DoorDash gave away an Uber Eats gift card

…and other Super Bowl advertising observations

screenshot: doordash-all-the-ads.com

What was that DoorDash Super Bowl ad? Two weeks ago, the delivery company sent me a teaser of this year’s commercial that commits to giving away one of everything advertised during the game — cash, cars, candy, and more. Hilariously, thanks to its chief competitor’s Super Bowl ad, the bounty includes a $100 Uber Eats gift card. 

The ad’s intended message: DoorDash can DoorDash anything. The actual reaction, judging by the number of texts I received as soon as it aired: “What was that?”

The fourth-quarter ad starts with an explanation: “Enter this promo code here for a chance to win stuff from all of the ads.” A code that’s easy enough to read flashes on the screen, then suddenly turns to an extremely long, unreadable-at-speed string of words. 

My contacts list might not be the only crew a little confused by the concept. A CNN analysis didn’t even mention DoorDash in its ranked list of commercials. It didn’t figure in the New York Times’ commercial rankings, either. 

It’s a high-profile way to deliver the marketing message du jour: DoorDash is for more than restaurant meals. 

This year, a 30-second Super Bowl ad cost a reported $7 million. In this case, the story around the ad might be more interesting than the ad itself. AdWeek ran an interview with DoorDash chief marketer Kofi Amoo-Gottfried highlighting the huge effort of courting and sourcing prizes from Super Bowl advertisers. Even more… polarizing ads show up in DoorDash’s giveaway: a bottle of water to represent those Jesus commercials and an “I Voted” pin to rep the Super PAC-funded Kennedy-for-president ad. 

Apparently, according to Amoo-Gottfried, no brands that DoorDash approached for the promo declined to get involved. The company didn’t need buy-in to give away products, but it did need permission to include the brands in its ads and promotions.

The competition for delivering stuff is still fierce.

In its own Super Bowl ad, Uber Eats delivered a similar marketing message — ‘We deliver so much you might have trouble remembering’ — with a different approach. 

Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer headlined the spot that also included Victoria and David Beckham, Jelly Roll, and halftime performer Usher. Each celeb forgot something core to their existence so they could make room to remember how awesome Uber Eats has become. (The New York Times analysis dubbed it a “labored premise.”) 

Funny enough, it’s what Uber didn’t air that got the most attention; Uber released the full version of its Eats commercial before the game in a strategy that’s become more common. It maybe paid off. After a nonprofit called Food Allergy Research & Education objected to the original ad’s depiction of sometimes-lethal peanut allergies, the company cut the mention from Sunday’s broadcast. 

The game itself was packed with celebrity attendees and a halftime show that featured a nostalgic handful more. I watched Sunday’s Super Bowl at home in San Francisco with my Kansas City-born husband and two Swiftie daughters who may never love football as much as they do at this moment. (I refer to this series of events in our family as “pop-culture Yahtzee.”) 

With so many A-listers in one place, maybe DoorDash was right to eschew flashy celebs and sound stages for a CGI-created advertisement. It was certainly an outlier; the Wall Street Journal reports the percentage of Super Bowl ads featuring multiple celebrities has gone up nearly sixfold in the last 14 years. An industry analyst quoted in the piece called this phenomenon “celebrity soup,” since the sheer number of ad cameos makes it impossible to (ironically!) remember which celeb is hawking what. 

But more impossible to remember is the DoorDash promo code, redeemable on Sunday evening for a chance to win a prize package worth close to half a million dollars.  

Eager sweepstakes entrants took to Reddit to compare notes on the promo code, which DoorDash hasn’t confirmed in its entirety. A company rep told me DoorDash is in the process of selecting a winner and contacting them. Per AdWeek, the winner gets to decide if their identity is released before they get the goods, including that $100 to rival Uber Eats.

In its listing of prizes, DoorDash addresses the elephant on the list. Next to the promise of cash to spend with its biggest competitor (but no logo): “We almost forgot, but all the ads means all the ads.”

What else? 

• The recent launch of Virtual Dining Concepts’ “Creators’ Kitchen as Seen on TikTok” virtual brand received considerably less hype than the (perhaps premature?) announcement of the concept over two years ago. Then it was called TikTok Kitchens and scheduled to land in 1,000 restaurants by the end of 2022. So it goes. — Creators’ Kitchen

• Google allows restaurants to self-classify as “Palestinean” now. Previously, they were lumped under a “Middle Eastern” label, despite allowing “Israeli” and “Lebanese” classifications. — Eater

• Uber will lay off 168 Boston-based Drizly employees when it sunsets the app. — CBS News

• Caviar used to be special. Now it’s just another upsell. — Grubstreet