Superbowl Commercials. The Power of the Simple Human Story

With all the high tech everything these days from social media, to smart phones to the latest ebook reader, how do we really connect…with each other?

Just look at Superbowl 45 and the commercials. (always my favorite part!) Volkswagen’s Mini Darth Vader commercial was a huge hit. Many of the other commercials had super duper special effects reminiscent of the hit movie, Inception, with cities morphing into each other and lots of fast paced explosions.

Then comes this simple commercial about a little kid in a Darth Vader costume trying to make his mark.  In the end his dad does a little low tech magic of his own catapulting the boy to superman status.

Mega Mogul Advertising guy, Donny Deutsch was on Kathie Lee and Hoda Kotb doing the Monday morning commercial quarterbacking. He deconstructed that Volkswagen commercial to analyze why it was such a hit.  And it didn’t take much deconstructing. “It’s all about the simple human story”, he says.

And that says it all. Although we love our cyber interconnectedness and the ability to email our Egyptian Facebook friends in the middle of their revolution (and that really happened to me and I’ve never met that “Facebook friend” )  it’s the  human touch combined with personal stories, that make lasting connections.

Think of the internet, especially social media, as a great social stepping stone to real friendships and relationships.

So how do we balance this? By using both. The internet AND the face to face, voice to voice connecting. And of course the simple human story.

What’s your story? When you’re trying to get your message out remember to share a bit of yourself. You’ll be remembered like that mini-Darth Vader.

-Tracy Pattin