Super Bowl Commercial

I'm not very disappointed or let down with the lack of announcement. I was hoping for one, sure, but what we got is pretty much what I expected for a high budget commercial airing on the most-watched televised event in the whole world whose known for its big focus on unique, hilarious, outstanding commercials, and I really liked this. It's movie trailer-esque in how it instills curiosity about what it's going to be about, and hype when you realize it.

The music and the echo of "I can do this" gives me goosebumps, and I love the CG battle scene at the end. Lots of nice little easter eggs in there, too ("Like no one ever was" written on the wall of the football locker room, etc.). No better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of the world's biggest media franchises than a commercial coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the world's most popular televised event. I'm really happy with this. And in the end, it attracts all demographics- people who've been a part of the series for a long time, kids just starting out with the games, or people who've had Pokémon fall off their map for a while.

Even if I wasn't interested in football or the other commercials, I'll still definitely watch the Super Bowl to see this on TV. Now, interestingly, the Pokémon Twitter page says "Get a first look..." Is it possible that there's more to this ad that we haven't seen yet? Maybe it'll be a full two minutes when it airs on TV, who knows?

Spot the easter eggs:

1. Snorlax blocking Route 12; people going to Mt. Moon for fossils:


2. Pokémon chess board (Nidoking):


3. Volcano Badge design on football helmets:


4. English lyrics from the original anime theme song:


5. Moomoo Milk billboard amongst other references there:

I am admittedly more impressed with Jake making the Youtube embed larger than normal than the commercial. If you're going to do a Super Bowl commercial, I would kind of think that you'd do something more than just a general advertisement for the series.

I suppose I'm just a bit salty that's it's not an announcement of a new Kalos game though, that's all I want from Pokemon right now.

Why would you release a Super Bowl commercial before the Super Bowl though?

That guy is using regular Charizard. What a novice.

Nah said:

Why would you release a Super Bowl commercial before the Super Bowl though?

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Lots of the ads are shown before the actual game. I don't know why, but it kinda kills the hype I guess. At least in some cases, they're just previews/fragments of the full thing. I'm hoping that's what the case is for this one. I'm pretty sure some SB ads are 2 minutes long, that video's just a minute.

Nah said:

Why would you release a Super Bowl commercial before the Super Bowl though?

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I've been complaining (for the lack of better terms) to a bunch of my friends and marketing acquaintances about this today. Pokémon's not the only company doing this.

When it comes to digital media and audience reach nowadays, there's so much noise that businesses opt to just get out in front when they can. There are other reasons depending on industry, but that's just a basic one.

"Spotlight's on me, everyone, please look!" ...along those lines.

"I can do this."

Just because you could doesn't mean you should. Putting that aside, I'm surprised that Lucario's the only non-Gen 1 Pokemon showcased in the super bowl ad. I guess Smash has really made him an icon among the other classic Pokemon.

That guy is using regular Charizard. What a novice.

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Keep in mind that he's using a Mega Lucario in his team, and you can only hold one Mega Evolved Pokemon in your team per battle.

VisualJae said:

I've been complaining (for the lack of better terms) to a bunch of my friends and marketing acquaintances about this today. Pokémon's not the only company doing this.

When it comes to digital media and audience reach nowadays, there's so much noise that businesses opt to just get out in front when they can. There are other reasons depending on industry, but that's just a basic one.

"Spotlight's on me, everyone, please look!" ...along those lines.

Click to expand...

Eh, who knows, maybe they were afraid of it being leaked in any possible way?

My god that should be a movie.

It looked more like a movie trailer than a commercial tbqh, but it was still really cool regardless!

Well, this has me left with mixed emotions. Feels like I snuck into my parents closet and opened up my Christmas presents a week early.

Nah said:

Why would you release a Super Bowl commercial before the Super Bowl though?

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They released only part of it in order to create hype and speculations, I think that the release date of Pokémon GO is the "big thing" which will be announced in the full commercial.

Nas160 said:

I was hoping for one, sure, but what we got is pretty much what I expected for a high budget commercial airing on the most-watched televised event in the whole world whose known for its big focus on unique, hilarious, outstanding commercials, and I really liked this.

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To be exact, Superbowl is the second most-watched televised annual sport event in the world, UCL final has surpassed it.

Pretty sure TPC only purchased a 30 sec slot for the ad so its going to be cut down for TV.

As for showing it early its pretty common to drum up hype and the rest of the world doesn't see the US ads in the super bowl so there's that too.

After watching the commercial yesterday, here are my thoughts about it. I certainly thought it was quite impressive. It was one of my top three favorite Super Bowl commercials, the other two being the Toyota Prius commercial and the Doritos Baby commercial.

First time watching it online, I wasn't as overly impressed, but watching it on a big screen with a bunch of other older adults felt way cooler. I did like the commercial overall. Wonder if the franchise will blow up any more after that ad? :P

I know I nailed down some of the easter eggs early on when the commercial was first publicly revealed, but now that some time has passed, plenty more have surfaced.

This video's pretty cool; I know I missed a few here the first time: