Will Ferrell and Old Milwaukee’s Super Bowl commercial was more original, more funny and should certainly prove to be more memorable than any other ad that was shown during the game.
Only people watching the 15,180 TV sets in North Platte, Nebraska could have possibly seen it live, which is the best part about the whole thing.
The spot shows a casually dressed Ferrell walking through a field, coming closer and closer to the camera. He stops right in front of it, catches an Old Milwaukee can tossed in from off-screen and cracks it open, spraying the beverage everywhere.
KNOP-TV, an NBC affiliate in rural Nebraska, sold the 30-second spot known as “Field Cut Off” to Funny or Die and Old Milwaukee for an estimated $1,500. The brand hoped that it would go viral, which is exactly what has happened.
There have been a ton of hits on YouTube and Google searches for "Will Ferrell" and "Old Milwaukee," as well as numerous media outlets attempting to piece together the story behind the advertisement.
It was a brilliant ploy by the Pabst Brewing Company to get Super Bowl-style exposure while paying a fraction of a penny on the dollar for it.
Companies were estimated to have paid roughly $3.5 million—not including production costs—for a 30-second spot that would reach 111 million-plus viewers on Sunday night. That’s $3,498,500 more than Old Milwaukee dished out for some local airtime and immense internet buzz.
Pabst did some test runs as they ramped up for the Super Bowl by running a series of equally kitsch ads in Midwestern locales such as Terra Haute, Indiana and Davenport, Iowa.
They have been successful online, but none generated the kind of buzz that their “Super Bowl” ad has.
Pabst showed that this strategy simply works in 2012 and proved that traditional advertisement can be subverted with authentic, hilarious commercials that connect with the target demographic.
If people want the content and they hear about it, which is becoming extremely simple in the digital age, they will seek it out with ease.
Hopefully, we’ll see more commercials from Ferrell and Old Milwaukee in the near future, as well as from more companies attempting to reach their audience in less traditional and more nuanced and funny ways.
It just doesn't get any better than this.
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