“Seeing Clearly” was the first Super Bowl ad for both Italian eyewear marketer Luxottica and Deutsch, the agency it tapped twelve months earlier to introduce the brand to the U.S. Unlike most Super Bowl commercials, though, it wasn’t created especially for the game. The spot had been on the air since 1996.

''It's a regular commercial, but a very good brand commercial that all of a sudden puts a Luxottica next to a Nike, a Pepsi.'' Deutsch’s then-CEO, Donny Deutsch, told The New York Times. ''We talked about inserting a celebrity like Jack Kemp, but we said, What are we doing?’” he added.

(An aside on Jack Kemp and the Super Bowl: Kemp was a former quarterback for the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills, who were defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs for the right to play in Super Bowl I. He served nine terms in Congress, was Housing Secretary under President George H.W. Bush and considered running for president in 1996, even raising as much as $1 million for his political action committee during a series of events the week before Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994. “Most of the money was contributed by a few hundred Kemp followers who paid $5,000 each for a package of nine events entitling them to a ticket to the game and the opportunity to rub shoulders with such former NFL luminaries and Kemp pals as O.J. Simpson, Johnny Unitas and Roger Staubach,” U.S. News & World Report wrote at the time. Kemp wound up joining Bob Dole’s ticket as the Republican nominee for vice president.)

Luxottica, which already owned LensCrafters at the time of its Super Bowl debut, later acquired Oakley, Ray-Ban and Sunglass Hut.

BRAND: Luxottica

YEAR: 1997

AGENCY: Deutsch

SUPERBOWL: XXXI

QUARTER AIRED: Q3