While hundreds of millions of people probably watched the Super Bowl this year, it’s unclear exactly how often viewers changed channels — but there was one commercial that everyone thought they had.
Streaming service Tubi aired a commercial on Super Bowl LVII that looked like the Fox broadcast, complete with commentators Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen welcoming viewers to the game.
Then the screen turned into a streaming interface – in this case the free streamer Tubi. It clicked through a few options and then chose the 2005 comedy Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
“No, you weren’t on the remote. But on Super Bowl Sunday, we fooled the audience into thinking they were,” the company wrote in the commercial’s description on YouTube.
Tubi’s spot won the Super Bowl’s day-after award for best commercial, called the Super Clio award, according to the TODAY show.
Tubi is free streaming service with advertising founded in 2014 by Farhad Massoudi who was looking for a way to introduce himself to the world in the midst of stiff competition and a year where the industry’s subscriber numbers were falling and prices were rising.
Netflix, a longtime proponent of its subscription model, created a cheaper, ad-supported layer. Some streamers like Hulufor example, increased prices in 2022. Peer Disney + does shedding subscribers.
A 30-second spot in the Super Bowl reportedly starts at $7 million. The company took the opportunity, it said, to show off its style.
“The Tubi team came to us with a mission unique to the streaming industry: Reveal Tubi to the world, personality first,” said Greg Hahn, co-founder and chief creative officer at Mischief, an advertising agency contracted by Tubi for the projects. , per The Hollywood Reporter.
“These spots reveal a personality we’ve had a lot of fun creating over the past few months: quirky, playful and a little unexpected. Tubi is about to become the troublemaker of the streaming world,” he added.
But the ad puzzled the internet, generating who knows how many impressions online (despite Rihanna’s pregnant announcement breaking Twitter short).
Twitter had a field day with the ad:
That Tubi commercial came on and I yelled at everyone in this room.
— Joe Santagato (@JoeSantagato) February 13, 2023
That Tubi commercial made me look at my dad like that pic.twitter.com/9XAnZuqBXR
— RB (@rbhockey6) February 13, 202
Bruh that tubi super bowl commercial got these people tripping??? pic.twitter.com/I6uUHBoj1t
— Shannonnn sharpens Burner (PARODY account) (@shannonsharpeee) February 13, 2023
“Get off the remote!” joked a video.
