It’s often said of the Super Bowl that the ads are better than the game.
“Well,” Tim Ellis said, “I’m never going to agree with that.”
How could he? Ellis is the NFL’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. And the ad he helmed for the league won USA TODAY’s Ad Meter, a ranking of Super Bowl ads by consumer rating.
The commercial, a salute to the NFL’s upcoming 100th season, is a tour de force of famous faces and smashing tables at a banquet where a football falling off a giant cake leads to a riotous romp through generations of NFL history.
Peter Berg, the ad’s director, said whether it’s for a movie or a commercial, “you need a really good simple core idea that works, that can be distilled to one line.”
Berg’s simple line for this one: “Tackle football game breaks out at an awards show.”
Glenn Cole, founder and co-creative chair of 72andSunny, the ad agency that came up with the idea, puts his one-line summation a bit differently: “It’s a love letter to football, authored by the greatest players, past and present, at a 100 gala.”
Berg loved the idea the moment he heard it. “They brought it to me, and I just laughed,” he said. “I’m, like, ‘Well, yeah, we can do it, but I don’t believe you’ll get all those players here.’ ”
The idea was born in November, approved in December and the NFL didn’t start calling stars until the week before Christmas. Production started in Los Angeles on Jan. 12 and the ad was filmed over three days.
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