The hottest ad for the Super Bowl this year is one that doesn’t exist, featuring Anna Kendrick ranting about Newcastle canceling her Super Bowl commercial at the last minute.
Kind of. It’s actually the latest in a series of web videos from British beer company Newcastle Brown Ale documenting the commercials they didn’t make for the big game because they couldn’t afford them. Sitting in a hairdresser’s chair, the Pitch Perfect actress rants about Newcastle, mourning the paycheck she’s not going to receive. The role, had she gotten to play it, would have been stretching her acting chops, because she’s not even sure she’s “beer-commercial hot.” “I’m approachable hot, like the hottest girl in your improv class hot,” she says.
The whole fake “Mega Huge Football Game Ad” campaign (they’re not allowed to say “bowl”) is pretty meta, but that’s the whole point. Other videos in Newcastle’s series, called “If We Made It,” include a hilarious reel of actual focus groups responding to their fake ad, which includes a surreal mixture of everything from conga-dancing sharks to hyper-intelligent apes.
“I started off hating it… and in the end, I hated it again,” one man critiques. We’re expecting to feel about the same way as yet another viral marketing stunt matures into an overplayed joke by the time the actual game rolls around.
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