When advertisers decided it was time for us to get back out there.
After less than a year of lockdown, the first vaccines were administered in January 2021 and it was clear that lockdown would someday end. But when? Two commercials that ran during the early months of 2021 acknowledged the toll that isolation was beginning to take on those at home.
“Bud Light put a whimsical spin on the small hardships the pandemic brought us, from do-it-yourself haircuts to busted wedding plans. The spot from Wieden+Kennedy New York plugged the brand’s new hard seltzer lemonade flavor by showing lemons falling from the sky as a symbol of all the “lemons” 2020 brought us.
E.J. Schultz, January 28, 2021, “Bud Light looks at 2020’s ‘lemons’ in Super Bowl commercial,” Ad Age
The Burger King ads by the David Madrid agency captured the growing malaise of our daily lives during a pandemic and suggests it’s no more strange than the “impossible burger” by Burger King, that isn’t really a burger.
Spring 2021
By Springtime, hopes were rising and advertising began to stoke the anticipation of a return to normal, mask-free life.
The [Google] campaign from Uncommon explores our hopes and fears for the future, covering everything from Covid-induced social anxiety to the return of hugs, parties and football.”
Emma Tucker, April 6, 2021, “Google’s new ad reflects on the highs and lows of a post-lockdown summer,” Campaign.
“An epic new commercial for Wrigley’s Extra brand gum that celebrates the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 is giving cooped up viewers all the feels — in a way that only a gum advertisement could. The 154-second ad has gone viral since it debuted earlier this month — for good reason. Because there’s only one appropriate reaction to a commercial narrative with themes that play on our collective loneliness and skin hunger during the pandemic, against the well-timed placement of Céline Dion’s 1996 version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” — and that’s tears.”
Hannah Sparks, May 10, 2021. “Why are people getting choked up watching this Extra gum commercial?” The New York Post.
“Eos and Mischief's 'Obligation Celebration' Ad Welcomes the Return of Mundane Tasks: The musical spot makes the most routine activities look like the privileges they are!”
Shannon Miller, April 26, 2021, AdWeek
Now that nights out don’t have to happen in freezing cold outdoor spaces and we are free to hug whomever we choose, Uber is back on the radar. Mother is celebrating this with an ad that is mostly about the soundtrack, 70s hit “Back in the New York Groove” by Kiss co-founder Ace Frehley.”
Emma Hall, May 26, 2021, “Your Uber awaits: Mother puts customers back in the groove,” More About Advertising
Summer 2021
By summer, advertisers asserted that the people staying home were missing out on life. Iceland Tourism released a wonderful ad promising visitors that their sweatpants could be recycled as boots and the Match.com ad (produced by Ryan Reynolds) suggested that no one was going to fall in love sitting at home. Time to snap out of it!
“From crying in the shower to feeling nature’s power,” goes the song that accompanies Iceland’s tourism promotion to lure people out of lockdown seclusion. “After more than a year in lockdown, … [Iceland’s] tourism board is offering a limited number of people the exclusive chance to have their lockdown sweatpants turned into hiking boots, so they’re prepared to take on adventures across the seven regions.”
Kaitlyn McInnis, June 29, 2021, “Iceland Will Upcycle Your Lockdown Sweatpants Into Hiking Boots,” Forbes.
Nobody wants the world’s wedding singers to have to move back in with their parents. That’s why Ryan Reynolds' agency and production firm Maximum Effort has teamed with popular online dating service Match to deliver a playful, musical campaign encouraging singles to reignite their love lives.
It’s time to “Get back to love” according Match and Ryan Reynolds-owned Maximum Efforts Productions. In a new spot, debuting today, 12 real wedding singers, belt out a parodic musical number urging the world’s single folks to get back out there so they can, well, get back to working again. In the cheeky spot, the singers remind audiences: “We don’t get paid...if no love songs are played.” The song was penned by Grammy, Tony, and Oscar-winning songwriters Pasek & Paul — lauded for their work in La La Land and The Greatest Showman — alongside songwriters Taura Stinson and Shane McAnally.
Kendra Clark, June 15, 2021, “Ryan Reynolds and Match implore singles to save wedding singers’ jobs,” The Drum.
