Walter White is back, but this time he’s not breaking bad–he’s breaking open a bag of “crunchy and wholesome” white cheddar snacks for a Super Bowl ad!
Breaking Bad and its anti-hero Walter White–in full Heisenberg attire–will be the star of a PopCorners in an ad that will debut during Super LVII next year, to be held in Glendale, Arizona. That’s a nearly six-hour drive for Walter White from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The exact contents of the ad are more secret than the ingredients of Blue Sky, but will the tease (seen below) hype Breaking Bad fans up for the big game? You’re goddamn right.
In a statement, the vice president of Frito-Lays marketing said, “We are excited to revive one of the most famous television shows of all time to tell the PopCorners’ story for the first time at the Super Bowl… and we can’t wait to see fans’ reactions to who and what’s coming.”
Last year, the average cost of a 30-second ad spot during the Super Bowl was nearly $7 million. For comparison, it cost around $42,000 in 1967, the year of Super Bowl I. Even adjusted for inflation, the price would be $375,000.
This isn’t the first time Breaking Bad was used as a marketing tool for a Super Bowl ad. In 2015, Bryan Cranston reprised his role of Walter White for an Esurance ad that aired during Super Bowl XLIX. But since that ad aired under two years after the series finale, the impact wasn’t quite as strong as the PopCorners one could be.
Breaking Bad seems to have never left the public eye since it went off the air in 2013. In addition to the 2019 film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and AMC’s spin-off series Better Call Saul–which concluded earlier this year–the Emmy-winning series has proven to have a major pop culture impact. Earlier this year, it was announced statues of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman would be erected in Albuquerque.
What do you think of the first look at the upcoming Breaking Bad Super Bowl commercial? Which other characters do you hope to see make cameos?