This year’s Super Bowl commercial price is around $5 million for 30 seconds. That’s not a lot of money for Amazon, which will make its first foray into Super Bowl advertising this year, but you have to sell a LOT of Snickers to recoup that spend. Snickers is paying the entry fee, but it looks to have skimped on the price of really bringing Marilyn Monroe back from the dead! At least the person embodying Marilyn as “she” sings “Happy Birthday” not to JFK but to “Mr. Super Bowl” (he’s turning 50!) doesn’t seem like she’s all the way back from the dead. Maybe half way back. Hey but this is just the teaser for the ad (see below). A Snickers should do the trick.
Who’s the half-dead Marilyn? Willem Dafoe. Not a household name exactly, more of an indie hero. And he’s certainly no Marilyn Monroe — which is the point. Snickers has had great success with its “You’re Not Yourself When You’re Hungry” campaign, employing everyone from Betty White to the Brady Bunch. For all the amazing visuals the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl ads present, Snickers is banking on the power of audio effects too: Dafoe’s distinctive growl may be the one sound you remember most after the blitz of lights and action. (Snickers has shown love of indie heroes before: Steve Buscemi stars in its great Brady Bunch commercial.)
