SimpliSafe Plays on Contemporary American Fears in First-Ever Super Bowl Ad

The 30-second ad, produced by Austin-based creative agency Preacher, features a litany of warnings about modern fears like job-replacing automation and privacy-invading smart devices mixed with ominous pronouncements from fictional social media posts and news stories.

“What you don’t know about your garage door could kill you,” a newscaster said in one such warning.

“Someone’s been stealing packages,” a group of neighbors meant to represent a Nextdoor-like social network chant.

While SimpliSafe has been around for more than a decade, CMO Melina Engel said the Boston-based company hasn’t focused much on building brand awareness until now. The company is hoping the high-profile appearance will kick its larger TV campaign into a higher gear and help the company reach beyond the 3 million customers it claims to have.

Wade Devers, SimpliSafe’s in-house creative director, said the company hadn’t initially planned to run a Super Bowl ad when they began producing the campaign, but once the marketing team heard the creative pitch, the brand decided it wanted to go big with it.

“We found an idea that I think has some real cultural resonance and something that could take advantage of the Super Bowl opportunity in a unique way for us,” Devers said.

SimpliSafe is one of two home security companies running Super Bowl ads for the first time this year. ADT also announced its own third-quarter spot over the weekend.

The brand also released a minute-long extended cut of the ad online.