With the Super Bowl set to celebrate its 50th anniversary next month, Grey Nww York launched a campaign for AARP sharing stories of people who characterize “Fearless at 50.”
Four different AARP members get the spotlight in the campaign, through a series of four ads. narrated by CBS sportscaster and AARP community ambassador James Brown, whose booming voice adds an air of authority to the spots. A 30-second spot introduces Cynthia, who jumped out of her own 50th birthday cake (kind of a strange thing to do…), improv-loving doctor Hector and Guy, a firefighter “lighting the business world on fire.” Each is also given their own 15-second spot, in addition to one highlighting belly dancing 50-year-old Brenda. The timing of the campaign, of course, was carefully chosen. While AARP won’t be shelling out the $5 million it would cost for a 30-second Super Bowl spot, the brand can still capitalize on the anticipation of the big game’s 50th anniversary.
“One of the things we like about aligning our brand with football is that football is ageless,” Barbara Shipley, senior vice president of brand integration at AARP, told Adweek. “With the Super Bowl turning 50, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”
“AARP is not about retiring. It’s about living,” added Grey New York creative director David Cohen. “We are trying, in everything we are doing, to surprise and delight people and tell them that people at 50 are a lot different today then they were when your grandmother was 50.”