Analyzing the Data Behind One of the Best and One of the Worst Super Bowl Ads

Democracy dies in darkness

Let’s start by examining the spot from The Washington Post, which ran its first-ever Super Bowl ad. It was a tribute to a free and open press, ending with their slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” The ad was among the more serious of the night and it certainly earned a lot of attention. The Washington Post was among the most discussed brands of the night, behind the NFL, which also ran its own commercial, and Bud Light, which ran 5 ads.

But what made the Washington Post ad so memorable? We looked at the affinities of the Super Bowl audience compared to a general Twitter audience to answer this question. Media channels are a top area of interest. MSNBC, Politico, Univision, and Fox News all rank higher in audience interest than the NFL.

This created the perfect situation for the Washington Post: an enormous audience that is interested in their industry, and an ad from an organization that you typically wouldn’t see during the Super Bowl.

And the cherry on top was how politically silent the rest of the Super Bowl was. We’ve seen it time and time again, with brands like Nike, Gillette, and Patagonia. Consumers respond well when they send a strong message on a current issue.

A super miss

On the other side of the coin, Burger King’s Andy Warhol ad missed the mark. The ad portrayed documentary video footage of Andy Warhol eating a Whopper. It was one of the very few whose negative conversation surpassed the positive conversation. While it wasn’t received as poorly as TurboTax or Mint Mobile (TurboTax’s robochild was described as “creepy” and Mint Mobile’s “chunky milk” was the catalyst for disgust), Burger King had far more mentions, attracting almost 13,000 posts during the Super Bowl, compared to TurboTax’s 1,600 and Mint Mobile’s 1,500 posts.

A sample tweet invoked powerful emotions that represented the general reaction to the ad.

Burger King was attempting to capture imaginations with a nostalgic video of a cultural icon. It seemed like a homerun (or a touchdown!). But borrowing a deceased celebrity for an ad is risky business. For example, Prince’s projection at last year’s halftime show didn’t go over well. This year’s Burger King ad had a similar reaction: posts mentioning Burger King and Andy Warhol elicited primarily negative emotions.