Tag: super bowl

Toyota joins forces with Muppets for Super Bowl commercial

toyota super bowl commercial

This year Toyota has decided to join forces with Jim Henson's legendary Muppets for the big game tomorrow or (February 2nd,  2014).  Toyota is airing their Super Bowl commercial on TV for the all-new 2014 Toyota Highlander. The Super Bowl spot will feature the Muppets and the actor Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Idiocracy).

Toyota Highlander – Joyride

About a week ago Toyota released this teaser trailer for the Toyota Highlander Super Bowl commercial.

The Muppets will be coming out with a movie in March, 2014 “Muppets Most Wanted” so Disney and Toyota seemed to feel this was a good cross promotion for both brands.  What did you think of this Toyota Super Bowl Commercial?  Was it awesome, good, bad or terrible?  Let me know your thoughts about it.

 

Kia does Slick “Matrix” themed Super Bowl commercial with Laurence Fishburne

Article originally published on CarNewsCafe

Kia has decided to go with a “Matrix” themed Super Bowl commercial this year for the new luxury sedan that will be hitting streets soon, the Kia K900.  (Yeah, I know somebody should have come up with a better name.)   Laurence Fishburne reprises his role as Morpheus from The Matrix trilogy.

The 60-second The Truth TV spot is scheduled to air during the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl.  Kia will follow the K900 advertising with online, print, broadcast campaigns too since who wants to spend all that money for just 60 seconds, right?  For all that money Kia wants you to know the K900 is modern, elegant, and luxurious.  Something you wouldn't expect from a Kia I imagine.

The Truth

The Kia Super Bowl spot starts off with an couple unsuspecting couple going up to a valet at fancy restaurant.  Morpheus, the valet, offers an interesting choice,  “Take the blue key, you go back to the luxury you know.  Take the red key, and you’ll never look at luxury the same again.”  A similar option Morpheus gives Neo in The Matrix, except the choice was pills.nes

Obviously the couple chooses the red key and Morpheus accompanies the couple on a ride in the Kia K900, luxury they would not have expected.  The Super Bowl spot is supposed to explain “what luxury looks like.”  More importantly is “what luxury sounds like” since Morpheus serenades the couple to “Nessun dorma” except the voice is Pavoritti.  Unsure if Laurence Fishburne can sing or if he has a good voice.  In case you didn't know the aria Nessun Dorma is from the opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini.

As the Kia K900 drives by, two identical agents lookout at the car from a restaurant and see streetlights explode and high-rise buildings ripple like water.

It should be noted that the video here is a 90-second extended cut of the Kia K900 Super Bowl commercial that will be airing.  It shows a woman in a red dress holding a spoon being bent but that won't be in the version that airs on TV.

With new 2015 Kia K900 V8 should go on sale sometime in the Spring.  From what we've seen it has an impressive list of standard equipment and is not a badly designed car.  It will be interesting to see what this Matrix commercial does for the K900 and if Morpheus aka Laurence Fishburne will help sell Kias.

What are your thoughts about the Kia Super Bowl commercial utilizing The Matrix as a theme?  Let us know below.

British Villians make Jaguar’s Super Bowl commercial Awesome

Jaguar has unveiled their Super Bowl commercial which is a 60-second spot titled “Rendezvous.”  Three famous British actors appear in Rendezvous which includes Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), Tom Hiddleston (Thor) and Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes) as British Villains.  The Super Bowl commercial was filmed by Oscar-winning British director Tom Hooper who is best known for The Kings Speech.  (A movie I'd highly recommend seeing if you haven't.)

The idea behind “British Villains” is to highlight why Brits have long made great villains in movies throughout the years.  Rendezvous opens with Sir Ben Kingsley asking the question, “Have you ever noticed how in Hollywood movies, all the villains are played by Brits?”

The spot then shows Mark Strong arriving in an airplane and he gets out to take the keys from a pretty British women.  Strong then drives the new Jaguar F-TYPE coupe effortlessly through London to meet-up with fellow British villains, Ben Kingsley and Tom Hiddleston, who arrives via helicopter.  Through the TV spot they explain what makes Brits so good at being evil and why it's Good to Be Bad.”

Mark Strong is best known for playing villains in his roles which includes Sherlock Holmes.  While Ben Kingsley has played lots of dramatic roles through the years he has also played a villain in Price of Persia: The Sands of Time movie.  Tom Hiddleston is best known for playing Loki in the Thor movies.

“We are sharing the 60- second spot online this week as interest rises, but really look forward to presenting the F-TYPE coupe and our British villains in action to the viewers in high definition during the game.” said Jeff Curry, Brand Vice President, Jaguar North America.  Jaguar hopes to capitalize on social media and utilize real time advertising with this Super Bowl commercial this Sunday.

While I don't have a problem with British actor or villains, who is the real stare of the Jaguar commercial?  The new Jaguar F-TYPE.  It's just a gorgeous car.

Andrew Judah wrote awesome Lincoln MKZ commercial song

I got an interesting comment asking me what the the Lincoln MKZ commercial song was on my post about the Lincoln “Phoenix” Super Bowl commercial.  Here is the comment/question from Rob;

Does anyone know the name of the music or is there anywhere I could find a complete instrumental version? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I honestly had no idea what the Lincoln MKZ commercial song was called or who wrote it.  I checked the Youtube description but did not see anything music, song, or band credits.  I then did some Googling but came up empty.

I thought it would be fun to check around and see if I could find out for Rob who wrote the music to the Lincoln MKZ commercial as it is pretty sweet.  Besides anyone who comments on my auto blog or Singing Dogs blog gets special attention and treatment since I always appreciate comments.  Well, at least nice and thoughtful comments (you would be surprised how many haters are out there.)

I emailed a Lincoln press contact to try to see if they could provide we with any answers about the Lincoln MKZ commercial song.  In the reply I was informed that song does not have a name but was composed by Black Iris Music.

I left a comment to let Rob know as I thought this was a pretty good answer.  To my surprise he replied back to my comment saying that that the music for the Lincoln MKZ commercial was composed and written by Andrew Judah, who is a Canadian singer/songwriter.  To confirm this I checked his Facebook page and Twitter feed.  I saw in Andrew Judah's Twitter feed he had sent out this Tweet.

I assume Andrew works for Black Iris Music and gets gigs to compose music for commercials through the company, such as the Lincoln MKZ commercial.  (Of course I really have no idea.)

On his Youtube channel Andrew Judah has a “Ads I've scored” list showing all the ads he has written music for.  I guess that is a good way to make a living as musician, but something not many people think about, like myself.  Hey maybe Cody, Sierra, and I could compose some original songs for the next Lincoln commercial or another TV commercial! 🙂

Anyway I am glad that I found out the answer to this question.  Thanks to Rob for leaving the comment informing me.

If you like the Lincoln MKZ commercial song and and are interested in hearing more music from Andrew, you can checkout his website; http://andrewjudah.com/

Audi Let’s You Choose Super Bowl Commercial, Did It Work?

Audi took a bit of gamble this year.  They wanted YOU to choose what the Super Bowl commercial they were going to air would be.  Well not the entire commercial just what the ending would be.  Along with Lincoln's commercial for it's Lincoln MKZ both automakers took bold moves in letting audiences choose what they wanted to see.

This is the “Prom” Super Bowl commercial that was aired.

While I found this Super Bowl commercial enjoyable, the story fun, and filming and images of the Audi commercial were well done I was bit confused.  Does this mean that eventually all the guys who didn't ‘get the girl' in high school buy Audis? I don't know!

Audi's Super Bowl commercial reminded me of that Latin phrase “Fortune Favors the Bold” which seems to be what Audi was trying to convey.  

Here is the description for the video;

A slightly insecure teenager is unhappy about going to the Senior Prom without a date. But when Dad lets him borrow the new Audi S6 for the night, he gains more and more confidence with every mile, arriving at the Prom a changed young man. You’ll have to watch this Super Bowl spot to see if his newly found bravery pays off.

Let me know what you think!

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