Kia, BMW, VW, Toyota And Kawasaki Capitalise On US Automakers’ Super Bowl LVIII Absence

American football's biggest night, the annual Super Bowl spectacle, saw its 2024 edition held last Sunday.

For the uninitiated, the annual American football spectacle known as the Super Bowl arguably stands as one of the single largest sporting events of its kind anywhere. In fact, this year’s running, dubbed Super Bowl LVIII and held last Sunday in Las Vegas, reportedly attracted over 123.4 million viewers across various broadcasting and streaming platforms.

Naturally, major corporations and brands capitalise on this annual affair’s immense viewership by investing on high-budget ads that air during the game’s breaks. Obviously, the slots at halftime is where viewership numbers usually peaks, thus also explaining the reportedly hefty US7 million (approx. RM33.36 million) starting fee for a 30-sec spot.

This year's Super Bowl LVIII saw the Kansas City Chiefs pitted against the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas. The spectacle was broadcasted - and streamed - to over 123.4 million viewers. (Image: NFL.com)

Historically, major automakers – both American and foreign – are amongst the biggest investors for a Super Bowl halftime ad, but this year’s five automotive ads that aired for the event marked one jarring difference over past years. For the first time in 23 years, none of the major American automaking giants – GM, Ford, and Chrysler (Stellantis) – opted in on any ad spots.

In turn, this gave leeway to foreign marques like Kia, BMW, VW, Toyota and Kawasaki to swoop to do their best at wooing American buyers towards their latest wares. Apart from the latter two Japanese makes, the other trio mentioned led the charge – literally and figuratively – with their ads by featuring their latest EVs, each proving to be memorable in their own way too.

 So which of these automakers had the best ad for this year’s big game? Well, we’ve compiled all five of them below for you to view and decided for yourself…

1. A Touching V2L Demo By The Kia EV9

Korean automaker Kia is banking big on its flagship Kia EV9 EV SUV in the American market. For that, Kia opted to produce and air this rather touching Super Bowl ad, which perhaps doubled as a classy way to demonstrate said EV SUV’s built-in V2L function, along with its all-weather driveability, comfort, and segment-leading travel range. It’s also the longest-running ad of the lot at 1 minute and 10 seconds, thus signalling a high amount of investment by the automaker for this ad too.

2. You’ll Be “Talkin Like Walken” Thanks To The BMW i5

World renowned Bavarian marque BMW elected to comedically remind folks that while imitation is the best form of flattery, none can eclipse true originals. In this case, BMW is likening its knack for making ultimate driving machines – like its all-new BMW i5 EV saloon featured in this spot – to Oscar-winner and one-time James Bond villain Christopher Walken’s distinct and unmistakable speech pattern.

3. Feeling All The Feels With The VW ID.Buzz

Another German automaker that seized the initiative was Volkswagen – or VW for short. Though the ‘Dieselgate’ scandal from 2008 may seem like a distant memory for most now, it’s evident that VW is still trying hard to suppress that out of the memories of folks in America through this nostalgia-filled and emotionally-rich ad paced to the soundtrack of Neil Diamond’s “I Am… I Said”. Central to which was the automaker’s announcement of the ID.Buzz EV MPV’s US market release for later this year.

4. Toyota Spotlights The “Multi-purpose Handle” In The Tacoma

With Kia and VW both opting to strike the feelings chord, Japanese automaking giant Toyota instead took a similar note as BMW in adopting a more light-hearted and comedic approach. This year, their ad featured the US-market Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck. More specifically, Toyota puts a spotlight on a little-known standard feature present in the Tacoma’s cabin.

5. A Bid To Make Mullets Cool Again By Kawasaki

 Before any of you nay-sayers point out that Kawasaki doesn’t make cars, we decided to include them anyway simply because the product featured has four wheels and a steering wheel, and the fact this is the Japanese OEM’s first ever big-budget Super Bowl ad for the US market – arguably its biggest market too.

Predictably, Kawasaki didn’t disappoint in its Super Bowl debut which features its new Ridge ATV. At the same time, the ad comedically celebrates the “Great American Outdoors”, featured an appearance by wrestling superstar ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, and hilariously tries to make mullets cool again.

So which of this ads stood as the best in your view? As usual, share your take in the comments below, as well as our social medial pages…