The best Super Bowl ad ever? As I’m sure my esteemed colleagues will agree, the only answer is E-Trade’s ‘Monkey,’ right?
Super Bowl spots should do one thing: sear a single image into your skull so that you can’t think of anything else for 25 years. You can yell into a phone, rep your hometown, birth a catchphrase, tackle an old lady, say no over and over and over again. Whatever. The choice is yours. But as soon as you do more than that… as soon as you try to introduce deals and features and your latest product benefits, you’re wallpaper.
I can’t drive by a garage door without hearing that song and seeing a monkey in a T-shirt and a boombox and two guys plucked from the San Bernardino DMV clapping. Singularity – the odder, the better – is what cuts through clutter. It makes a reference point.
And the line, “Well, we just wasted $2,000,000. What are you doing with your money?” My god. The clarity. The arrogance. The honesty of the media and the timing and the recognition that at its best, this is all one big joke. Sometimes I think about all the scenes you could put in front of it… and still… I hope I would’ve had the brilliance to pick that.
Everyone wants to get their money’s worth at the Super Bowl. Turns out all you have to do is waste it.
You can vote for E-Trade’s ‘Monkey’ as the Best Super Bowl Ad Ever here.
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