“If I worked in an ad agency and someone told me I'd be working on a Super Bowl spot, I'd be thrilled,” Ad Age’s ad reviewer wrote of this spot in 2012. “If they then told me I'd be working on a spot for a real-estate company, I'd wander off into the night, weeping gently, never to be seen again.”
But given the assignment and an economy that still didn’t quite encourage home-buying, our review concluded, Philadelphia’s Red Tettemer & Partners rose to the challenge.
The result features a Century 21 agent out-dealing future president Donald Trump, being bolder than Deion Sanders and out-skating Apollo Ohno. It was the first time Century 21 bought a Super Bowl ad, but the brand would be back for Super Bowl XLVII (“Wedding”).
Nearly five years later, some predicted that the first presidential debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton would pull in a Super Bowl-sized audience of 100 million viewers. But Super Bowl XLVI would remain Trump's biggest ratings vehicle. It averaged 111.3 million viewers, while the face-off with Clinton averaged 84 million. Then again, Trump only had a few seconds of airtime in the 2013 game, compared to nearly every moment of the 99-minute debate, thanks to a relentless split-screen presentation that kept both candidates in sight at almost all times. And Trump hardly lacked in media exposure in the long run. His inauguration as the 45th president of the United States averaged 30.6 million viewers in January 2017, only one of many mega-TV events that he drove.
Director: Joe Schaak. Production company: Beef Films. Director of photography: Doug Koch.
Chief creative officer: Steve Red. Executive creative director: Steve O'Connell. Creative directors: Bryon Lomas, Todd Taylor. Copywriter: Mark Garman. Producer: Joe Mosca. Executive producer: John Malina. Production supervisor: Breigh Kenley.
Editorial: Red Alert. Editor: Vic Carreno.
BRAND: Century 21
YEAR: 2012
AGENCY: Red Tettemer & Partners
SUPERBOWL: XLVI
QUARTER AIRED: Q3