My picks for awesome, awful, inclusive and weird super bowl ads

For years, I did a post about my top 10 Super Bowl ads. I think this year warrants a different approach. I felt it was an odd mix. Sure there were some awesome ads and I’ll go through them first. There were some that I thought really missed the mark. In the current political climate, where anything inclusive is being wiped away from our government and the NFL had to remove “End Racism” from their end zones, there seemed to be a number of ads that went out of their way to be inclusive and honor marginalized people. This included
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How to use creativity - look at the opposite POV

What is one way that you can get an advantage over your competition using creativity? I’m gonna tell you, it is for you to look at things from the opposite point of view. If everyone in your niche is doing the same thing, do the opposite. Find a way to look at things differently and, and really attack it that way. A great example is the nonprofit Water is Life. You know with nonprofits you usually get the sad Sarah McLaughlin music and the sad looking dogs to make you feel empathetic to their thing. Or you’ve got the kids
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Tubi is my ad of the week

When I first watched the latest Tubi ad, I thought “Oh boy, they’re really laying it on thick here.” It had the stirring music swelling with emotion. It had a warm voiceover talking about how proud they were to offer free streaming to first responders, educators, volunteers building houses – complete with slow-motion hero footage. But then, the twist came. They were also proud to give it free to some of the less savory people in our society, day nappers, couples stealing copper pipes out of walls and kids who skip school and throw rocks at windows. It was a
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You can get an unfair advantage over your competition using creativity and agility. That’s a talk I’ve been giving or over a decade now, as a keynote, as a workshop – and it’s still true today. So, I’d like to talk about it. The original idea came from Maurice Saatchi, who said, “Creativity is the last legal way to gain an unfair advantage over your competition.” I’ve added agility to that because in today’s fast-paced world, things change so quickly. If you can be the quickest to react to changing market conditions, to something going on with your company, to
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McClure Marketing ad of the week: Jim Bean 7 Stages of Defeat

As a lifelong Detroit Lions fan myself, I figured this ad featuring Keegan-Michael Key outlining the 7 stages of defeat (how to cope with your NFL team’s loss in the playoffs) would be cathartic. After all, we suffered the unexpected early loss to Washington this year after the soul-crushing defeat to San Francisco last year. I’m not sure which was worse, but I digress. In the ad, part of a bigger campaign, he walks through some of the stages fans are experiencing, including someone in the Surrender Cobra position for the “Shock” stage. He gives a dejected fan banging his
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You would think an ad depicting Dollar Shave Club, as a snooty, exclusive club you have to know the right password to get into would not work. After all, they disrupted the razor industry by offering inexpensive, quality shaving supplies direct to consumer. But it does work. Why? Because it is played with the same kind of irreverence that has always been the undertone of their brand. In fact, if feels more like a Saturday Night Live skit than a commercial. Even the robe given to the young man once he gets the password right is somewhat reminiscent of the
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Who do you want to work for

Everybody wants a paycheck. Nobody wants to “work for a paycheck.” Because if a paycheck is all you’re working for, you will have a hard time finding joy and passion in your work. What is it you want to work for? A cause? An ideal? Your team? A product you believe in? The ability to create something unique? It’s different for everyone. And it changes over time. I’ve been lucky. And even more so in the year and change since my 25+ year agency job disappeared. Because, now I’m working on projects and companies I like and truly believe in.
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