The Super Bowl commercials did something new this year, but you might have missed it if you weren't playing close attention. Did the Adam Driver live Snickers Super Bowl commercial happen? According to Entertainment Weekly, the commercial event was only supposed to be 30 seconds long, but would be the event's first ever live ad. Unfortunately, it seemed to be so well put together that not a lot of people noticed it happened, and it wasn't all that exciting.
In a way, I guess that's a sign that they pulled it off. Flawless live entertainment is rare, after all. Based on the voiceover, the "technical difficulties," in which the Star Wars actor knocked over the Western set and seemed to ruin the live ad seemed to be part of the plan. In the live commercial, Driver arrived on set and seemed not to realize that they were live. It was funny, and I believe that Snickers shot that in real time, but it was so well-executed that I forgot it was live. Had Driver not advertised it as such, I would not have known at all.
In the same EW interview, Driver said that his theater experience would help. "I definitely like being scared," he said. "I don’t know that I necessarily thrive, but doing something that scares you is always a good thing to do." It definitely changes the stakes of being in an ad campaign. "Who would’ve thought I would get this opportunity to be in a Super Bowl commercial," he asked. "That’s not something I had on my agenda to do."
A lot of people compared it to Westworld, myself included — just not on Twitter. Making the joke that live entertainment is built to fall apart allowed Driver and Snickers to be one step ahead of the audience, and the ad was a surprising success. So surprising, in fact, that it almost become nonchalant.
