Hyundai's 'live' commercial puts deployed soldiers at Super Bowl with families
The greatest comeback in Super Bowl history ended in overtime. How could it get better than that?
And then it did. You could see it in the faces of three soldiers serving overseas who got to see the game — and, in a virtual sort of way, their families — by way of world-bending, whiz-bang technology.
The 90-second Hyundai ad that ran in the so-called “post-gun” slot just after the game ended was a heart-tugging TV first. The game plan on how to pull it off was as intricate and secretive as the game plans of the teams in the game.
Hyundai threw a Super Bowl party at a U.S. Military Base in Zagan, Poland, with big-screen TVs and food and drink. Three soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division – Sgt. Richard Morrill, SPC Erik Guerrero and Cpl. Trista Strauch – were selected by the military to watch the game in a special way: They watched the game in individual 360-degree immersive pods that made them feel as if they were in Hyundai’s luxury box at NRG Stadium.
What they didn’t know was that their families would be in the box and they would feel as if they were right there with them.
When something like the Super Bowl comes up, it kind of reinforces that homesickness” that soldiers feel overseas, said Peter Berg, the Hollywood director who helmed the spot. “People wish they were home. People associate the Super Bowl with family and being with family.”
Berg spoke to Paste BN Sports on Friday. Executives of Hyundai and the ad agency that produced the spot also spoke with us ahead of time, all under the condition that we not publish until after the ad ran so as not to spoil the surprise for viewers and, especially, the three soldiers.
"No one can get enough of the military surprising their loved ones” when they come home from overseas, said Eric Springer, chief creative officer of the ad agency Innocean USA. “We see that all the time. What we’ve never seen, (or at least) what we couldn’t find, was any soldier who was surprised by their loved ones.”
‘LIKE BEING THERE’
The immersive pods, which look from the outside like above-ground swimming pools, allowed the soldiers to feel as if they were with their families. In the stadium box, a camouflage-clad teddy bear representing each soldier housed a 360-degree camera that allowed each soldier to feel as if he or she was sitting where their bear sat. And the bears held video screens where families could see their loved ones.
"We thought this was the best and most advanced way to feel like being there without being there,” said Dean Evans, Hyundai’s chief marketing officer.
"It’s not virtual reality,” Springer said. “It’s not something that’s ever been used before or seen before.”
The soldiers entered their own pods and once the doors closed found themselves in complete darkness until the pods morphed into the luxury box and they suddenly found themselves seated among their loved ones, at least virtually. The looks on their faces as they saw their families, and their families saw them, was poignantly joyous.
"It is as if we transported the soldier from the pod directly to the Super Bowl,” Springer said. “To pull all this off, we couldn’t have wished for a better partner (than Berg) to bring these worlds together — football and the military.”
Among Berg’s many movie credits are Friday Night Lights and Lone Survivor. Berg and his team were charged with filming, editing and producing the ad on the fly. He called it, with classic understatement, an aggressive timeline.
"We’ll shoot it during the first quarter,” he explained Friday. “We’ll have pretty much the second quarter and halftime to get it put together, then we’ll show it to the Department of Defense. They have to sign off on it. The NFL has to sign off on it. And Fox has to sign off on it. And of course Hyundai, our client, has to sign off on it. That gives us pretty much the third quarter to make changes and the fourth quarter to lock it in.”
‘EXTRAORDINARILY COMPLEX’
Berg is known for celebrating everyday heroes in his films.
"My father was a Marine,” he said. “I did not serve, but I was certainly brought up to have a very strong sense of appreciation and respect for the men and women of our military. And anytime I can find material that showcases the grace and dignity and courage of so many of our armed forces, I believe it is part of my responsibility to tell those stories.”
Berg said he and his team had an extra spring in their step — not to mention elevated blood pressure — in the days before filming, given the complexity of what they were about to tackle.
"I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit impressive and actually somewhat intimidating when I think about what we’re trying to pull off,” Berg said. “It’s extraordinarily complex. I think it is the most complex thing I’ve ever been involved in.”
Hyundai won Paste BN’s Ad Meter last year for best ad in the Super Bowl, as selected by consumer vote. That one was a funny ad starring Kevin Hart. This ad is not eligible because it ran after the game. (Only ads that air between the coin toss and the two-minute warning are eligible for Ad Meter.) Even so, this spot could emerge as one of the most talked-about of Super Sunday.
"Days like this, the Super Bowl, when we can eat as many chicken wings and drink as many Budweisers as we want,” Springer said, “is because of our troops out and about throughout the world, doing what they do to give us that right.”
Video playlist: Every Super Bowl ad