While many of this year’s biggest films used the prime real estate of the Super Bowl commercial time to put together flashy new trailers, one movie decided to take a slightly different approach to build the hype. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice did not run a new trailer during the game. Instead, they worked with one of their promotional partners, Turkish Airlines, to put together a pair of Batman v Superman-themed airline commercials. In the spots, the airline announces a pair of new destinations: Metropolis and Gotham City. Here’s the Gotham City ad.
Instead of running during the actual Super Bowl itself, these spots ran during the pre-game coverage prior to kickoff, as well as following the actual game. It probably saved the airline a pretty penny to make that decision, and while it might have reduced the number of eyeballs who saw the spot live, the fact is that in the age of the internet, it barely matters when the commercial airs. If people want to see it, they’ll find it.
It’s also a fairly ingenious set of ads. They run just like any airline commercial would. They advertise the city you can travel to, tell you why it’s great, and give you a celebrity endorsement. The only trick is that in the case of the Gotham City advertisement, your celebrity is not Ben Affleck, but rather Bruce Wayne. In the case of the Metropolis ad you get Jesse Eisenberg playing his part as Lex Luthor.
If there’s anything of particular note in these commercials as it regards Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it’s probably Eisenberg’s part. Our brief glimpse of him here is very different from what we’ve seen in the trailers. He matches up well with Bruce Wayne by playing the welcoming billionaire business man. It’s a far cry from the somewhat cartoonish villain we’ve seen in the clips from the film. Maybe there’s another side to the character that we’ll see more of in the final movie? We can only hope.
We have to say that the ads make both of these cities look like great tourist destinations. We’re just about ready to book our flight. And we should probably hurry, as there’s a decent chance that one or both cities will need some major construction done following the events of Dawn of Justice. Make sure to book your return trip before March 25th when the movie comes out.
