Entrepreneurs and Innovators Take Center Stage In Super Bowl Ads

Frank Gruber February 6, 2012 Tweet

We already covered a couple times (here and here) how this years Super Bowl would be different as it offered more social and mobile interactivity than ever. Now I want to focus on the fact that a few of the Super Bowl advertisements put technology, innovation and entrepreneurship as their focal point.

Best Buy’s Super Bowl ad was the most obvious use of entrepreneurs as it showcased folks like Jack Dorsey, founder of Square and creator of Twitter, Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram, the founders of Shazam Chris Barton and Avery Wang, the creators of Zynga’s Words with Friends brothers Paul and David Bettner as well as inventors like Ray Kurzweil, among others. It was great to see the spotlight put on entrepreneurs. It’s worth noting that the commercial did not include one woman – and that was noticed by many. Perhaps Best Buy can follow it up with an all women cast? Watch the Best Buy ad in it’s entirety below.

The Kauffman Foundation also took to the airwaves to launch it’s new initiative, WillItBeYou.com? The site offers some suggested sites and resources for inspiration, networking, creating, mentoring and capital as a starting point for entrepreneurs (of course, they are missing one…). You can watch the Kauffman ad below. Like the Best Buy ad, Kauffman’s ad has also be called out for it’s young white male depiction as the only face for future entrepreneurs.

While GoDaddy has been getting a lot of flack for its position on SOPA and their racy ads, it’s worth pointing out their initial ad (1 of 2 that aired) showcased the .CO domain name partnership. .CO is becoming more and more popular among startup founders as we highlighted the .CO boom previously. Watch the GoDaddy/.CO ad below.

Finally, Sketchers made a quick cameo of serial entrepreneur and tech investor Mark Cuban in their ad, which also featured a very cute French Bulldog. Watch the Sketchers advertisement below.