Reese’s Thinks Candy Can Crush Celebrity Super Bowl Commercials

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Super Bowl commercials and popular celebrities go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

So how come there’s no famous face putting a spotlight on Reese’s candy during the Big Game? A new Super Bowl ad for the Hershey’s-backed treat will show fans taking extreme measures at the site of an active volcano to taste lava, clearly confused after the introduction of a new version of Reese’s that has chocolate lava.

There is a 94-year-old woman among the crowd who gets into an interesting mix-up, but there are no movie stars, no sports figures, no politicians. “I don’t think we want to share the stage with someone else, you know?” says Ryan Riess, vice president of brand strategy and creative development, The Hershey Company, during a recent interview. “I think there are definitely times to use celebrities, but the Super Bowl is one where our goal is to have Reese’s be the star.” Reese’s will rely on a strategy that is embraced with less frequency each year.

The current norms for Super Bowl advertising make the use of celebrities almost de rigueur. Thanks to exploding costs for commercial time — Fox has sought from over $7 million to more than $8 million for a 30-second slot — advertisers need assurances that their promotional messages will get noticed.