T-Mobile Wrings Comedy from Text in Winning Super Bowl Ad Series

Super Bowl LIII Water Cooler Talking Points: Amazon Alexa will take over (inevitable), the game was anything but thrilling (defense!), Tom Brady is the G.O.A.T (we get it already), free Taco Bell… say that again? T-Mobile is offering free tacos?!

In each quarter during Super Bowl LIII, T-Mobile ran spots in an effort to jumpstart its three-year-old rewards program (T-Mobile Tuesdays)—which has been largely ignored (of the carrier’s 74 million users, only 4 million use it). The program has offered perks such as free Papa John’s and a one-year MLB TV subscription for only $115. On Super Bowl Sunday, they revealed their new partnership with Taco Bell (free tacos!) and its long-standing collaboration with Lyft ($10 ride credit).

Each ad was 30 seconds and portrayed a fictional text chain—from a detailed reply (T-Mobile’s unlimited plan) to a dad texting a Google search to his daughter (T-Mobile’s will pay off your current contract to switch plans) to a “what’s for dinner” conversation (T-Mobile’s Taco Bell deal) to a hysterical conversation with a Lyft driver. The ads were quick, fun, and had great music (Fine Young Cannibals!).

Time will tell if these ads further T-Mobile’s rewards program with its customers. There has been some backlash, but since the ads premiered T-Mobile has been mentioned more than 14,000 times on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit with 73.3% posting positive feedback. “Mmm…  mmm… that’s amore …”