Bud Light Asks Guy Fieri to Help Mix New Recipe for Super Bowl Commercials

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThe hunt for an elusive South American flower is at the heart of the latest addition to the Peacock streaming service, but the creators of the new show aren’t from the typical Hollywood studio.“Unlocked,” a short film that debuts Friday on the NBCUniversal broadband outlet, is the creation of tech giant Hewlett-Packard and the agency Giant Spoon. The mini-movie tells the story of data scientists hoping to track down a rare plant that might just offer a cure to a mysterious neurological disease that ails the world, but it might solve some other problems as well, like how to get ad messages in front of consumers who are increasingly accustomed to avoid such things when they hunker down for a new bingeworthy session.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorMadison Avenue used its most tried-and-true techniques to keep Super Bowl watchers from being overwhelmed Sunday night by a brave new world that emerged with great speed as the nation was hunkered down during the coronavirus pandemic.General Motors, one of the nation’s most staid corporations, put its marketing heft behind a fleet of electric vehicles, using revivals of media favorites like “Austin Powers” and “The Sopranos.” Verizon touted quickening telecommunications service by reviving Jim Carrey in his role as “The Cable Guy” and T-Mobile pressed viewers to think about 5G by showing Dolly Parton with a phone pressed close to her chest. Rocket Mortgage dressed its digital service in bright Barbie overtones along with the familiar site of Anna Kendrick.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorToyota no doubt hopes Super Bowl viewers will be jones-ing for its new series of Tundra pick-up trucks after the Super Bowl is over.A 60-second spot that aired just before the automaker’s sponsored halftime report on NBC featured three famous Jones actors — Tommy Lee, Leslie and Rashida — in a humorous scene. The trio puts individual vehicles through their paces and then gets a surprise visit from Nick Jonas,  who shares most of the consonants in the actors’ surname (Meanwhile, the entire ad takes place to the tune of “It’s Not Unusual,” by Tom Jones).

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorPret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty….surprising.FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange, did its best to stand out in its first time advertising at the Super Bowl by tapping an actor who has never appeared in commercials before: Larry David.David, best known for his contrarian, curmudgeonly humor, took to the Super Bowl stage for FTX in a minute-long commercial that showed him turning down some of history’s best ideas, era by era. In various historical mini-dramas, David dismisses the wheel, the fork, the toilet, the electric light bulb, the Walkman and even the notion of American independence (because “even the stupid ones” will get a chance to influence major political decisions.)He isn’t much for cryptocurrency, either.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJamie-Lynn Sigler has been keeping a secret for weeks. On Sunday, it finally came out.Sigler, who played Meadow Soprano for more than eight years on the iconic HBO series “The Sopranos,” stepped into the role again Sunday for a Chevrolet commercial that aired during NBC’s telecast of Super Bowl LVI. The ad updated, shot for shot, the show’s opening montage, which used to feature James Gandolfini’s  Tony Soprano driving a Chevy truck.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorLast year, Dolly Parton contributed a song for a Super Bowl commercial. This year, she’s raised her game, by appearing in two.The iconic singer and songwriter was planning to be at home Sunday night watching NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVI with plenty of snacks, dips and wings on hand so she could see her performance in two short Big Game commercials from T-Mobile.“I have to watch it this year, ‘cause I’m in it,” Parton quipped during a phone interview earlier this week.Parton debuts alongside Miley Cyrus, making a rare joint appearance with the singer who also happens to be her goddaughter (see their past antics in episodes of Cyrus’ Disney Channel mainstay “Hannah Montana”) for T-Mobile, the telecommunications carrier.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC will run dozens of commercials during the Super Bowl for potato chips, cryptocurrency, beer and electric cars. And it will also run dozens for itself and its parent company.By the time viewers finish watching the network’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVI, they are likely to hear a lot about the return of “Law & Order” and the arrival of new series like “Endgame,” “American Song Contest” and “The Thing About Pam.” There will also be room for talk about NBC comedies; shows on Peacock like “Bel Air”; and offerings from NBC News, and Universal Orlando Resort.There’s good reason to talk up as much as possible. NBC will spend part of Super Bowl Sunday showing part of the Winter Olympics and will air that before and after its coverage of the Big Game.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC hasn’t scheduled a new edition of its venerable “Tonight Show” after the Super Bowl, but viewers who stick around are going to see some new late-night antics courtesy of Jimmy Fallon.As part of an alliance with Samsung Electronics, Fallon will star in a 60-second post-game commercial, paying homage to movies as part of a tie in to the Super Bowl taking place this year in Los Angeles. In doing so, he will also highlight how Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra uses features such as super steady video capturing, “nightography,” and more.“We are already doing traditional media advertising like 30 second and 15 second ads that we run, but we know the story comes through much more impactfully and in a much more resonant way when we tell a very contextual story,” says Janet Lee, who oversees marketing for Samsung’s mobile business in the U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC News has a lot of stories to tell during the Olympics and the Super Bowl. One of them is about itself.The large NBCUniversal news division is using both events to get the word out about its growing package of streaming news programming at a time when the battle for broadband info junkies appears to be reaching a new apex.NBC News will tout its streaming-news outlet NBC News Now with a 20 second promo in the first quarter during NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVI this Sunday, as well as with a 15-second promo during the pre-game.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorOn Sunday, actor Ty Burrell will fulfill a goal that has long been on his bucket list: taking part in a Super Bowl commercial.He put a lot of work into it. In a 30-second spot slated to air in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, Burrell will be spotted making frivolous purchases like a jetpack, a giant yacht called the “TyTanic” and a life-size robot. He even agrees to buy a live Pegasus — all to the detriment of the character he portrays.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorOne of the self-proclaimed greatest villains in history is coming to the Super Bowl to take over the world — but only if he can save it first.General Motors is likely to cause a stir on Sunday when it debuts a Super Bowl commercial for its growing fleet of electric vehicles that reunites the cast of the 1997 hit “Austin Powers.” The goal is to get consumers thinking about cars and trucks that are better for the environment. In the spot, Dr.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC plans to inject some Hollywood tinsel and technicolor into its Super Bowl broadcast.Taking a cue from the Big Game’s location, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, NBC plans to kick off Super Bowl LVI at 6 p.m. with an opening vignette featuring Halle Berry and a bevy of stars and athletes.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC News will show an interview between Lester Holt and President Joseph Biden during NBC’s Super Bowl pre-game show on Sunday February 13.NBC said the interview is slated to take place in Virginia, and will mark President Biden’s first sit-down interview with a news organization in 2022.The sit-down appears to be taped, which the White House the networks showing the Big Game have started doing during the Trump administration. President Obama often agreed to talk to journalists live.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorUber Eats has found a way to turn shots of celebrities snacking on vegan chocolate into what might be one of the most eye-popping Super Bowl commercials in this year’s ad game.Gwyneth Paltrow, Trevor Noah, Jennifer Coolidge and Nicholas Braun all take part in a new 30-second ad for the delivery service that reminds people of the food it might bring while showing them that Uber can deliver a host of other products to the door. But instead of actual treats, the actors dine on a light bulb, soap, a pencil, and even, in Paltrow’s case, a rather distinctive candle.Viewers won’t know the props are crafted out of edible material, but that’s beside the point, says Georgie Jeffreys, director of marketing for Uber Eats, in an interview.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAmazon wants to take some time out of NBC’s Super Bowl telecast to remind viewers to watch its new Thursday-night stream-casts next season without the use of linear TV.The e-commerce giant will unveil during Super Bowl LVI a new logo for the mid-week NFL games to which it will have exclusive rights starting next season, and hopes viewers will recognize some hallmarks of the game – and some signals about the future of it. The new logo will debut in a Super Bowl ad crafted with independent agency Wieden + Kennedy.The animated blue shield Amazon has created to represent “Thursday Night Football” uses elements of the shape of an old pigskin as well as Amazon’s signature “smile” logo, and should become a familiar symbol to football fans next season as the company threads the insignia through various aspects of production.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSteve Buscemi has gone bowling before — but not quite like this.The actor, who played the bothersome kegler Donny Kerabatsos in the 1998 film “The Big Lebowski,” is hanging out at a bowling alley once again, and this time he’s at the center of activity. In a new series of Super Bowl ads for Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Michelob Ultra, the “Boardwalk Empire” star works at the Superior Bowl, where athletes including Peyton Maning, Serena Williams, Jimmy Butler, Nneka Ogwumike, Brooks Koepka and Alex Morgan hang out and help promote a suite of Ultra products.“I didn’t even try and bowl while I was there,” says Buscemi, who did in fact get bowling lessons for the Coen Brothers’ “Lebowski,” but hasn’t really thrown strikes and spares in a while.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAs CNN’s many journalists tried to get past the ouster of Jeff Zucker, they ran up against one of their biggest professional hurdles: a source who refuses to talk.Some of WarnerMedia’s best-known on-air personalities pressed the company’s CEO Jason Kilar again and again on Monday, asking him to divulge more details around why Zucker resigned after acknowledging a personal relationship with Allison Gollust, CNN’s chief marketing officer. But Kilar would not.The WarnerMedia chief faced questions from Don Lemon, Alisyn Camerota, Brian Stelter, Jim Sciutto, Bill Weir, Richard Quest, John Avlon and Victor Blackwell, as well as longtime producer Jim Murphy, many of them pressing him for more information about whether the parent company felt Zucker was given a harsher punishment than was necessary; about whether WarnerMedia was negotiating with Chris Cuomo, fired by Zucker last year, over severance; and whether the looming merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery forced his hand when it came to deciding what to do about the now former CNN chief.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorGet ready for a taste of “Saturday Night Live” on Super Bowl Sunday.Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost, the “Avengers” star and “Weekend Update” anchor, famously got married after meeting at “SNL.” Now they are set to appear in their first project together: a Super Bowl commercial for Amazon’s Alexa.“There’s something nice about the fact that there has never been anything with them together,” says  Claudine Cheever, vice president of global brand and fixed marketing for Amazon, in an interview. “It’s a mystery element: What are they like together?”In a 60-second ad slated to air early in the fourth quarter on NBC’s broadcast of Super Bow LVI on February 13, Johansson and Jost wonder what things might be like if Amazon’s Alexa voice device could read minds.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAs Americans chow down on buffalo wings, beer, quesadillas, and chips, during the Super Bowl Unilever thinks it’s found a flavor that will help them swallow a serious message.The company is sending its venerable Hellmann’s  mayonnaise back into the Super Bowl ad fray in a second effort to use the Big Game to get people at home to cut back on wasting food. In the ad, linebacker Jerod Mayo tackles people getting ready to toss out old food, telling them instead they can use Hellman’s to turn potatoes into potato salad. “Saturday Night Live” cast member Pete Davidson (and his mother) turns up at the end to drive the lesson home.“There is a bigger ambition here, a bigger mission, says Benjamin Crook, senior marketing director for Hellmann’s North America, in an interview.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWhile the colorful and grandiose Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony unfurls on TV, the company showing all the pomp has an equally elaborate project taking place off camera.NBCUniversal has been one of the most vocal critics of Nielsen, the company that has for decades measured TV audiences and provided tabulations that serve as the bedrock of ad deals for the nation’s TV networks. To boost its efforts to offer an alternate means of counting the video-watching masses, NBCU is working with more than 30 different advertisers to test a new measurement tool it has built with iSpot.TV — and using the company’s Olympics and looming Super Bowl broadcasts as a sort of test run before trying to get more sponsors to embrace the system during the industry’s annual “upfront” ad-sales season later this year.