McCann's Nat Geo Spot Tops Wall Street Journal Readers Poll as Best Super Bowl Ad

NEW YORK, Feb. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- McCann's Super Bowl commercial promoting National Geographic's upcoming "Genius" TV series was voted as this year's best Super Bowl ad by readers of The Wall Street Journal. Taking the top position in the newspaper's creative poll follows the McCann spot's triumph earlier this week in winning the Super Clio award, a special Clio creative award honoring the best Super Bowl commercial as decided by a panel of industry creative leaders.

The Wall Street Journal polls its readers annually asking them to vote on their choice of the best ads that ran during the Super Bowl. McCann's victory in the highly competitive creative showcase of the Super Bowl follows other recognition won recently by the agency, including rising to the global rank of No. 2 in The Gunn Report's list of the most creatively awarded networks and similarly moving up to No. 2 in Ad Age's 2017 Agency A-List.

"Genius, which will be National Geographic's first scripted TV programming, will star Geoffrey Rush as Albert Einstein in a 10-part series premiering on April 25.  In the TV commercial, Rush is seen playing the violin, as Einstein himself did as part of his thought process, but the music he's playing turns out surprisingly to be Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." The spot itself ran after Lady Gaga's own halftime show during the Super Bowl.

"We wanted to create a beautiful commercial that was true to the character of Albert Einstein," said Eric Silver, Chief Creative Officer, North America, McCann. "We knew Einstein frequently played violin as a brainstorming technique. The timing of our placement immediately after Lady Gaga's halftime performance felt like serendipity, giving us the perfect platform to bring the adored physicist to life in a memorable way." 

"This spot was an incredible opportunity for us to reach the largest TV audience of the year and also a way to reintroduce our brand philosophy to push boundaries, go further and be pioneering in everything we do," said Jill Cress, CMO, National Geographic Partners. "It allowed us to show a broader audience that we can take a topic like Albert Einstein and make it relevant, timely and create a global conversation around our series 'Genius', and the National Geographic brand in general."

McCann's creative honors throughout 2016 included having the single-most awarded campaign at the Cannes Lions Festival with both the McCann U.S. and U.K. agencies ranking No. 1 in their respective countries; being named "Network of the Year" globally at the London International Awards, Cresta, and Midas financial marketing awards; in Europe at the Golden Drum Awards; in Latin America at the three FIAP, El Ojo and El Sol regional awards; FP7 Dubai// McCann's recognition by the EFFIEs as the No. 1 most effective agency in the world; McCann Health's being named "Network of the Year" both  at the 2016 Cannes Lions Health Festival and at the Global Awards; and Momentum and Weber Shandwick also receiving agency of the year honors. 

About McCann Worldgroup
McCann Worldgroup, part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), is a leading global marketing services company with 24,000 employees in more than 100 countries, comprising McCann (advertising), MRM//McCann (digital marketing/relationship management), Momentum Worldwide (total brand experience), McCann Health (professional/dtccommunications), CRAFT (global adaptation and production), UM (media management), Weber Shandwick (public relations), FutureBrand (consulting/design), ChaseDesign (shopper marketing) and PMK-BNC(entertainment/brand/popular culture)

SOURCE McCann Worldgroup