In the lead up to this year’s Super Bowl - a huge television event in the USA - many predicted that it would boast the highest audience yet, and it didn’t disappoint with almost 100 million viewers tuning into the final game of the 56th American Football championship on February 13.

Despite the Covid related challenges experienced by the automotive industry over the past months, automakers returned to play a big role in ad spending with vehicle electrification dominating for the first time. Automakers have traditionally jumped in on the action, spending millions of dollars on television commercials with their advertising agencies for this specific occasion, using celebrities and well-known stars to entertain and engage Super Bowl viewers.

The average Super Bowl spot this year cost a record $6.5 million for 30 seconds, so it’s telling that General Motors, BMW, Kia, and Polestar to name a few big auto brands have gone all in on ads featuring electric cars and SUVs.

What’s seemingly different this year is the large number of vehicle electrification ads, out-numbering automakers ads for traditional ICE vehicles. in 2022, there were the most climate-related ads of any Super Bowl ever, most of them focused on electric vehicles, even the EV charger manufacturer, Wallbox, homed in on the action.

General Motors

To highlight GM's plan to release 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 their 90 second Super Bowl ad features Dr. EV-il from the Austin Powers movie franchise, who is back and ready to save the world and then take over the world. GM’s new campaign - #EVerybodyIn - is all about their commitment to become carbon neutral.

According to GM, climate change just got a new enemy and he’s one EVil son of a Belgian. Dr. EV-il is going electric to stop climate change from ruining Earth before he can.

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BMW

First there is the clever teaser BMW commercial featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Zeus trying to order a macchiato, this is followed by a 60 second version of Zeus with his wife - Salma Hayek. Both are Greek gods, with Zeus, struggling to adapt to suburban retirement until Hayek's Hera buys an all-electric BMW iX.

Imagine, living in a world where your BEV gets a free zap from Zeus, sorry charge.

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Kia

According to Kia America - every dog deserves to find their forever home. Even Robo Dog, who risks it all in Kia’s Big Game ad to live fully charged with the all-electric Kia EV6. Kia’s cute ad features a robot-puppy-finding-a-new-home-with-a-human plotline, which is plugging (pun intended) the new EV6 electric crossover's ability to power other things using its battery.

Kia recently revealed details of the spectacular new, all-electric, EV6 ahead of its New Zealand launch. AA give you the inside scoop here.

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Polestar

Polestar, the pure-play premium electric car company, debuted its first-ever Super Bowl ad, featuring the Polestar 2 electric performance fastback. Staying true to Polestar’s minimalist brand identity, the graphical ad is visually simple, allowing punchy words in white on black to share the message.

AA recently attended a preview of the new Polestar 2, and we sure were impressed by the amount of safety and style influence it has received from its parent brand - Volvo.

In January 2022 the company announced that it delivered on its global sales target of 29,000 vehicles in 2021, representing year-on-year growth exceeding 185%. Certainly, a bold new mover in the vehicle electrification space to keep an eye on.

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Nissan suggests the EV is the main attraction

Nissan’s Super Bowl ad "Thrill Driver" features actress Brie Larson, who has previously made frequent appearances in Nissan ads. Joined by Schitt's Creek star Eugene Levy and Marvel stars Dave Bautista, and Danai Gurira, to shill the 2023 Z sports car. But  Catherine O’Hara (yes, reprising "Schitt’s Creek" and “Best in Show”) is driving to the big debut in an Ariya electric crossover.

We all love a fast sports car, but it does seem unusual for an automaker to use such high-dollar ad space for a low-volume, two-seat sports car – but what better way to get the message across that Nissan are serious about moving to electric.

Nissan have said it would aim to roll out 23 new electrified models by 2030, 15 of which will be fully electric. It is targeting a 50% electrification mix for its Nissan and Infiniti brands by the end of the decade.

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Wallbox

Wallbox, which sells home charging units for electric vehicles, is another automotive industry player to make its debut at the Super Bowl. Wallbox jumped in on the electrification action with "isn't electricity scary" messaging with a unique twist, designed to communicate the benefits of easily charging your car.

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