The Super Bowl is rolling around again (Sunday, Feb. 9, Fox, CTV, TSN). That means more Super Bowl ads.
But why wait till the big game? One commercial has been made available to screen right now (above). Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal put on a Mayo clinic when they return to Katz’s Deli in New York to recreate the fake orgasm scene from the 1994 movie “When Harry Met Sally.”
The pair are seated at the same table where the feature film was shot over 35 years ago. Crystal is wearing a similar cable-knit sweater. What turns Ryan on this time is adding Hellmann’s Mayonaise to her deli sandwich. Yes! Yes! Yes! it does.
In the original, it was director Rob Reiner’s mother, Estelle (who died in 2008 at 94), who uttered the famous line, “I’ll have what she’s having.” This time, Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria) gets the assignment. This seems like a missed opportunity. Surely a comedienne such as Crystal’s Comic Relief pal Whoopi Goldberg would have been funnier. Are we supposed to believe that Sweeney needs help from Hellmann’s?
Whoopi’s too polarizing, corrects editor-in-chief Sandra here. Better it should be Rob Reiner at the other table. Now that would be the perfect payoff!
How much mayonaise is Unilever, which owns the Hellmann’s brand, hoping to sell? A lot, clearly. Fox says they have set a new record by hitting the US$8 million mark for 30 seconds of air time during Super Bowl LIX. The original asking price was a paltry US$7M. This is before the cost of producing the ad, as well as Crystal, Ryan and Sweeney’s salaries, are factored in.
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That they post the ad for free on YouTube a week-and-a-half prior to the big game is a surprise to me. It all shows that there is nothing like the Super Bowl when it comes to audience anticipation, participation and reach. Kendrick Lamar will be featured on this year’s halftime show. The 30-second version of the Crystal/Ryan ad will air during the Second Quarter.
