Why Blake And Gwen's Super Bowl Commercial Is Getting Attention
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton have told the story of how they met numerous times in the past, but they've never really given their fans many details to obsess over before... at least not like this. It took T-Mobile and the Super Bowl to reveal how the rocker chick got together with the country boy, with a bit of help from their fellow The Voice star Adam Levine.
In a memorable spot that's been billed by some as one of the best in a Super Bowl ad season more notable for its absences – the absentee Budweiser, Pepsi, Hyundai are duly noted (via Sporting News) – we get to watch Gwen Stefani and Adam Levine in a video call, where Stefani is describing the (new) man of her dreams. "I'm sick of L.A. guys; I want someone completely different," she says. "Maybe someone from another country, and someone cultured, sensitive, and who is not threatened by a strong, confident woman."
Trust your patchy 5G service to go wrong because what Levine hears is "I'm sick of L.A. guys, I want someone completely ... country" as his service cuts in and out. The miscommunication continues: "Uncultured ... and threatened by a strong confident woman" (via Billboard). Cue: Blake Shelton.
T-Mobile's reimagining of Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton's first meeting was a hit
The cheeky ad was a hit on social media, with one person naming the Gwen-Blake-Adam throupling as their "true favorite Super Bowl ad" (via Twitter). Another tweeted, "Gwen, Blake, and Adam was the only good one so far. Jason Alexander was decent, the rest have been trash." Even Adweek sent its kudos to T-Mobile via Twitter for the spot, saying, "T-MOBILE: Did NOT see that one coming. That was a pretty good twist, T-Mobile. Not the greatest acting in the world, but we'll let it slide."
While the Stefani/Shelton/Levin ad was, for the most part, a hit, Adweek reminds us that T-Mobile actually wanted to go with another spot that featured the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski in a similarly themed misunderstanding (via Kiro-TV). That ad eventually got killed because of another advertising deal between the National Football League and T-Mobile competitor Verizon. It's good to see when an alternative idea takes off in a way that the original might not have.