Super Bowl LII & other things

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Super Bowl LII adverts

It was the Super Bowl LII in the US which means a festival of TV advertising

If Super Bowl LII had a star it would be Tide’s ad as  the most interesting because of the way it let the audience ‘in’ on the advert playing off against the cliches used in US advertising:

  • The car ad
  • The pharma ad with its disclaimers
  • The beer ad
  • Perfume ad
  • The rustic setting based ad (for conservative folks)
  • The car insurance ad
  • The luxury ad

Brittle Chinese sensitivities

Less about enjoyment and more about interest in social campaigns. Chinese netizen outrage at perceived slights is now affecting channels blocked in China.

mercedes benz

Mercedes-Benz put up a filler motivational post on Instagram quoting the Dalai Lama. Instagram isn’t available in China, but that didn’t stop the Chinese web getting angry. Ok when I said the Chinese web, I meant a particular faction of it young people with extreme nationalist tendencies called 愤青 fenqing (said fen-ching). They are a diverse group in terms of beliefs, but a simple view would be to think of the nationalism of Britain First supporters, but with Chinese sensibilities.

Expect the threat of a Chinese government inquiry. Mercedes for their part apologised on Weibo:

..extremely wrong information

Which caused further outrage as netizens wanted an apology on Instagram. So Mercedes apologised again. Mercedes is stuck between a rock and a hard place, an apology like that on Instagram would blow back on them outside China.

What you are likely to see is a greater degree of self censorship by brands.

Lunar new year

Talking of China we’re starting to run into the lunar new year advertising season and my favourite so far has been this one by Nokia. It also ties quite nicely into a campaign that they ran online over Christmas.

nokia

The focus on family moments shows a maturity in Nokia’s advertising versus many competitors who talk about features.

Taiko

Taiko versus a vintage big band sound

Mark Moore

I have been exploring mixes by London clubland legend Mark Moore.