9 February, 2016

Ultrasound Super Bowl Ad Wins On Social, Creator Is “Stoked” Despite Competition Loss

By Emma Mackenzie

Aussie-made ad Ultrasound which was streamed at the Super Bowl in California yesterday has taken an easy first place when it comes to social sharing of the Super Bowl ads.

The ad was one of three finalists for Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl competition, and while it didn’t win the million dollar prize package, it ended up being shared around social media 893,465 times, according to video ad tech company Unruly.

While it’s unclear whether the social sharing was a result of love for the ad or the furore it generated on social media, the total number of shares was way, way ahead than any other ad.

Peter Carstairs, the director behind the spot, said he was “fucking stoked” at how far the Ultrasound ad had come.

Speaking to B&T from San Francisco, where he attended the Super Bowl he said: “Yes, we didn’t win this contest, but our plan was to try and get streams more than anything and we did that.

“It’s awesome. We’re still thrilled even though we didn’t win.”

Carstairs also stressed that while he’s getting a lot of recognition as the director, there were multiple others in the team he couldn’t have done it without. He noted Heath Collins and Liam Jenkins, a creative duo from ad agency Cummins&Partners were integral in the idea process, and Helene Nicol from production house Mr Smith – where Carstairs works – was also crucial.

While many laughed at the ad, such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, not everyone was happy with it. Some claimed the ad was making light of premature babies, others said it was anti-abortion.

#NotBuyingIt – that @Doritos ad using #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses & sexist tropes of dads as clueless & moms as uptight. #SB50

— NARAL (@NARAL) February 8, 2016

Cool Doritos abortion ad.

— Tim Siedell (@badbanana) February 7, 2016

That Doritos ad was chilling.

— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) February 7, 2016

So about the #SuperBowl commercials…the @Doritos ultrasound one was disturbing. What the hell happened to the fetus?

— Carol Costello (@CarolCNN) February 8, 2016

Note to self. Don’t bring Doritos into ultra sound unless you want Chucky as son #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/EHlmjw6rPF

— Orlando Jones (@TheOrlandoJones) February 8, 2016

Some loved it though.

That Doritos baby ultrasound commercial could win best commercial of #SB50.

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) February 7, 2016

My favorite SuperBowl commercial was definitely the Doritos one with the ultrasound.

— Kevin Skaff (@Kevineffinskaff) February 8, 2016

Favorite commercial so far? Mine and our boys’ was the Doritos ultrasound. #SuperBowl50

— Natalie Morales (@NMoralesNBC) February 8, 2016

Carstairs said he and the team weren’t taking the comments to heart and urged people to put it into context.

“It’s been seen by over 200 million people now and from what we can tell, 99 per cent of those really loved it and laughed and thought it was hilarious,” he said. “Those comments have been really refined to a couple of groups.”

Despite generating a mammoth number of shares on social media, Unruly noted that total social sharing for this year’s Super Bowl ads – which can cost up to $US5 million a pop – has seen a significant decrease.

The top ten most shared ads this year generated roughly 2.889 million shares online, whereas the 2015 Super Bowl top ten ads were shared around 4.485 million times. This is a 36 per cent decrease.

Nevertheless, the Super Bowl was watched by millions of people – CNN Money reports the live-viewing figure was at 111.9 million viewers, the third highest in the game’s history – and had a record number of people live-streaming the game on internet devices – technology site Re/code said the total was 315 million minutes of game streaming from all watchers and an average 1.4 million streamed the game per minute.

And when it comes to social media, Unruly has the top ten most shared ads below.

1. Doritos – ‘Ultrasound’

Agency: Peter Carstairs

Total shares: 893,465

2. T-Mobile -Restricted Bling (extended version)

Agency: Publicis Seattle

Total Shares: 346,854

3. Budweiser #Give a Damn

Agency: Anomaly

Total shares: 301,317

4. Pokemon -“#Pokemon20: Pokémon Super Bowl Commercial”

Agency: Omelet

Total shares: 297,706

5. Heinz -Wiener Stampede (extended version)

Agency: DAVID Miami

Total shares: 295,805

6. Hyundai -First Date

Agency: Innocean Worldwide

Total shares: 245,656

7. Mountain Dew -#PuppyMonkeyBaby

Agency: BBDO

Total shares: 158,481

8. T-Mobile – Restricted Bling (30 Sec)

Agency: Publicis Seattle

Total shares – 124,551

9. T-Mobile – “Drop the Balls”

Agency: Publicis Seattle

Total shares – 113,668

10. Heinz -Wiener Stampede 30 sec

Agency: DAVID Miami

Total shares 111,643

Credits for the team behind the Ultrasound ad:

Director: Peter Carstairs

Producer: Helene Nicol

Writers: Heath Collins and Liam Jenkins

Cinematographer: Earle Dresner

Production Designer: Ben Bangay

Editor: Billy Brown

Animation Producer: Steven Kerswell

Sound: Sam Hopgood

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