What, were Ben Affleck and Matt Damon busy? It seems that Hyundai got every other major star from Boston to appear in its Super Bowl 54 commercial. In the ad for the Hyundai Sonata and its new Remote Smart Parking Assist, airing during the game on Feb. 2, Chris and Rachel chit-chat as John pulls up in his new Hyundai Sonata. “”Wicked cahr,”” exclaims Rachel. Out steps John, and with a press of the button, the new Sonata stars parking itself. “”Look who’s got Smaht Pahk,”” he says. From there, it gets almost terminally Bostonian, with Rachel, Chris, and John going down all the locations where he “”smaht pahked”” his car (including The Harbor.)
As if this commercial couldn’t get any more Bostonian, ex-Boston Red Sox slugger David “”Big Papi”” Ortiz leans out a window. “”Wicked smaht,”” he remarks. The spot ends with Boston’s The Standells’ “”Dirty Water”” (because Dropkick Murphy’s “”Shipping Up To Boston”” would be too on-the-nose, right?)
A teaser for this Boston-strong spot showcased Rachel as a “”dialect coach”” as she tried Big Papi to adapt the Massachusetts drawl. The spot, directed by Mass native Bryan Buckley for commercial agency Innocean, went through “”hundreds”” of scripts before a final one was settled, according to AdWeek. “”It was important to us to make sure everything was authentic,”” Barney Goldberg, Innocean’s executive creative director, said in a statement. “”Shooting in Boston instead of a backlot and casting Boston icons really paid off for us in this spot. We even threw in a few local ”Easter eggs” for anyone paying close attention.””
The inclusion of Boston would have resonated more, had the New England Patriots not been eliminated from the Playoffs during the Wild Card. In the past, brands used Tom Brady and the Pats in their Super Bowl commercials in a case of preemptive synergy. Typically, the Patriots making the Super Bowl is a safe bet, one that Innocean took. But, the 6-time Super Bowl champs were upset by the Tennessee Titans, and for the first time since 2016, the Pats will be watching the game from home.
“It would have been serendipitous for Boston’s home team, the Patriots, to be in the Super Bowl again this year, but the spot is not reliant on any specific team being in the big game,” A Hyundai spokesman said, per AdWeek. “We think the humor will stand on its own and is something that will be enjoyed on a national level.”
During last year’s Super Bowl, Hyundai scored big with their ad featuring Jason Bateman as an elevator operator. The spot, which featured an elevator stopping at floors representing the most painful experiences in life (root canals, jury duty, the middle seat on a six-hour-flight, “”The Talk,”” etc.), stressed the pleasantness that is using Hyundai’s’s Shopper Assurance program. That ad, like this year’s, was created by Inoccean. While Brady and the Pats might not repeat as champs, Innocean hopes to go back-to-back with winning commercials.