Super Bowl LVIII did it again with a Taylor Swift appearance and a star-studded Usher halftime show. There was also no shortage of clever advertising. But among the most clever advertisements out there? Yes, those are the multiple that featured drones.
Drones appeared on millions of TVs across America in that Popeyes ad. Meanwhile, fans on the ground in Las Vegas, were treated to not one but two drone shows. Both were advertisements in themselves. Here are 3 incredible drone highlights to come out of Super Bowl LVIII:
Drones deliver Ken Jeong an order of Popeyes chicken wings
Actor, writer, and comedian Ken Jeong got a taste of Popeyes’ new Wings — delivered to him via drone. The premise of the ad is this: Jeong cryogenically froze himself 52 years ago, waiting for the best-ever wing. Upon unfrozeeing, he discovers the biggest changes over the past 52 years. That included drones, driverless cars, scooters, even new breeds of doodle dogs and, yes, the chicken wings.
The advertisement was created by Popeyes’ creative agency, McKinney. Filmmaker and MTV Video Music and Grammy Award Winner Calmatic directed the ad. Calmatic is best known for directing movies including “House Party” and “White Men Can’t Jump.”
Watch the full ad here (drones appear at about the 0:44 mark):
Visit Newport Beach hosts post-game drone show
Regular Drone Girl readers already knew this one was coming. Last week, we reported on the Visit Newport Beach drone show. Yep, that was an ad directed at the fans in attendance at Vegas, where 1,000 drone flew for a 12-minute light show. The show over Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas occured one hour after the big game. It was all an ad put on by the destination marketing agency behind Newport Beach, a Southern California beach city.
SkyWorx, which is based in Boise, Idaho, powered the show.
Sky Elements launches drone show in front of Resorts World
That wasn’t the only drone show in Las Vegas this weekend. Another drone show company, Sky Elements, put on a show flying in front of Resorts World Casino. Resorts World is one of the newer, Hilton-owned Las Vegas hotels.
For their show, a fleet of 1,000 drones took flight at Resorts World. They flew a football-themed show including drones in the shape of gigantic helmets and towering 400-foot-tall football players.
“As huge football fans ourselves, we knew we wanted to fly an epic drone show for the Big Game,” said Preston Ward, Chief Pilot of Sky Elements.
That show was hardly Sky Elements’ first time in Vegas. One of their biggest performances to-date was also in Vegas. That was an 1,000-drone F1 drone show.
The Super Bowl loves drones
As these three instances of Super Bowl drones on the single night of Super Bowl LVIII indicated, the famous football faceoff loves drones.
The 2022 Super Bowl gave us multiple drone light shows over downtown Los Angeles in the days leading up to the game. And in 2019, the Maroon 5 half time show featured not just Big Boi, Travis Scott, and Sleepy Brown, but also a drone show. That was for the Pepsi Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
Then in 2017, hundreds of drones flew during Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show during Super Bowl LI at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
The Super Bowl goes hand-in-hand with ads — and drones can make for pretty slick advertising. But the Super Bowl LVIII entailed all sorts of hilarious and clever advertising. Many advertisers took advantage of the game’s Vegas location to get creative.
In another hilarious, non-drone ad that’s too good not to share. Doritos turned the iconic Luxor hotel’s pyramid into a giant Doritos chip.