AVON-- As Super Bowl 50 approaches it is, of course, the Super Bowl in the advertising world as well.
The advertising executives at Avon-based Adams & Knight are already playing Monday morning quarterback since many of the Super Sunday spots have been released on-line.
"This is $5 million for 30 seconds," said Pat Dugan, a creative director at Adams & Knight. Dugan says the staples of the Super Bowl spots remain the same. "We're seeing dogs, a lot of animals, and a lot of celebrities."
Because $5 million is an all-time high for a Super Bowl ad spot, Dugan says there is much more involved in making that sort of investment.
"It's not enough to be on the Super Bowl, you have to maximize that, spend on social media and being online," he explained.
While the companies often will go for the big laughs in their commercials, Dugan said he is looking forward to the ads that strike a nerve. "It's not always the funny one, its the ones that hit you in the gut and deliver emotion."
Dugan said some of his early favorites included a T-Mobile commercial featuring hip-hop artist Drake, and a new Snickers spot where actor Willem Dafoe turns back to Marilyn Monroe. "There are winners and losers in this that are just as big as on the field," he said.
But he didn't discount the power of a good laugh either. Some early highlights in the comedy category include ads from Budweiser, Apartments.com and Mountain Dew, which is making waves with an ad for its Kickstart drink. The ad combines the three ingredients that conventional wisdom says helps win the Super Bowl of ads: puppies, monkeys and babies. The bizarre blend--a strange looking creature called the PuppyMonkeyBaby--is sure to have people talking at the water cooler Monday morning.
Here are just some of the ads you can expect to see:
