Super Bowl First Quarter Report: Inspiration meets Humor as Eagles Soar

The Eagles may have soared on the field, but it was a fairly flat start to this year’s Super Bowl advertising in the Pre-Game and First Quarter, with emotion in short supply. Fortunately, a famous name was on hand to provide a lift for M&Ms. Not just Danny DeVito – though he certainly helped –  but the brown M&M, a Fluent Device which has scored highly at Super Bowls in the past. DeVito’s transformation into a human M&M got a 4-Star result, its violent slapstick humor entertaining viewers just like the knockabout Kia ad last year.

Humor was forecast as one of the big themes of this year’s Super Bowl, but it’s not the only game in town and it doesn’t always work. Ameritrade had a celebrity – Lionel Richie – and a joke (of sorts), but too much of a product message for viewers to feel much: it got 2-Stars. McDonalds also mixed sentiment, humor and product messaging with its bait-and-switch inspirational Big Mac ad but could only manage 3-Stars.

Meanwhile pure inspiration and sentiment performed well. Mass Mutual featured ordinary people singing along to a 90s Mazzy Star hit in its sweet and simple “I’ll Stand By You” ad and landed 4-Stars for its direct sentiment. And our first 5-Star commercial of the night was for NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage, with an inspiring commercial starring top ski-er Mikaela Shiffron.

There are plenty more stars (and Star Ratings) to come in this celebrity-heavy Super Bowl, so check back to see how they do in Quarter 2.