4 Ads. 1 Super Bowl. How Goodby Silverstein & Partners Juggled It All

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Public opinion aside, Super Bowl ads are huge business, and Goodby and Silverstein have seen how the ad game has changed. It’s almost charming to think that they called out the absurdity of spending $2 million on one ad in one of the agency’s most well-loved Super Bowl spots, E*Trade’s monkey in 2000.

This year, the agency has four PepsiCo ads (Pepsi, Doritos, Cheetos and SodaStream) in the game, and the agency is putting it all into humor. Johnson notes that brands and agencies can be successful when they don’t try to play it right down the middle.

“I think the things that generally play well are either really funny or they strike a chord by being sentimental and heartfelt,” she said. “As an agency, we put all of our chips on one side or the other. Humor always plays really well. We had a ton of success with Doritos for a decade doing Crash the Super Bowl. So we know that humor is something that really resonates with people.”

Indeed, the series of ads this year lean into humor and have big-time star power. Sam Elliott and Lil Nas X have a dance-off at the “coolest ranch” (to promote Doritos’ Cool Ranch), Missy Elliott and H.E.R. have immense energy for Pepsi, MC Hammer makes a hilarious appearance for Cheetos and Bill Nye makes a cameo for SodaStream.