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This year's Super Bowl was the most expensive ever for advertisers, who paid a record US$4 million ($4.5m) per 30-second slot. And they seemed to have spent up on making the ads, with Hollywood production, big stars -- counterculture icon Bob Dylan among them -- and in some cases up to 10 pre-game teasers.
But with all the splash and sizzle, it was this simple road safety ad that got most cut-through in shock value for the 110 million viewers.
Created for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) as part of its Zero Fatalities campaign, The Twist starts off with an image of a young boy curled up in a car seat, and a voiceover that starts off "Sam looks like he's sleeping..." but as the camera zooms out we see that he's been killed in a car crash, not by the crash itself but by being unbuckled and flying into the back of the seat in front of him.
The powerful message caused some controversy, with US media reporting a lot of people were upset by the footage screened among the signature cavalcade of celebrity and humour seen in Super Bowl ads. Viewers hits UDOT's 'Zero Fatalities' Facebook page with comments, many of which were critical of the ad’s graphic nature.
UDOT has admitted the commercial was blunt, but have responded to criticism by saying that if people were shocked by the staged imagery in the ad, they should see -- or at least think about -- the real-life consequences of what not buckling up can do.
This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott
Watch the ad that shocked the Super Bowl on our desktop site.
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