Kentucky football’s newest Super Bowl ad will air Sunday. We ranked the first seven.
The University of Kentucky has purchased a local TV spot during the Super Bowl each year since 2013, when Mark Stoops was named head coach of the program.
Those ads have varied in length and tone, but serve three main goals: sell future recruits on the program, get fans excited for the upcoming football season and push sales of season tickets, which typically go on sale to the public in early February.
This year’s spot, teased by the team’s official channels this week on social media, will be no different in that regard. Judging from the variation from year to year seen in previous ads, though, it’ll stand out. Whether visually, tonally or a combination thereof, every spot to this point has been distinct.
This year’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers kicks off at 6:30 p.m.
Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, and rank each one in descending order.
No. 7: Untitled (2013)
One-sentence description: Clips from Mark Stoops’ introductory press conference are played over an image of what was then called Commonwealth Stadium, with rain, lightning and “Air Raid” sounds mixed in.
What I liked: The effect work is good, especially for a first effort with no precedent before it. The audio clips of Stoops aren’t as well-mixed as the audio in future ads, but they’re effective. It’s a simple ad for what was then a simple moment in the program’s history — Stoops inherited a 2-10 club and would be given a chance to develop it on his own terms.
What I didn’t like: I remember the sounds of the “Air Raid” sirens, understandably, getting fans elated when this ad was originally released. In retrospect, they’re a fun relic of a bygone era that doesn’t jibe at all with the direction the program has taken, and maybe should never have been revived in the early part of Stoops’ tenure.
No. 6: Finish What We Started (2016)
One-sentence description: Mark Stoops tells Kentucky fans, through a series of black-and-white close-ups, that the team will repay their loyalty by finishing what it started.
What I liked: After three consecutive losing seasons to begin Stoops’ tenure, it was a somewhat bold choice to opt for a colorless spot with a message that, judging from some of the comments on the ad, was mocked. It is enhanced, in retrospect, by the fact that Kentucky delivered: it made its first bowl game under Stoops in the 2016 season. The lack of color complements the player close-ups, which go from partly blurry to crisp as they’re displayed — focus is at the forefront.
What I didn’t like: There are shots of fans spliced with player close-ups toward the end of the ad. It’s a defensible choice — fans are at the center of the message, so why not include them? — but one that I think ultimately makes the overall piece less effective.
No. 5: Are You With Me? (2015)
One-sentence description: Fans from across Kentucky converge in a comic-book version of Lexington.
What I liked: Constructing a minute-long ad is tough, particularly when the product you’re pitching is a football team that went 5-7 the year before (and would do so again, it turns out, in 2015). This feels like two 30-second spots that were slammed together: most of the first 30 seconds or so are spent highlighting various areas of the state and fans that reside in them, then the last half of it is spent showing highlights of the team, but stylized with graffiti/comic-book effects. It might be the weirdest ad of the bunch, and I’m here for it.
What I didn’t like: Outside of the original 2013 ad, this one is the most blatant with its call to action for fans to buy tickets: 10 words are spoken in the entire spot — two utterances of “Are you with me?” by Stoops and the final two words, spoken by an off-screen group of fans: “Yes sir.” It’s a call-and-response that plays well, in a football context, but also feels kind of condescending if you think about it too long.
No. 4: Bring It (2019)
One-sentence description: Kentucky’s best season since the 1970s is over — Mark Stoops wonders aloud how his team will respond, and Kash Daniel lets his teammates know how they’ll do it.
What I liked: The tone for the 2019 season was set on Feb. 3, when this ad aired while the New England Patriots were in the midst of winning their sixth Super Bowl. The premise of the ad is simple and straightforwardly executed, and Daniel was its ideal leading man. He’s been a super-sized personality since his high school playing days, and while it might have been scripted, it wouldn’t surprise me if the message delivered here to his teammates was improvised — he’s that stirring. A chorus of UK players respond, “Us,” when Daniel asks them “What’s next?” It’s chill-inducing, even more so with the context of how a challenging 2019 ultimately played out for the Wildcats.
What I didn’t like: Having Daniel deliver a soliloquy to his teammates was a great way to go, but where are the rest of them? At a glance, it looks like only 7-8 other players are with him in what looks like a black room. I get that it’s hard to frame dozens of bodies, particularly in a small space, but it seems like even doubling the amount of players present might have given the scene more oomph.
No. 3: Change the Game/Why Not? (2014)
One-sentence description: Computer graphics, superhero sensibilities and various UK football players combine to try and sell fans on a team that just went 2-10 for the second straight year.
What I liked: The CGI in the opening few seconds is reminiscent of that featured in 90s screensavers, and I say that lovingly; that aesthetic is *insert fire emoji* as far as I’m concerned. As a superhero nerd, I enjoyed that the players featured in this ad had their jerseys generate on their bodies as if they were suits of spandex activated by yelling “It’s Morphing Time!” off-screen.
The original title of the ad, seemingly, was “Change the Game,” but it has been referred to as “Why Not?” since. Revisionist history or not, it makes sense: this ad was the origin of the two-word slogan that Kentucky has parlayed into a marketing monster; the program to this day still uses it in its official messaging and produces videos of current and former players sharing their “Why not Kentucky?” stories. A program in need of an identity, on the field and off, found one in a 59-second spot that aired during the Seattle Seahawks’ rout of the Denver Broncos that year.
What I didn’t like: It probably shouldn’t have been a minute long. Stoops’ voice-over is good, but the visuals lose steam midway through — it moves away from transformation shots to zoom-outs highlighting multiple players standing alongside one another, then a zoom-in of a similarly-staged shot. It’s not a bad idea, but it seems like it overstays its welcome.
No. 2: Get Up (2018)
One-sentence description: Benny Snell channels the rage of a second-straight bowl loss — and an early ejection — into a poetic plea to his teammates and fans to stand in unity.
What I liked: Snell’s colorful personality isn’t absent, but it’s softer here than usual, and his voice-over matches the resolve and stillness the ad is shooting for. This one’s enhanced, in retrospect, by the season it preceded: UK capped a historic season with a win over Penn State in the Citrus Bowl, finishing 10-3 overall.
What I didn’t like: The penultimate shot of Snell breathing bleeds into a two-second long mish-mash of game highlights; I think it would have been more effective had it ended with the last shot of Snell, or a similar bleed transition into him with his uniform on, either from game footage or an original shot. Nit-picking here, though; it’s a great ad, second only to ...
No. 1: Let’s Go To Work (2017)
One-sentence description: Kentucky football coaches and players show viewers what a day’s work might look like, leading up to a final shot of them walking into Kroger Field for a game.
What I liked: The variance of shots, the number of players who are shown and speak, the music, the overall premise — this is a damn-near perfect advertisement. Most of the faces featured have moved on, but the program three years later exhibits the same spirit on display in this pitch. It will stand the test of time for as long as Stoops is at the helm.
What I didn’t like: At a minute and a half long, it’s by far the lengthiest spot to date. UK nailed the execution, but it probably was also the priciest to place.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 7:46 AM.
