Top 5 lessons marketers can learn from legendary Super Bowl ads

While beer company ads almost always have a spot on that roster, other commercials have also made their mark as all-time favorites. Coca-Cola, Cadillac, Snickers, E-Trade, and yes, Budweiser, have hit the marketing sweet spot with iconic ads that can teach other companies a thing or two about creating memorable content. Here are five iconic Super Bowl commercials that marketers can learn valuable lessons from:

1. (1979) Coca-Cola & Mean Joe Green – “Hey kid, catch!”

Undeniably, one of the most memorable Super Bowl commercials of all time, Coca-Cola scored a touchdown with this heartfelt, award winning commercial. The ad struck a chord with viewers worldwide as a gruff, Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Famer, Mean Joe Green, one of the best football players to ever touch the gridiron, rebuffs a starstruck young fan, Tommy Okon, who only wants to offer support to his favorite player.

Coca-Cola touched on the fantasy of many kids and men alike, coming face to face with their favorite professional sports players, as well as hitting on emotions that all people experience – pain, loss, rejection, and hope. All wrapped up in a one-minute commercial that ends with the chugging of a bottle of coke and the gift of a worn jersey.

Lesson – Create content that taps deeply into common emotions that your target customers experience.

2. (2021) Cadillac & Timothee Chalamet – “Edward Scissorhands”

Originally played by Johnny Depp, Edward Scissorhands became a cult favorite after the movie was released in 1989. Lonely, quirky, and uniquely talented, the Scissorhands character was reinvented by Timothee Chalamet in a touching commercial that took viewers through a gamut of emotions - pity, sorrow, awe, and lastly happiness.

Despite its foray through a raw range of emotions, Cadillac’s Scissorhands commercial tapped into a sentiment that seems to hit the ‘score’ button every single time – nostalgia. In doing so, they managed to hit several demographics, Gen X who were teenagers when Edward Scissorhands was released, and younger generations such as millennials, and even Gen Z who follow the young star, Chalamet, like lovestruck puppies.

In one last brilliant move, Cadillac also included Winona Ryder as his mother. Ryder, an ‘80’s movie fixture who starred in the original Scissorhands film, brought another nuanced element of nostalgia to an emotionally subtle, ray of advertising sunshine.

Lesson – If done strategically, nostalgia scores in a big, big way.

3. (2010) Snickers & Betty White

Over 30 seconds of pure Betty White, what more could one ask for? Snickers candy bar company hit the Super Bowl jackpot with a commercial featuring a tough talking, football charging Betty White. What Snickers did exceptionally well was to capitalize on a current trend, which happened to be 88-year-old Betty White who had become as popular then, as in her heyday on television. The perfection of casting Betty White was her appeal to every possible demographic, Boomers, Gen X, Gen Z, and millennials.

Lesson – Take advantage of current trends and don’t forget to sweep as many demographics as possible that relate to your product.

4. (2008) E-Trade & The Talking Baby

E-Trade took a chance on a talking baby and knocked their commercial out of the park. In fact, the commercial was so popular that they featured the same talking baby in subsequent commercials for six years in a row. The appeal of the commercial was the simplicity of information passed on through an unusual source, a baby. E-Trade managed to take the stilted complexity of online trading and make it palatable to viewers in a funny, engaging way. In doing so, their company not only planted their name in the minds of potential customers, but also made themselves relatable and easy to approach.

Lesson – Take your company to the consumers’ level by being relatable and making your product information easy to digest.

5. (1995) Budweiser & The Talking Frogs

It wouldn’t be a Super Bowl commercial list without at least one beer ad. Despite the enormous popularity of a commercial that featured talking frogs, it was the simplicity and repetitive nature of the dialogue that made it memorable. Absurdly creative, the ad showed bellowing frogs repeating Bud, Weis, and Er over and over until they finally fell in sync with each other, forming a deep throated chorus of Budweiser.

While viewers learned nothing new about the company, nor experienced a rollercoaster of emotions, they did walk away with Bud-Weis-Er as their new earwig for who knows how long. It was enough to put the talking frog commercial on virtually every ‘best’ commercial list known to man.

Lesson – Simple can be extremely effective, don’t go overboard in getting your message across.

Once the game is over and the excitement has waned, it's worth looking back at game day ads to see what resounded most with viewers. Valuable lessons can be learned from current ads, but more importantly from legendary Super Bowl commercials that have permanently left their mark on viewers hearts.

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