds some Hellman's mayonnaise to the sandwich. You know, it was interesting. I think the. The young girl that was there was actually a. I think it was one of the descendants of Rob Reiner. I think it might be his daughter or granddaughter, but she's somehow related. But here's what I have to say. It doesn't make me want to go out and buy more mayonnaise. I thought it was just too campy. It was so predictable. I'm going to give it a thumbs down. Sheree.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, unfortunately, Peter, it was already on my Facebook feed, Instagram feed, TikTok feed, Twitter feed. It's already last two days. It's been heavily out there. So 8 million bucks. That's what I asked again. Pringles mustache, Andy Reid, Adam Brody from Dawson's Creek. What do you think?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Flying mustaches.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, okay, enough said. Budweiser with horses.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Love me a Clydesdale. Anything. You know, it. It. So, Sree, I think we talked about this pregame. I. I remember the original Bud Light commercial with the single Clydesdale riding on the beach. And this was very reminiscent of that iconic commercial that launched the Bud Light brand. So to me, I loved it. It was very nostalgic. I don't drink alcohol anymore, so it's not going to make me buy it. But I actually found the commercial to be very heart.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

The only reason I'll remember this commercial is because Mahomes threw an interception from the end zone. Most careless interception. Otherwise I wouldn't have cared. Caitlin Clark, WNB superstar. So win Nike message. I'll always give these messages a thumbs up, especially when it comes to empowering women for that. I love that ad. Continue the great work you do. Nike for standing out and champion Weird one.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Sree, you and I both saw the same ad. So it was national and it was a whole bunch of specialty doctors from NYU Langone playing football.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

And I'm like, the only reason I'm going To give that a thumbs up is the ad made no sense. What is NYU Langone football Because it had Victor Cruz. Victor Cruz gots the touchdown pass 2009 Super Bowl. They were going 19 and all. He got that fade. Route 17 14. The Giants want to change Brady's dream.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I'm not. I'm not going into New York Lane going no sense. I don't know what message with the Mayo Clinic Sree. I'm not going in with the message though after that. I don't know.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

No idea exactly. Next was breast cancer ad.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Great ad.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Very catchy ad by Novartis with Wanda Sykes got the message through. Hats off to Novartis for getting very.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Funny way they did it. And then they. They. They started with humor and then they shift to a very serious discussion. I thought the transition was good. I liked it.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Same Peter. Then it was halftime.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Okay so a bunch of commercials in the halftime opened up with an indie racing on Fox just like they were doing. They repeat.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I don't know what the message was on with an Indy car. It's fine.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Was a great now okay. So everyone knows that I was born and raised in Canada. The next commercial was from the province. The. The province of Ontario ran a commercial showing the commercial connections between Ontario and the United States. And this was clearly an ad designed to counteract the programming of state story. Yeah, we didn't see that ad in California.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Did you get the US Body wash.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Or no, no, no.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I got the US Body wash. Now.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

We had a regional break in the ads. Ontario was clearly advertising this in and they made mention the fact that 11 in 11 states. Ontario is that state's biggest external trading partner.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

We got the US body wash with two sisters talking to each other in an interview. It was emotional. Or give it a neutral.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

The Ontario ad for advertising and trying to counter program against what's coming out of the White House about those rotten evil Canadians. Canadians are not rotten. They are not evil. It is the single longest undefended border in the history of the world. They are our friends. They are. They speak the same language. They eat at the same restaurants. They. They read the same publications. Canada is not our enemy. I don't care what you think. And if you treat them like your enemy, you're not going to have many friends left in this world.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I'll start eating. That's what I'm going to say. You just want me to eat Timbits. I get. I get it.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I do.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So did you see the golf ad with Tiger woods or was it regional?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

No, I saw Stoke Cold brew coffee with Channing Tatum.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

No golf. And with Tiger Woods. And then what about the science moms? LA Wildfires donation. I bet you all didn't see that.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Didn't see that either.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Okay, that was a good message. You know, LA Wildfires donation, important time. You'll find that in the digital liner notes of the podcast. Did you get the Reese's chocolate ad? Lava peanut butter. After that?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

So I did. But before that I got an angel soft interrupt bathroom break where literally it was a little cartoon character saying we're going to run a 30 second spot so you can go to the bathroom. I thought it was, you know, it was nice.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Interestingly, very interesting, Peter, because we got a sweet James, Local Attorneys for Injury, Fox, Hulu, Wells Fargo. And then we got the angel soft body tinky 18 second ad.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I saw a bunch of Fox commercials for 2B for the saints, for NASCAR, then the angels.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Now we know halftime, heavy regional programming, bunch of ads.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Then I got the Reese's volcano chocolate lava big cup.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Before we, before we do that one, Peter, I do want to mention in the regional ad for the Southwest, the Wells Fargo ad with Carlos the Chef was very good. Stoked emotions. Somebody trying to build their life from scratch and opening a bank account first time in their life. I thought it was pretty good. Lava peanut butter. It's lava time. Big chip chocolates. What do you think? Can't go wrong. It's Reese's. I mean, yeah. Thumbs up. And then we look down to the show with Kendrick Lamar. Let's talk about the show, Right? What do you think about Samuel Jackson as Uncle Sam?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

All right, so I love Samuel Jackson. Give me some Nick Fury every day of the week. That said, Sree, it was pretty clear to me, and I think you'll probably agree that the NFL is passing the torch. The old, the good old days of bringing out the Rolling stones or Paul McCartney to play the halftime game are over. My, my era and appreciation of music has come to an end. They're going after Gen Z and Kendrick Lamar clearly fits into that. I don't know his music. I couldn't understand a lot of what he said. Rap is not my, my bag to begin with. So other than Samuel Jackson coming out, the halftime show had very little value to me.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I got to tell you, I had just seen him at the Grammys live a week ago. I saw it from a few feet away at the one of the events. I loved Samuel Jackson dressing up as Uncle Sam for the, for what's going on in the country. Good message. The dancers dressed up as an American flag repeatedly.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I like. I like the. I like the pageantry. I just. I couldn't understand. I don't listen to rap, so my ability to understand the cadence and appreciate it is lost. And so to me, it's just somebody making noise on stage. I love the pageantry of the map. I caught that Sri. It was really great.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I listen to all genres, as you know, because of we are in the music business. No offense to any rap lovers. And Tupac are the best. Kendrick Lamar is the best of the best. I love Serena Williams in the middle dancing because apparently she's an ax off Drake. And it was a little bit of diss with the song they not like Us.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Wait, a rapper. A rapper was throwing shade. You're kidding me.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Two other messages. Turn his TV off. I'll let you all interpret what that means. I personally loved it. Walk in New Orleans with the etiquette of la.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yes.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Oh, boy. That's major. Shots fired. Shots fired. All right, let's now move on to the post show.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

No, I wanna to be did a commercial that started with the Sonic.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

You didn't get the Leave the past behind ad. Let's make girls flag football a varsity sport.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I did a lot. Oh, sorry. Yeah, no, that one was clear. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to skip over that.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Our message.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

High school girls flag football in the NFL. Very powerful. Love it. Big thumbs up on that commercial.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Peter and I again could not anything here that's going to empower women. We're going to champion it. Excellent message. Thank you. To the NFL to be me. Whatever. I don't know what.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

When all of a sudden they have literally their heads are. The problem is if it had been a cartoon and it had been. The head was shaped like a cowboy hat. Maybe I could have liked it. But this was meant to be. Gen AI looked and it looked like there was a hat under the person's skin. And it creeped me out. Sri. I mean, I don't want any of that. I totally lost it. I had no interest.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Me too. It was not my thing to be. Are you gonna go buy. Are you gonna go up to be. Is my question. And that's.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I already downloaded it to watch the super bowl because, you know, I stream. Right. So I already did. But it's not going to make me any more loyal.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, I haven't watched. I haven't watched super bowl on a TV in years. Because I'm using sick. I'm at the stadium. If I told you how I had what I had to do because we cut the cord to watch the game. You wouldn't believe me anyway. So then we had Roger Federer with. Was it Elmo from Sesame Street?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Oh, for Ro Ro.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

No, it was on dot com.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I didn't have that. I had a bunch of shows. And then I had Scientology. I had RO CO, which was flogging GLP1s.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

We didn't have that for quite a bit. We had Scientology after the Sesame street one.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I missed that one. Maybe I was out of the room.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Hey, Scientology had a QR code the entire time. And then BMO the savings bank mayor ad Matthew McConaughey and agent force AI by Salesforce. You didn't have that?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I go out of the room. I must have gone out of the room, Cherie, because I Doordash Dash pass.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

With opera singers, which was great.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Okay, okay. So. So there was some change. There was some regional stuff. We talked about the beginning, the prehack.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yeah.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Here's what I got. I had RO, which was flogging GLP1s. I had ELF lab dancing. It was a scientist in an elf lab dancing. I don't know what that was about. I love our friend Nectar Chopra. I don't know what the hell it was doing about getting me to buy more cosmetics. And lastly, I had a talking flip flop, which was walking around trying to get me to go on a Carnival cruise ship again.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

We had Agent Force AI by Salesforce, twice. 16 million. Good.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I had. At the beginning of Q3, I had Matthew McConaughey on Agent Force, which is.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I was number two.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I don't know. I don't know. I. I still don't know what Agent Force is. I don't know what this cloud does on Salesforce and it's clearly trying to be B2B. You. If you're doing B2B advertising on the super bowl, you're really spending a lot of money on a very niche application. That is a waste of money. I'm going to. On behalf of the shareholders of. Of Salesforce, thumbs down. Bad. Bad advertising decision.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Opera singers, Dash pass, doordash. What do you think?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah. Okay. I had a dash pass that featured Nate Bargazi. I don't know if that's the one. He. He. He became famous on Saturday Night Live where he joked about the fact that doordash is going to have to cut me off because I order so much from them with my dash pass. It's crazy. So they hired him to do this commercial. He's generally a Very funny person. I didn't laugh at this commercial. It doesn't make me want to get Dash pass. I'm sorry. It really fell flat on.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I agree. Peter. That is not the ad that will make me wake up and pay attention to what Dash Bass is. Ray Ban Meta came back a second time.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

That was with Kardashian, wasn't it?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yes. Kris Jenner in the background.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Not Kim. Chris. Kris Jenner. Sorry, I keep calling her. I think she goes by Kardashian again. Sh. You know, Chris Kardashian again. All right, in any event, I didn't want to buy the Ray Ban Meta glasses in the first commercial. I don't want to buy them in the second commercial.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So 99 bucks. I don't know, Peter. It has to be.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

We had another replay of the Snoop and Tommy Nerds. Loved it. Nerves on Bourbon Street. Bags of nerves. I got hungry.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Very cute. Good ad. We're going to give that one a thumbs up. How about the potato from the seed from the ground potato.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

There was an ad in between. It was Kevin Costner talking about it.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Oh, yeah, you're right.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yellowstone to Yosemite. He had me until he told me that it was on Fox Nation.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

What does that mean? Peter, what is Fox Nation? I don't know.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It's a streaming only version of Fox News. It doesn't have any news. It only is placed political opinion.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Okay, yeah, we don't talk politics in this show. So lost it. Notice my notes here. I've written Kevin Crossnut and actually crossed it out for that very reason.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So that. But I love the lace potato chips.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Very nice.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Real ad, huge thumbs up. How do you like the Morgan Freeman ad? Dan Levy again, place to call home homes.com. we've talked about it. We don't need to repeat it. So let's jump to LeBron James and dojo Cat.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

You know, they kept pushing him out of the commercial saying we don't want to use the celebrity, but we're going to use the celebrity, but we don't want to use.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

They just wanted to get an add in. Like they just had two on Super Bowl. Like they've got mass appeal as it is. I don't know why they. Again, 8 million bucks. Did you have to third wallet. Dolphins in the ocean.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

The nerd wallet commercial with the whale. I don't get that.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Was that a beluga whale? I wrote down dolphins.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It was beluga.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

It was a beluga.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I don't know, but it was correcting me.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

They said beluga. I Said dolphin. So you've lost me right there, man. Ludicrous fast on the Furious slow.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

And I like that with Vin Diesel going slow. Good one for Haagen Dazs. Thumbs up.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

What was the next one with the flushy cowboy and thing? I mean I.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

That was another of the 2B skin hat thing that creeped me out. I didn't want that. Get it away.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Sorry.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

That one is a no go for me then. Then on the cul de sac.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Loved it. Power of love. Here are three things I took away. Peyton Manning can cook. Power of love song walking. Remember what happened with Bud Light? Power of love song in the background. And I love that they were actually shooting cans of Bud Light. Get him, Peter.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I know. And that was one. That was the other commercial that bled into the actual show. Because suddenly you went into the stadium, you were down in the tunnel below the Superdome and there was Peyton Manning stocking Bud Light Beers into the same super cooler that you saw it in the advertisement. I'll give it a thumbs up.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Then we had the obesity leads to half million deaths a year. It's so true, Peter.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It was a good commercial once. It's too expensive. We don't. We have an option that is a lot less expensive.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

$1 billion industry feeding on a failure to protect humans in America.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah, it was good.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Took a political swipe and I. I don't think they're far from the truth. Hymns and ads. Yeah, Poppy soda was next.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I loved it. Good look, people.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

But. But look at the sequence of the ads. Failure to feed and then 5 grams of sugar.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Good timing to go back to back. Right? So they must have.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

We're in the fourth quarter. We're in the fourth now.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

We're in the fourth quarter. 47 yards.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

By this point. I'm texting all of my former Fetch colleagues not knowing full well that Fetch is paid. And we'll talk about this in a second for an ad at the two. The last ad at the two minute mark. And I'm like, is there going to be anybody, anybody watching the game by the time your ad appears? Because I'm kind of concerned that other than the people in. In Philadelphia, everyone else will have pretty much turned off the game by then.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

There's some truth to that, Peter. Other than the only thing that I'll say is usually when the party is dying down, people stay. They watch the trophy, the Vince Lombardi presentation. Etc. So 47 yard pass for touchdown followed by agent force AI again, Matthew McConaughey. You know what it is. Yeah. So again, 8 million bucks. B2B ad. Is that the place? How about Visit Las Vegas in costumes right after that?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I didn't have that. I had joined the military.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I had joined the military and I had Visit Las Vegas and costumes.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I had an advertisement that showed all the different branches of the military and it was a recruitment video.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Okay, fine.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It wasn't. I mean it was, it, it was watered down. Wasn't terribly exciting.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Griefman. This next ad yeezy.com yee. Kanye West's ad.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

You had a yee?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yes. 30 seconds. He hovered on TV with his mouth open. He said, look at my new teeth. Didn't say much. He said, I shot this on an iPhone. 8 million bucks. 30 seconds. He said, go to yeezy.com that was the ad. My jaw dropped. Just like yours right now.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

So my, my commercial was ramp.com how to use this app to manage your expenses. Which is waste of money.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I mean after everything that he's done on Twitter x the last few days.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

To actually commercial because that's just stupid.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I want you to take a minute, I want you to take a minute after this episode and I want you to google easy.com. it's labeled WLM. I'll leave it at that. So then we had the 40 year California Lottery which was really cool because it was shooting into baskets and hoops into cups. What'd you have?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I had a bunch of elderly ladies playing golf and one was getting ready to swing. And the other two, one was showing the other one. Look what I just got from my boyfriend. That view is great. And she goes, and the woman swinging says, what are you looking at? And the woman, the woman holding the phone says, I'm looking at a tic picture pick and she like almost falls off. And it's T I C K P I C K for ticket pick.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Not even close. What about the range up to 350 miles. Polestar3ad after that? I bet you didn't get that.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Didn't see that either. I got, I got an ad for potential energy coalition about climate change. Then I closed it out with an ad by Indeed.com for, for job search.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I think the California lottery and Polestar took up our time. So then we are fourth quarter ads. Harrison Ford. I actually going to give that one a thumbs up. I don't like Harrison Ford, but it's a thumbs up. Freedom is a yes, no, maybe write your own stories. Freedom is earned. Freedom should never be pride. Very important message in today's America.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

You don't have to be friendly with someone. You don't have to be friendly. Wave at them.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

That's right. And it's the freedom to even choose. Freedom. And then I love that he ended it with Jeep. Makes me happy. Even though my last name is Ford. That cracked me up. Thumbs up.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Very funny. That was very funny.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Then we got the Zoom.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I had another Fox News ad.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

So we got Doobie.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Fourth time I saw David.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Did you get David?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I saw the Stella Art TWA ad with Matt Damon and David Beckham. It was okay.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

It was okay. But nothing memorable like overall. Overall, so far I haven't found a single commercial that I'll remember for a lifetime. Right. So mess and then message on. How do we talk to our girls about continuing sports? Show the kid running forever. Again. Hats off to the NFL for its powerful message. Booking.com next. Did you get that one?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Muppets on the Beach. You know anything with a Muppet in it is okay by my book.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Some of these ads now start stinking of vanity to me. Like they had to spend 8 million. Like people know booking.com. are they going to watch this ad and really start going to booking.com? they're already there. And then the Bosch tools. Did you see that one with Randy Mutual Savage?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I'm not going to go buy any Bosch tools. I know Antonio Banderas.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

No, that's the same thing, Peter. Like 8 million bucks. Vanity ads by CMOs. Most of these. And I'm not gonna comment about.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

We finally had a godaddy ad. Something that we expect in every super.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I didn't get whatever you missed. You missed the Totino speeds 1. Did you not see that one?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I did.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I'll let you comment. It's my past alma mater. What do you think? Was it worth 8 million bucks?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Alien encounters? No.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

You know, goodbye to Dina, speed general. I think. I think the fans that love it already buy it anyway. This is not the ad. Sorry, no digging anybody. But again many of these ads make are not driving immediate conversion. We are reading for it. Go daddy. Walter Goggins working Goggle glasses. What do you think?

[Peter V.S. Bond]

It's a GoDaddy ad. It's not going to be like it's about. It's about as likely me to get me to build a website through them and or a domain name through them as it is for me to get Squarespace to build a site. It's not happening.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Then the last ad before the end of the game was your buddy. We know too well Fetch rewards. I'm gonna applaud Wes for Leaving the QR code up there for the entire duration. That's how people will download the app.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Yeah. And once you downloaded the app, you would see that it. If you basically, if you already had the app on and you opened it up, you would see a ticker clicking down from about four minutes. And they said the show will begin in four minutes. And I think the reason they did that is for the people, they knew how long it was going to take for someone who didn't have the app to download it and provision it so that they could participate. And then basically what they did is over the course of like four or five minutes, Wes would introduce a tranche of winners. 20 at a time. 120 winners total, each of whom got $10,000 in cash. And then they showed you how you could qualify for a million dollars in cash. It was campy, it was cheesy. But you know what, I stuck through the whole thing and I suspect a whole lot of other people did. It was probably very effective. Here's my question. So.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

You'Re basically ask a question about consumer acquisition cost. Fourth quarter, last ad before the 2 minute warning end of the game.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

The game was already over by that point.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

But you can't, you can't assume that, Peter. The last few Super Bowls have come down to the last play.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Not by that many, not by such a point deficit. But in any event, here's my problem. Fetch's primary mechanism for customer acquisition has been a referral fee.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Different story. Yeah.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

And the customer acquisition cost has been basically $4. Right. It's 4,000 points. 1,000 points is equal to a dollar. So it was $4. So if it's an $8 million ad, they had better have acquired more than 2 million new users.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Peter, that's like expecting a moonshot. 2 million people will actually download the Fetch app and become new. Two million people are not going to.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Download anything then it was just a vanity play by their cmo, you know.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

To be honest with you. So let's do a quick summary and wrap up here.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Was it good? Did it get people to download the app?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Yes, for sure. Peter. I'm going to actually applaud him for having the courage. Eight million bucks. Again, a question. It's overall somebody you got to pick your the favorite ad of the day. What's yours? Mine's T Mobile Starlink. I, I gotta learn something new. It scared me a little bit. But I also now will pay attention to Starling. Well done T Mobile for bringing that message. That was my number one ad outside of the NFL's powerful messages. What about you gotta pick one.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

If I had to pick one, it would have been the opening the huddle with Brad Pitt. But that was an NFL ad, so if I take that away, looking at these, I actually liked. Oh, God, this is so hard for me. I like the Tom Brady ad with Duracell. I really did. I thought that worked.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

And then what? What do you say? Complete waste of 8 million. Gotta pick one. I'm sorry.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Coffee, mate.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

I. I'm gonna go with you on that one and say that. Cold foam coffee.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

What?

[Sree Rajagopalan]

These are people. So, guys, we do this because we care. It's 8 million bucks. When you. When we have volume challenges equity, right? We work with all of you. You come on the show. We're not taking. We gotta be honest.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

How much did you have to sell to generate $8 million of profit? You would have had to do a.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

Lot of volume moving at least 30 million, Peter. At a 25 margin. That's another. So. So. So to me, if we were to summarize it, compared to previous years, the quality of these ads is memorable. Has been diminishing. I haven't been home for the last few. But generally that's the sentiment. I've now decided you and I are going to watch this together. What do you say? And we're going to do this year over year.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

This is a ritual. And you know what? What I love most is we were able to do this in under an hour. That is our 58 commercials.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

57 minutes, Peter.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

I love it. Sri. Thanks for taking time out of your Sunday evening after the Super Bowl, Peter. To do this to. To decompose what we saw, I think it was worthwhile. And to our audience, we want to thank you for listening to the CPG guys podcast again. If you can do one thing for us tonight, just one thing. Even if it's now, now that you're done with this episode, just go into Apple or Spotify main page of the podcast, scroll down to where it has the star rating. Give us a star rating. We really, really need one. We appreciate it.

[Sree Rajagopalan]

And we'll wrap up by saying, Peter and I want to thank our followers on LinkedIn. Without you, the show doesn't exist. We barely put out a message saying we were going to put out this episode rating every single ad you engaged immediately. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode regular programming back Saturday.

[Peter V.S. Bond]

Thank you. And we look forward to speaking with you on the next episode of the.

[C]

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