Every year, USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter ranks the best and worst commercials that play during the big game, which is based on viewer feedback. This year, the ‘Groundhog Day’ Jeep commercial was crowned the winner. The commercial features actor, comedian and Charleston native Bill Murray, who teamed up with Jeep to create a brilliant and hilarious reprise of the 1993 film ‘Groundhog Day’.
What makes this commercial even more incredible is the great effort it took to get Murray to agree to it. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles chief marketing officer Olivier Francois realized only a few months before the Super Bowl that the big game would land on Groundhog day, a coincidence that hasn’t happened in 54 years. An idea sparked and Francois was determined to reach out to Murray to make this dream come to life. However, Bill Murray is known to be a man who is completely off the grids with no phone, no agent, no social media, no email, nothing. This made it difficult for Francois to get into contact with Murray, not to mention with only a few months to do so.
Miraculously, Francois ended up at the same dinner party as Bill Murray one night and afterwards Murray reached back out to him and agreed to do the role. This was the first national commercial Murray has ever agreed to, and most likely the last. The commercial finished filming one week before it was set to air, on January 24th.
Francious mentioned that this commercial was a combination of a few miracles, one being that the game was on Groundhog Day, another that he was able to get in touch with Bill Murray, which was an almost impossible feat in itself, and the third is that Murray actually agreed to do the role. Francious called Murray a 'creative genius', mentioning that the 69-year-old actor had come up with most of the lines in the commercial himself.
The commercials that followed in the best viewer feedback were Hyundai's "Smaht Pahk '' Boston parody, Google's touching "Loretta '' commercial, and Doritos dance-off with Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott.
What was your favorite or least favorite commercial?