After a four-year absence, BMW returns to the Big Game with a TV ad for its i3 electric hatch titled “Newfangled Idea” that will air during Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, February 1, 2015.
The humorous 60-second spot stars former ‘Today Show’ hosts Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel with BMW turning the clock back some 20 or so odd years ago when emails and the internet where novel curiosities.
“What is that little mark with the ‘a’ and then the ring around it?” asks Gumbel, while Couric wonders what the internet is. After the flashback, the two hosts are shown driving around in an i3 pondering about electric cars.
“In 1994, people had not yet grasped what the internet was, which is similar to how electric mobility is viewed today,” commented Trudy Hardy, Vice President of Marketing, BMW of North America.
“When BMW offered me the chance to turn back the clock to 1994 and make fun of Bryant—and myself – I jumped at the opportunity,” said Katie Couric. “The tape doesn’t lie, we weren’t exactly visionaries back then, but thankfully in 2015 we are much more adept @ recognizing game-changing, environmentally friendly innovations like the BMW i3.”