See Hellmann's Super Bowl ad with Pete Davidson, Jon Hamm and Brie Larson
You won't miss which brand this Unilever spot is for as the mayo jar looms large
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Hellmann’s gave away the joke in the teaser of its Super Bowl ad—that the brand had enlisted Jon Hamm and Brie Larson to go with its mayonnaise. A new celebrity surprise comes in whose refrigerator Hamm and Brie turn up in—Pete Davidson's.
In the brand's in-game commercial, revealed today, affable comedian and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Davidson opens the fridge door to find miniaturized versions of the actors circling a Hellmann’s jar. Hamm makes a bit of an industry inside joke reference to Davidson's growing ad and pop culture ubiquity after saying: “He really is everywhere.”
The ad, from WPP’s Wunderman Thompson and directed by Martin Granger via Moxie, marks Davidson's return appearance for Unilever's Hellmann's brand. (West of the Rockies, Best Foods mayo will be shown, under the media buy via Mindshare that serves different versions of the commercial in different regions during the second quarter of the Fox broadcast on Feb. 12.)
Davidson appeared in last year’s spot as a victim of Jerod Mayo, who became the updated version of Terry Tate, “Office Linebacker,” punishing those who let their food go to waste. “I’m very hittable,” Davidson said in the 2022 commercial, a not-so-veiled reference to having been targeted by a threat in a Kanye West song over their mutual interest in West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian.
This year, Davidson expresses his desire to eat his co-stars in the fridge, which, while it definitely sounds weird at first, gets less so as Hamm, Larson and Davidson talk things over in right-sized form over a nicely food-styled ham, brie and mayo panini.
Arguably, the hero of this year’s “Make Taste. Not Waste” spot is the Hellman’s jar, which towers above Hamm and Larson in the fridge. In a deluge of new creative that often makes it hard for people to remember what brand backed any given Super Bowl commercial, it will be hard to forget this one belongs to Hellmann’s.
“There is nothing more iconic than the Hellmann’s jar in the fridge,” said Benjamin Crook, VP-general manager of dressings and condiments in North America for Unilever. “The contextual relevance of big jar, small people I think is also a really important, fun creative device. Then layer in obviously the food names that two of our celebrities have.”
“I think we put ourselves against a wall there, because I’m not sure we’re ever going to have another spot for them that has as much branding,” said Susan Golkin, executive creative director at Wunderman Thompson. “We did not have one conversation about was there enough branding, I think for the first time in my career.”
The idea of finding celebrities with food names and putting them in the refrigerator in front of a hungry Davidson also works naturally into the brand purpose behind the spot, which is all about reducing food waste. While Unilever, and specifically Hellmann’s, has come under criticism in the past from some investors for focusing on purpose over purchase, the big jar in the fridge may put that to rest, too.
Both the purpose and the brand have done well with the Super Bowl, which is why it’s willing to re-up again for the most expensive buy in TV, Crook said. Estimates from iSpot.tv peg the Unilever brand’s overall spending on TV at $11 million to $14.5 million each of the past three years, and this year’s reported $7 million price tag for a 30-second spot would consume nearly half that or more.
The Super Bowl is the perfect place for Hellmann's to advertise, Crook said, because it’s at the forefront of the food waste problem in the U.S. In all, 40% of food in the U.S. is wasted, and 43% of that waste is at home, he said. The Super Bowl, with its abundance of leftovers from parties, is the biggest food waste event of the year, he said.
“What we aim to do every year is inspire over 100 million consumers to think differently about food waste,” Crook said. That includes raising awareness of the problem, and, of course, of mayonnaise as a solution ingredient for bringing leftovers to life.
The Unilever brand’s purpose is to reduce food waste by 50% in keeping with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Fridge Night app, which Hellmann’s is promoting for the second year as part of that, has demonstrated an ability to change behavior around food waste, Crook said.
“It’s a large-scale behavioral study,” he said. “We know as consumers go through the process [of using the app] they actually reduce food waste by 46% in their homes.” The app offers up flexible recipes using Hellmann’s to make meals and snacks from leftovers.
Credits
- Date
- Feb 06, 2023
- Client :
- Hellmann's
- Agency :
- Wunderman Thompson
- Global Vice President :
- Christina Bauer-Plank
- Vice President :
- Benjamin Crook
- Director :
- Christopher Symmes
- Associate Brand Manager :
- Neira Selimovic
- Senior Regional Advertising Producer :
- Arlene Fernandez
- Regional Advertising Producer :
- Minna Cedeno
- Chief Creative Officer :
- Tom Murphy
- Executive Creative Director :
- Susan Golkin
- Group Creative Director :
- Peepo David
- Creative :
- Ransom Haywood
- Creative :
- Fallon Parker
- Creative :
- Dana Stalker
- Creative Freelancer :
- Chuck Meehan
- Creative :
- Nicolas Romano
- Creative :
- Jared Kozell
- SVP Content Production :
- Angela Barber
- Executive Producer :
- Tara Leinwohl
- Senior Integrated Business Manager :
- Emily Nargi
- Global Business Director :
- Ariel Stern
- Senior Account Director :
- Sarah Mannion
- Account Supervisor :
- Samantha Kaufman
- Account Manager :
- Madison Andrews
- Executive Strategy Director :
- Daryl Giannantonio
- Group Strategy Director :
- Maddie Gupta
- Associate Strategy Director :
- Matt Confer
- Production :
- Moxie
- Director :
- Martin Granger
- VP / Executive Producer :
- Karol Zeno
- Head of Production :
- Jodi Fisher
- Producer :
- Heidi Soltesz
- DP :
- Robert Yeoman
- Production Designer :
- Ken Avril
- BTS :
- Cake Films
- BTS :
- James Hammond
- BTS :
- Joe Marine
- BTS :
- Juan Nunez
- Editorial :
- Mack Cut
- Editor :
- Ryan Steele
- Cutting Assistant :
- Devon Flint
- Editor :
- Franklin Ponce
- Executive Producer :
- Gina Pagano
- Producer :
- Dylan Anderson
- VFX :
- The Mill
- Creative Director :
- Corey Brown
- Executive Producer :
- Matthew Loranger
- Senior VFX Producer :
- Sally Wnek
- Shoot Supervisor :
- Corey Brown
- 2D Lead Artist :
- Julien Acucoutrier
- 2D Artist :
- Anton Anderson
- 2D Artist :
- Sole Martin
- 2D Artist :
- Stephen Miller
- Associate Producer :
- Cath Daly
- Associate Producer :
- Sam Ashby
- Associate Producer :
- Arvindsingh Thakur
- Production Coordinator :
- Emily Truong
- Color :
- The Mill
- Senior Colorist :
- Elodie Ichter
- Executive Producer :
- Alexandra Lubrano
- Music :
- JSM Music
- CEO/CCO :
- Joel Simon
- VP/Executive Producer :
- Jeff Fiorello
- Senior Producer :
- Andrew Manning
- Senior Producer :
- Norm Fleker
- Senior Producer :
- Sharon Cha
- Mix :
- Sonic Union
- Audio Mixer :
- Mike Marinelli
- Audio Post Producer :
- Mary Kate Valentino
- Public Relations :
- Edelman
- Media :
- Mindshare
- Celebrity Talent :
- Jon Hamm
- Celebrity Talent :
- Brie Larson
- Celebrity Talent :
- Pete Davidson
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