Booking.com and Idris Elba Bring Unsexy Back in Super Bowl Ad

The online travel agency turns dad jokes into an argument for reliability

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How do you build a convincing argument for an unsexy-but-practical business model? Get the sexiest man alive to make it for you.

Dutch online travel agency Booking.com brought in filmmaker, musician (“ask Meghan and Harry”), automotive enthusiast, and Golden Globe-winning actor Idris Elba to pitch the brand’s square-but-reliable service to a Super Bowl audience. The 30-second ad will air at the beginning of the fourth quarter and does its best to turn the people’s Bond-in-waiting into an Aloha-shirt clad, wood-splitting, comfortable purveyor of dad jokes who—like the brand—is neither “flashy, sexy or lit.”

“We

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