Intuit's TurboTax continued its recent campaign with a spot, the first tax-prep Super Bowl ad since TaxAct.com's "Free to Pee" in 2012, that spoke directly to the millions of football fans who liked neither of the 2014 teams, the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. It's funny, and it's relevant to football in general and the Super Bowl in particular. It even attempts to make the ad relevant to tax preparation. It says the Super Bowl might not be holiday for you, the hater of that year's teams, the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. But thanks to TurboTax -- and, presumably in this scenario, a big income tax return -- tax day can be your holiday.
(Seattle trounced the Broncos 43 to 8, by the way, turning the game into an exercise in angst even for fans of the Broncos, or fans of dramatic games.)
Wieden & Kennedy was relatively new on TurboTax at the time, having won creative duties the previous July and, in an unusual victory for a creative specialist, picking up the media duties a couple months later. The spot, proclaimed one of the game's best by The New Yorker, continued Wieden & Kennedy's tour through the ad pods of Super Bowl XLVIII. To compare and contrast the agency's big-game work that year, also view "Strike" for Maserati and "It's Beautiful" and "Going All the Way" for Coca-Cola. Wieden & Kennedy and TurboTax returned to the Super Bowl in 2015 ("Boston Tea Party") and 2016.
Directed by Bryan Buckley, whose dozens of prior Super Bowl ads for brands including E-Trade, FedEx and Bud Light date back to Monster.com's classic "When I Grow Up." Buckley also directed GoDaddy's "Bodybuilder" in the same game as this spot. Voiceover by John C. Reilly.
Production Company: Hungry Man. Creative directors: Dan Kroeger, Mike Giepert. Copywriters: Dan Kroeger, Brooke Barker. Art director: Johan Arlig. Producer: Jennifer Fiske. Executive creative directors: Joe Staples, Susan Hoffman. Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz. Strategic planning: Amber Higgins, Cat Wilson. Project management: Liza Robbins. Executive producer: Mino Jarjoura. Line producer: Cory Berg. Director of photgraphy: Scott Henriksen. Editoral: Cut & Run. Editor: Jay Nelson. Post producer: Amburr Farls. Post executive producer: Carr Schilling. Executive producer: Sue Troyan.
BRAND: TurboTax
YEAR: 2014
AGENCY: Wieden & Kennedy
SUPERBOWL: XLVIII
QUARTER AIRED: Q2