“Ryanville” – Hyundi 2017 Elantra
If your idea of a perfect city is one with a population of “Yes” and solely inhabited by Ryan Reynolds, then Hyundai has the perfect place for you. Two women in a new Elantra cruise through the titular Ryanville, where Ryan Reynolds is a police officer, construction worker, casual football player and dog walker. The sheer absurdity of the spot eventually does tie into what Hyundai is trying to advertise. While Ryan Reynolds was apparently once called “bland and boring” by Slate, chances are his stock is sure to rocket with the upcoming release of Deadpool.
“You Should Do It Anyway” – Squarespace
Squarespace may pull off quite a coup with this spot, which hasn’t premiered in full yet but features the comedic talents of Key and Peele, playing aspiring sportscasters Lee and Morris. However, there’s a major twist in store for the two would-be commentators — they’ve been legally barred from saying “Super Bowl” or even “football” as one word. The teaser is just a glimpse of things to come, and Squarespace is looking to go beyond just its full ad. Starting at 6 p.m. on game day, USA Today says, Lee and Morris will be broadcasting live for four hours from a Squarespace microsite as they try to narrate the Super Bowl without any of its identifying features.
“A New Truck to Love” – Honda Ridgeline
The first idea to come to mind in advertising a vehicle with a truck-bed speaker may not be singing sheep, but that’s exactly what’s happening in this new commercial for Honda’s upcoming 2017 Ridgeline. Most impressive about this ad, as Advertising Age explains, is the research Honda and ad agency RPA took in making it as realistic is possible (sheep capable of singing Queen’s “Somebody to Love” notwithstanding). The group studied the way sheep’s facial muscles work, so while special effects were used to sync the sheep’s mouths, they move in a way natural to the sheep themselves. All the sheep and the sheepdog are real, by the way.
“The Gambler: Do You Know What Your Marketing is Doing?” – Adobe
The title of the most meta ad for this year’s Super Bowl will likely go to Adobe’s new ad, which features a sad-looking Chief Marketing Officer nervously tapping his fingers in a bar as he waits for his ad to premiere. A man at the bar asks how much he gambled, to which he replies, “Four million.” As he despairs over whether or not buying a Super Bowl ad is a good idea and how he should have trusted data, the ad comes on screen. Suffice to say the CMO is going to be a lot sadder.
Weekly LOL looks at the funny and newsworthy stories of the week. See the previous entry here.
