Sit back, and let me tell you a tale that would make oil and water jealous.
It happened in 2016 on a Super Bowl Sunday. The big game had already become a memorable event well before kickoff, with a trivia question arising after the NFL think tank nixed the typical Roman numerals for the number “50”, thus avoiding the Super Bowl L jokes (that happened anyway).
The matchup pitted the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. Peyton Manning vs. Cam Newton.
The location was San Francisco’s Levi’s Stadium.
Lady Gaga had the mic for the National Anthem, and Coldplay covered the halftime duties, along with Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson and Beyonce.
It was CBS’ turn in the broadcast booth, a pre-Tony Romo set headed by Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.
The pregame hoopla gave way to the kickoff…
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When the clock ticked to zero in the fourth quarter, the Broncos would be champs, winners of a game with the third-largest viewing audience in Super Bowl history: 111.9 million.
And, of course, you could say many of those millions were simply tuning in to see the commercials.
This is where my tale really takes place.
The 2016 Super Bowl commercial lineup wasn’t an all-time great in the overall pop-cultural vault, but it did have its moments—from a Weiner Dog stampede to Christopher Walken and his “Walken Closet.”
History was made as Hyundai took the top spot in the USA TODAY Ad Meter ratings—out of the 63 ads in the national block—becoming the first car brand to earn that distinction.
The cost for a 30-second commercial that year? Upwards of $5 million.
But most of that is forgotten at this point: The game, who sang the National Anthem, who flipped the coin, the halftime show, and even the Ad Meter champion.
What’s not forgotten?
Puppy Monkey Baby.
That’s what.
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The mashup of epic sidewinding creativity from Mountain Dew came to life during the commercial break in 2016 and left a vast array of emotions among the audience, ones typically reserved for movie trailers or wardrobe malfunctions.
Agency BBDO was behind the ad, with Don Marshall Wilhelmi serving as creative director and copywriter.
He reflected on the spot in MEL Magazine, saying, “It’s probably the biggest TV investment that they can make because it’s one of the few times during the year where people pay attention to ads. So when a brand chooses to do one, what they’re looking for is to get attention — they want to get talked about.
“That being said, there’s kind of this running gag in the ad world that, in Super Bowl spots, the most popular ads have cute puppies, babies doing something silly, or there’s a monkey, as there were a few years in a row where monkeys were in everything.”
And thus, an unlikely star was born.
The commercial was by no means a hit in the Ad Meter ratings, mind you, landing 55th overall with a sub-4 rating (out of 10).
But just as not all heroes wear capes, not all successful commercials end the night cloaked in greatness.
That can take time, especially when it’s a mix of things that shouldn’t be mixed.
And now? Well, during every Super Bowl commercial rush, there is a whisper that steadily grows into a conversational roar…
A BARK-CRY-OOH-OHH-AHH-AHH: