Matthew McConaughey Feeds Conspiracy in Uber Eats Super Bowl Ad

Uber Eats’ Big Game ad for Super Bowl LIX has finally exposed the NFL’s biggest conspiracy… football was invented to sell food.

Created by agency Special U.S and directed by O Positive’s Jim Jenkins, the film is set to air nationally during the second quarter of the game on February 9th, and takes viewers through football history to reveal the truth – with many of the parts played by Matthew McConaughey.

The Texan actor, playing legendary coaches like Mike Ditka and Vince Lombardi among others, is also joined by Martha Stewart, Charli xcx, Kevin Bacon, Greta Gerwig, and ‘Hot Ones’ host, Sean Evans, to expose the undeniable link between food and football.

The creative process for the ad began in July as Special U.S developed the ‘Football is for Food’ platform – where Matthew McConaughey first collaborated with the brand. In an attempt to link football with food in a way that Uber Eats could own, Dave Horton and Matthew Woodhams-Roberts, CCOs and partners at the agency, tell LBB’s Ben Conway they created “the dumbest conspiracy of the year” – but one so successful, commercially and culturally, that they simply had to elevate the idea for the Big Game.

“As we got deeper and deeper, we realised it was such rich territory,” says Matthew. “You’ve even got football teams that were created because of food – Green Bay had a meat packing plant with a football team, and that became the Green Bay Packers… Those things are real! There's an association between football and food, and we just kept building on that.”

This Packers insight was the genesis of the ‘Century of Cravings’ Super Bowl spot, which explores all of these links throughout football history. “There's no reason that you would put a professional team in Buffalo, conceivably, except that they invented buffalo wings,” which happens to be a popular food during games,” jokes Dave. “So, there's all these fun connections to shine a light on.”

Above: Social video for the campaign, starring Sean Evans

Being a Super Bowl ad, the creatives then ideated potential celebrity cameos with their own food connections. Kevin Bacon, Charli xcx with her song ‘Apple’ and Martha Stewart’s culinary empire all aligned with this concept. This slight mish-mash of talent is nothing new for the brand, however.

For the last few years, Special has tried to put unexpected groups of famous faces together, whether that’s reuniting ‘Friends’ co-stars David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston with the Beckhams, or Danny Trejo with OBJ. And this is no different at Super Bowl LIX. “We always try to find a rewarding connection that isn't necessarily the one that's on the surface but as soon as you uncover it, it's incredibly gratifying to see.” says Dave. 

“In this instance, it’s an NFL-focused campaign, and we're uncovering things through the history of the NFL and playing with the lore of the game. That's geared towards people who love the NFL. But the Super Bowl is [for] such a massive audience – basically everybody – so we wanted to also find ways to include people that would connect with different parts of culture.”

“We brought Martha Stewart and Charli xcx together on set,” adds Matthew, “two very Zeitgeisty icons of different generations who found themselves, actually, extremely close in many ways. I guess they're both very ‘brat’, as Charli would say. They really had a lot of fun together.”

When looking to combine a surprising mix of talent, the creatives explain that the brand’s history of self-deprecating humour has helped them find the right fit – namely, celebrities who are willing to adopt that same playful tone. “We’re not using them as celebrity spokespeople, we’re weaving them into the narrative of the essential idea in a unique way that feels true to them,” says Matthew. “Audiences appreciate and feel that relatability when you see celebrities poking fun at themselves.”

“Overwhelmingly, people are eager to give you what you need from them when they both embrace the comedic premise, and feel as if they are being treated respectfully,” explains director Jim Jenkins.

"Kevin Bacon’s two lines in the spot are, ‘Everybody loves Bacon’ and ‘Everybody loves Bacon’,” adds Dave. “That’s being willing to have fun with yourself!”

Of course, the ‘Footloose’ star isn’t the only actor in the ad, as Matthew McConaughey runs riot as a handful of footballing greats and a “mildy-unhinged conspiracy theorist”, as Jim describes the character. “But the whole concept was fertile ground from the beginning,” adds the director. “I’m a big football fan (Dolphins, unfortunately) so from the first time I read the initial script I thought people would love this, because I certainly did. The script made me smile, and Dolphins fans don’t get to do that all that often.”

“It was so much fun to see Matthew McConaughey transform in each scene, become Mike Ditka and [Vince] Lombardi, and be willing to throw himself into these roles,” says Dave. “It's not something you often see Matthew do, character-work like that. He also loves and knows a ton about football. So he would talk about the best way to tell different jokes and was really instrumental in the whole thing.”

Above: Social video for the campaign, starring Greta Gerwig

Ensuring the crew sufficiently captured enough of these comedic moments was Jim’s primary concern. “And you can only get there by drilling down into each scene by shooting plenty of funny options, and capturing tighter and tighter timings of those options,” he says. “This script obviously covers a lot of ground historically, so there was a lot to get right to nail every detail of the various looks, but the clarity of the comedy is always what matters most.”

“Super Bowl ads in particular have to stand out, since they are generally watched just to be critiqued,” Jim continues. “Plus, they are viewed in large groups by 115 million inebriated people, which is different from most commercials, which are viewed by far fewer people – although most are probably still inebriated.”

The creatives also note that the surrounding content before and after the gameday spot has become “just as important”, describing the process as creating an “intriguing ecosystem”, involving teasers, social videos and stunts - like the Caesars Superdome takeover – to pull in different audiences.

Once the audiences are drawn in, it’s up to the humour and details of the Big Game ad to keep people engaged. And the sheer amount of references to current and ex-players, teams, stadiums and more touchpoints from NFL history posed quite the challenge this year – requiring a lot of permissions, and convincing everyone it was all in good fun.

Historically accurate set design and costuming, on top of genuine insights, like an authentically reconstructed football from the 19th century and period-accurate stadium designs, contribute to this level of immersion and serve to make viewers question whether there really might be something behind the conspiracy.

Matthew says, “We admit to this being a pretty dumb conspiracy but the detail and the connections are there, and the more fun we had with that, the more authentic it was, and the more it makes you think that maybe it's true.”

At the heart of this Super Bowl campaign – and Uber Eats’ wider brand platforms with Special U.S – lies the self-deprecating humour and, above all, a simplicity that connects with the millions of Big Game viewers – whether they’re NFL historians or not. “With every new campaign, we're looking for a very clean, simple message that then we can have absurd fun with,” he continues. “Uber Eats wants to stay with this very relatable humour, and that self-deprecation is part of the relatability of the brand. There’s plenty of room to stretch that idea in new campaigns, in new product offerings, in the growth of the brand.”

“It’s a tone that we’ve found very useful for being pretty straightforward with people, and just having fun,” adds Dave. “Whether that’s saying ‘we deliver stuff you can't eat’ and making fun of our name, or suggesting football and food are somehow tied together in a vast conspiracy. It’s a lens through which we deliver our message and it works really well for us.”