Who did the Super Bowl Better, Ohio Northern or Tide?

Every time it is Super Bowl season, you will here at least one person say that they are watching the game only for the commercials. In the past few years the game has become a way for companies to reach millions of viewers with attention grabbing ads to promote their products. It has also become a tradition in recent years that the commercials be comedic in manner. The commercials have become the focal point of the game for all of those who do not support either of the teams playing during the game. With this in mind, two of the commercials that stood out most (in the Ada broadcasting area) were the ones released by Tide and Ohio Northern University.

The ad that was released by Ohio Northern University during the Super Bowl aired only on the local cable networks. The ad showcased the multiple programs that are available at the university. The ad consists of several video clips showcasing the university athletics, extracurricular activities and different majors all to the beat of upbeat music.

Ohio Northern University Mascot

 The ad effectively advertises the scope of the programs and activities that are available at the university. The overall message of the university is also communicated through the use of limited subtitles as well as filmed interactions between students. The ad is very bright, colorful and attention grabbing, however, it was not the usual comedic ad that airs during the Super Bowl. This ad was meant to be a serious and accurate representation of life on Ohio Northern’s campus in order to draw attention to the university. However, this commercial that was aired at Super Bowl 52 was the same ad that had aired the previous year at Super Bowl 51. The airing of this ad for the second year straight was not the initial plan for the Super Bowl in 2018. There was a second ad that had been made for release during the game in 2018, however, it never made it on the air. Although the message of the university was effectively communicated over the air to thousands of viewers, it begs the question of why the other ad didn’t seem to make the cut.  On the complete other side of the spectrum, there was the series of commercials released by Tide.

The Tide laundry detergent company released a series of commercials during the game that more closely followed the mold that was set by others in recent years. The commercial series consisted of comedic takes on commercials that had been released by other companies.

2018 Tide Super Bowl Commercial

This conforms more to the “funny” Super Bowl ads that people who don’t root for either team tune in to see. The comedy behind the Tide commercial series was so influential that CBS Sports placed it on its list of the best Super Bowl commercials. In fact, it was ranked higher on the list than the reining top company for funny commercials (the Doritos snack line). This is mainly thanks to the multiple commercials that were released for the detergent company, as well as the comedic “attacks” on other ad campaigns. These humorous recreations were ranged from a spoof of and Old Spice ad to one for Mr. Clean cleaning products, all with the catch phrase “Nope, it’s a Tide ad!” to top off the joke. It is with this line of jokes that Tide most definitely had the most entertaining commercial of the Super Bowl, but Ohio Northern was definitely not a lackluster ad either.