Super Bowl LIX is just days away, and advertisers are gearing up for one of their industry’s biggest moments of the year. One notable campaign is coming from Doritos, which brought back its Crash The Super Bowl contest to crowdsource its Big Game spot.
A decade ago, Crash The Super Bowl was an annual tradition that injected a bit of user-generated content into a Super Bowl ad landscape dominated by major agencies. At the time, platforms like YouTube were just beginning to explore their potential as Big Game commercial distributors. YouTube’s main vehicle driving that strategy is its AdBlitz hub, which has returned once again to showcase all of the paid media that’s set to air during Super Bowl LIX.
Doritos is bringing back Crash The Super Bowl during a marketing era that’s very different from 2014. Creators have become common sights among the celebrity testimonials that air during the game. That trend is only expected to become more prominent in 2025, with several advertisers lining up influencers for their multi-million dollar spots.
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To keep up, Doritos parents PepsiCo and Frito-Lay are celebrating the ingenuity of football-loving Americans. The brands announced three semifinalists for the contest last month, with each submission showing off the goofy, fun tone that has become a hallmark of Doritos’ Super Bowl advertising.
“Crash the Super Bowl’s legacy has always been about Doritos being fans of its fans,” said PepsiCo North America SVP of Marketing Tina Mahal. “These three final commercials remind us that when a brand puts the fate of its biggest advertising moment of the year in the fans’ hands, incredible moments can happen.”
The winning ad, ‘Abduction‘, comes from director Dylan Bradshaw and content creator Nate Norvell. It’s a clever piece of crowdsourced art that satisfies the demands of current trends. Companies like Tongal have helped bring crowdsourcing into major Hollywood productions, and the masses are once again contributing to Super Bowl ads as well.
At this point, the attention ‘Abduction’ receives during the Super Bowl is almost beside the point. Doritos is turning to creators because it wants to ride the digital hype machine. Once upon a time, the captive TV audience was a bigger consideration for these brands, but those days seem to be long gone.
