If you’re going to pay up to $4million for a 30 second commercial it better make people do spit-takes with their cheese dip. From what’s been revealed of this year’s Super Bowl car ads we can expect more than a couple to grab headlines.  In particuluar Mercedes has already managed to arouse a small sexual controversy from their teaser alone.

God bless America’s game.  The following is a complete list (teaser videos included) of the car commercials that will entertain millions while we eat ourselves into a communal food coma.  

MERCEDES

By far the most talked about car ad of Super Bowl XLVII thus far is a 60-second spot for the 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA featuring supermodel Kate Upton.  As seen in the teaser, Upton wears Daisy Duke booty shorts and a revealing black tank top while a high school football team suds-up the CLA at a car wash. 

"What's hot?" says the onscreen text. "The all-new Mercedes-Benz CLA. What's hotter? Kate Upton washing it in slow motion."

Agreed. As you can imagine there’ll be sexual innuendos galore, such as hoses erupting water into the air and Upton blowing soap bubbles out of her hand.  The titillating ad is designed to attract younger buyers to Mercedes and broaden the brand’s overall appeal.   

“There are a lot of people out there who just automatically put Mercedes-Benz in an out-of-reach category,” said Steve Cannon, president-CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, in an interview with Advertising Age.   

"We have something big to say and we think this is a great vehicle to reach out to that mass affluent audience.”

To sweeten the deal the CLA is expected to sell at a surprisingly low price point for the German automaker.  There’s no word yet on how much Upton will charge to wash it.      

VOLKSWAGEN

Volkswagen bought up the coveted first ad break after kickoff but opted not to feature one of their cars in it. Instead they released a teaser dubbed, “Sunny Side” featuring reggae star Jimmy Cliff singing a cover of the Partridge Family theme song, “C’mon, Get Happy.” Cliff sings the song in a sunny countryside to a group of people who had publicized meltdowns on YouTube.  The despondent characters include a crazy cat lady and a Green Bay Packers fan that was destroyed emotionally by a loss. 

"The campaign is designed to bring a jolt of happiness to consumers' daily lives," said Volkswagen of America in a statement. (1)

CARS.COM

Cars.com released a hilarious teaser for their 30-second spot that demonstrates how their website helps take the drama out of car shopping.  The video characterizes the disturbing levels drama can reach by performing a particularly jarring prank on a Cars.com focus group.  If there’s as much slapstick comedy in the full length ad we’re in for a real knee-slapper.

CHRYSLER

The motor city tough guys made a large impression at the last two Super bowls with commercials featuring Clint Eastwood (“Halftime in America”) and an Eminem song (“Imported from Detroit”).  Both ads were effective in stiking a personal chord with Americans by tying the resilience of the country’s economic recovery to that of the domestic auto industry.  This year Chrysler is playing coy; there hasn’t been any word yet on what ad they’ll bring to the big show.   

HYUNDAI

Expect to spend more time with the South Korean automaker during TV breaks than you will cursing broken chips in the bean dip.  Hyundai is dropping huge money this year on five spots, four of them new.  The 2013 Santa Fe will be featured most predominately in three of the spots, all of which will portray “a Hyundai vehicle as the ultimate sidekick and partner-in-fun."  As Autoblog reports, the four new commercials are:

• Epic PlayDate – the headliner, uses the Santa Fe for "an unforgettable and epic play date" and features a brand new song from "a legendary alternative rock band."
• Team – a 30-second homage to action movies in which a young boy gathers a team to tackle the neighborhood bullies
• Stuck – a 30-second ad that travels with newlyweds on a road trip in a Sonata, getting stuck behind rolling obstacles
• Excited – a 30-second spot with NFL commentator Gus Johnson doing a play-by-play on the Genesis R-Spec tacking a track

KIA

Kia’s big teaser is for the second installment of a three part commercial series designed to appeal to charmingly befuddled parents.  There’s mystery afoot here:

"When the next spot airs in the Super Bowl it will present an answer to an age-old question that has left generations of parents stuttering," said Michael Sprague, Kia Motors America vice president of marketing and communications, in a statement. (2)

The ad spotlights the 2014 Kia Sorento which is being advertised as a vehicle that can make kid wrangling easier. What Kia thinks the age-old question is remains to be seen.  It might be “why don’t you learn how to do that yourself?”.  That’s only half a joke as the first ad in the series depicted the new Sorento folding in its own mirrors to fit into a ridiculously tight parking spot.        

LINCOLN

Ford spent an estimated $7million to let people on Twitter produce Lincoln’s first ever Super Bowl ad.  The automaker asked late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon to Tweet a request for people to post their craziest road-trip stories.  Of the 6,000 people that responded five will be depicted in Lincoln’s ad, which Ford hopes will invigorate the brand with younger buyers. Word has it the zany bits will include a science-fiction theme, a German hitchhiker, multiple marriage proposals and one with Abraham Lincoln himself.  Keep your fingers crossed for an appearance by Daniel Day Lewis.  

TOYOTA

The teaser for Toyota’s spot features Kaley Cuoco, star of the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” as a hot genie wearing purple.  In the ad she struts around town granting wishes to passersby with poofs of purple smoke.  Maybe it’s just me but one of the clouds appears to come out of her… Genie seat. 

Toyota will grant a real-life wish to a contest winner by featuring their picture in the ad; consumers were asked to submit portraits of themselves to Instagram and Twitter for a shot at having their mug seen by millions. Exactly what Toyota is trying to say with the storyline is anyone’s guess but we can expect it will promote the new RAV4 that Cuoco can be seen tooling around in.   

Don’t miss America’s favorite excuse to watch car commercials Sunday, February 3 on CBS.

SOURCES

(1)    Edmunds

(2)    Edmunds

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