If You Don’t Have a Puppy, You Better Have a Baby

Greg Carson is president of 62ABOVE, an award-winning advertising agency based in San Diego. With over 25 years of industry experience, Greg’s expertise extends from understanding trends and creative processes of ads to knowing the behind-the-scenes strategies that make Super Bowl commercials unforgettable. He is a seasoned ad expert and key figure behind acclaimed campaigns for the NFL (Super Bowl), Visit California, Disney and more.

It was 1994 - Super Bowl XXVIII: The Dallas Cowboys vs the Buffalo Bills. It wasn't the first Super Bowl I watched, but it was the first one I studied. That's because it was the first Super Bowl since I landed my very first job as a jr. copywriter.

Days before the game, a group of us had a watercooler conversation about the upcoming commercials, and which brands we thought might be in the game. Pepsi, Doritos & Budweiser seemed to garner all the buzz. Back then (reminder, this was basically pre-internet), we had no way of really knowing who would be airing their commercials in the big game, and brands relished the anonymity and suspense.

"If you don't have a puppy, you better have a baby." This was one of my coworker's advice for anyone involved in making a Super Bowl commercial. To a 23-year old kid just learning about the ad industry, that seemed pretty deep. I might have even written that down in my notebook.

But then something happened - Steve Martin and Nike. If you're not a dinosaur (like me), you might not remember these commercials, so let me tell you... Weiden & Kennedy created a multi-spot campaign that ran throughout the game called The Popcorn Tapes. In an Unsolved Mysteries/mockumentary style, we follow Steve as he investigates Michael Jordan's "retirement" from the NBA. There were no babies, no puppies, and no big punchline. (If you haven't seen this campaign, I highly recommend you look it up) These commercials were smart, thoughtful and the humour was subtil. Even in all their 4:3 aspect-ratio glory, these spots were also cinematic. This campaign broke all the rules, and that broke my brain.

When I arrived at work the very next day, I couldn't wait to talk about Nike's The Popcorn Tapes with anyone who would listen. It was my new bar for creative concepting.

30 years later, here is my hope - that there will be a kid watching Super Bowl LVIII who gets inspired just like I was. I love advertising... marketing... communications... Whatever you want to call it, this is a great industry. And amazing, strategic ideas are just as relevant now as they were then. Sure a lot has changed. We watch ads on our phones more than our TVs, we spend crazy amounts of time on IG and TikTok, but the ideas that break through (and maybe break the rules) will always be the ones we remember.

Will there be another Popcorn Tapes in the batch of ads we watch this year? Time will only tell. I'd like to think we all have a Popcorn Tapes moment in our careers. That time when you realised you picked exactly the right job and the right industry to be in. What's yours?