By Lisa Lacy.
In a particularly celebrity-heavy Super Bowl, Budweiser, perhaps the most powerful advertiser in the game’s history, opted to use 70-year-old Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren in one of its highly anticipated spots, Simply Put. Beyond just coming from Budweiser, which in and of itself commands attention on Super Bowl Sunday, the ad was also noteworthy for its message and delivery.
Super Bowl ads typically don’t feature women front and center without skin and innuendo. And we don’t usually hear brands discouraging us from consuming their products. Optimists could say this is a genuine attempt on Budweiser’s behalf to tackle a social ill. Pessimists, on the other hand, might say it’s simply a ploy to cut through noise on a particularly loud night. Then again, it could be a bit of both.
The King Of Beers And The Queen
According to the brand, Budweiser chose Mirren to talk about drunk driving because she “provides an unmatched level of gravitas” and, per a rep, “She has stopping power and the rare ability to chide you and charm you at the same time. This campaign is about addressing drunk driving differently than anyone has before, and she delivers our message in a direct, unorthodox way that will capture people’s attention and start conversations.”
Triumph & Failure By The Numbers
There’s certainly no shortage of Super Bowl ad analysis to determine whether this was the case. The spot itself has a respectable 5.3 million views on YouTube, but, as noted, Budweiser’s Super Bowl spots are no ordinary ads, which means 5.3 million is still well shy of figures the brand is accustomed to seeing for its Super Bowl content. To wit: Budweiser came into Super Bowl 50 as the reigning back-to-back-to-back champ of USA Today’s Ad Meter, a poll in which consumers rate Super Bowl ads and which is widely considered the de facto measure of success. And, per ad tech firm Visible Measures, Budweiser’s 2015 Ad Meter winner, Lost Dog, has what it calls a True Reach viewership of 70.3 million. True Reach includes views of an original video upload and related user-uploaded content on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, DailyMotion, College Humor, AOL and “hundreds of other properties,” a rep says. Further, Visible Measures says Budweiser’s 2014 Ad Meter winner, Puppy Love, has a True Reach of 66.6 million views and the 2013 winner, Brotherhood, has 30.3 million.
The True Reach for Simply Put: Also 30.3 million. But it’s worth noting True Reach includes total views to date from the time a video debuts, so Brotherhood has a three-year headstart. And while Budweiser had to hand its Ad Meter crown to Hyundai this year, Mirren still gave Budweiser its top-ranked 2016 spot, coming in at #9. (Budweiser’s other entry, Not Backing Down, was #28.) Then again, there’s analytics firm comScore’s analysis of second-by-second TV viewing on Super Bowl Sunday, which found Budweiser’s Mirren spot was the clear leader. It’s also worth noting that for each use of the hashtag #GiveADamn through midnight on February 7, Budweiser said it would spend $1 on safe ride home programs up to $1 million. (It also launched StandWithBud.com, which provides transportation options based on location, to “encourage fans to find safe rides home.”) The hashtag also automatically triggered in-tweet emojis that Budweiser said would “facilitate additional shares of the campaign message.” 
And, per hashtag tracker Hashtracking, #GiveADamn has been used in public tweets nearly 42,000 times since midnight on February 6.
Did It Make Any Damn Impact?
So while perhaps not as successful as some of its other recent Super Bowl spots, it’s hard to pan Simply Put as an abject failure. At the same time, there’s some hesitation to call Simply Put a runaway success. Heinz’s performance with Wiener Stampede could indicate America wanted puppies and Budweiser’s pivot to Mirren was a strategic error. But is there more to it than that?
Go Home, Budweiser, You’re Drunk
Rebecca Brooks, a founder of Alter Agents Market Research, said the ad is a disconnect in part because Mirren is not a figure the typical Budweiser customer would respond to. While acknowledging another figure would dramatically change the tone of the ad, Brooks said a beloved football legend like Troy Aikman, Howie Long, John Elway, or Jerry Rice – figures the target audience would have identified with more easily — would have been more powerful. Further, Brooks noted that while the ad has an element of humor, it covers a serious topic many Super Bowl partygoers won’t want to listen to. “It can easily be argued that the Super Bowl is the perfect time to remind people not to drink and drive, but I’m unsure the audience is going to be receptive,” Brooks added. Erik Hernandez, a creative director and partner at advertising agency Tilted Chair Creative, is more blunt. “ ‘Who is this old lady eating a burger in an empty five-star restaurant?’ That is what everyone will be thinking or saying to the person next to them as they watch the anti-drunk-driving spot for Budweiser at the Super Bowl,” Hernandez said, likening it to “the guy who shows up in padded spandex shorts to a biker bar.” And, per Jessica Thiele, marketing manager of data integration services provider Virtual Logistics, Simply Put is Budweiser’s “lame attempt at appearing socially responsible while investing the least amount of honest, socially responsible effort possible.” The result, she said, is an ad that comes off as vain, shallow and preachy.
Cheers, Budweiser
But not everyone agrees the spot itself or its casting choice was a mistake. In fact, other marketers say the bold move paid off and could reflect a shift in depictions of women in advertising overall. First, there’s Mirren’s age, which is more than twice that of Budweiser’s typical campaign target of 21- to 34-year-olds. Alex Fuller, creative director at creative agency Struck, said it was brave for Budweiser to openly acknowledge drunk driving, but also to cast Mirren and thereby “to soundly confront the classic myth of the crone.” At the other end of the archetype spectrum are traditional Super Bowl ingénues like Bar Refaeli, Kate Upton, and Charlotte McKinney. “Whether they appear in ancient Norse myths or modern-day beer commercials, this archetype is usually good-natured and appealing, if often submissive, safe and one-dimensional,” Fuller said. “The archetypal character of the crone is much more complex. She is often portrayed as a witch or sinister in manner – some of the negative comments on Budweiser’s YouTube channel call Mirren a “hag,” an “ugly old nag” [and worse]. But equally, the crone figure is a wise woman who represents knowledge, freedom, and personal power.” Per Fuller, this means Mirren is self-aware and confident enough to tell the audience to, “Stop it,” in a way that shames us “and yet, unlike the classic crones of myth, she retains a modern beauty and even sexuality, which she wears with the nonchalance of a football jersey.” Kate Canada Obregon, chief strategy officer of creative agency Oishii Creative, agreed Mirren is perfectly cast. “She’s talented and savvy enough to know she may not be the Super Bowl target audiences’ ideal woman,” Obregon said. “She’s playing to our expectations about what kind of women should star in an ad, and what we can expect women to say and do in ads.” That, in turn, demands attention because it outsmarts expectations about gender, and yet it still doesn’t moralize. It also deftly crafts public awareness using the tropes of humor and gender and carves out a space for once ho-hum public-service-type ads, she added. “I would love to say that this ad could also have been delivered by a buxomy young actress, but would we then have questioned Budweiser’s intentions?” asks Aurelie Guerrieri, co-president of Women in Wireless, a nonprofit that said it “empowers and develops female leaders in mobile and digital media.” “Mirren grants the message credibility based on a whole career of achievements.” Further, Daniela Cuevas, creative director at digital and social agency The Spark Group, said Mirren was the right pick in part because she’s a classy lady — and a Dame at that — who we don’t necessarily expect to drink beer. “If this were a younger actress, we wouldn’t probably give it this much attention, but because it’s someone we don’t expect to have a beer, it makes the message much more effective,” she added. “We’re so used to ads during the Super Bowl slapping a famous young face on the screen, but seeing Mirren deliver such a clear message from a seasoned, older-and-wiser persona definitely caught consumers’ attention effectively.”
‘A Notoriously Frank & Uncensored British Lady’
Then, of course, there’s her otherness. Cuevas said the choice of a British actress means the spot has an air of authority that makes American consumers “automatically stop and listen to what she’s saying.” While her accent alone elevates the message, her persona also exudes authority, Cuevas said. “There’s no joking around with this woman,” Cuevas said. “Budweiser made this ad to get to the point, plain and simple, and they chose someone unexpected to get your attention unabashedly.” Obregon agreed. “The spot starts with her sitting ramrod straight with a beer, burger and fries, and a whimsical monarchical smile across her lips. As the camera moves in and with a slight tilt of her head, she suggests a coming moment, but we’re not sure what that will be. Is she going to lecture us in full British class flourish? Are we about to be barbed by the likes of a Downton dowager?” Obregon said. “But wait. In an instant, Mirren’s shoulders gently drop and the mood lightens. She’s less a stereotype and then seizes the moment to embark on a Monty-Python-esque spew fest, delivering insults, name calling and well-crafted put-downs.” At the end, the audience is “rapt with the banter and she’s no longer a Dame or a woman, but a smart person calling us out to be better humans,” she added. Then again, while Thiele agreed a British actress has an air of authority over viewers in North America, which romanticizes her accent, Thiele’s take is that this further cements Mirren’s position as a nagging mother-like figure, contributing to the spot’s aforementioned preachiness. “Yet she was clearly Americanized in the ad, sitting in a booth eating a burger and fries. It’s a strange juxtaposition,” Thiele added. However, Emily McInerney, also a co-president of Women in Wireless, said the location and props helped Budweiser stay true to is brand while delivering a tricky message in an impactful way.
A Dark Horse (Clydesdale?)
Ryan Berman, chief creative officer of advertising firm the i.d.e.a. Brand, noted that a confident woman taking center stage solo in a beer commercial is a new concept and gives Budweiser credit for its less-is-more route that is “a simple, slow zoom that hammers home a meaningful message you can’t really disagree with.” His opinion? There’s another victor here entirely. “If you ask me who I think the undeniable winner is with this commercial, it’s Uber,” he said. “I can’t help but imagine Uber CEO Travis Kalanick smiling while watching this.”
