Wix posts teasers of first Super Bowl ad

By Viva Sarah Press

ISRAEL21c-It's all about pigtails and humble pie: Five NFL legends star in Israeli DIY website builder's $4.5 million commercial.

Super Bowl XLIX is nearly here, and that means the year's most talked-about (and most expensive) commercials are getting ready to prove the worthiness of their exorbitant price tags. Wix.com, Israel's make-your-own-website sensation, has released quirky teasers for its $4.5 million 30-second TV spot set to air in the fourth quarter.

Wix is the second Israeli company to launch a Super Bowl campaign-SodaStream ran ads in 2013 and 2014.

The ad campaign features five NFL legends-Brett Favre, Emmitt Smith, Terrell Owens, Larry Allen and Franco Harris – who have chosen to set up small side businesses. The bogus businesses include the brilliantly named Favre & Carve: specialty cheeses and meats Charcuterie; Smith's Double Deuce Club, a country dancing school and hangout (he was on "Dancing with the Stars"); T.O's Humble Pies; Harris's Immaculate Receptions; and Allen's All Pro Tow. All the businesses are a humorous play on the athletes' personalities and accomplishments.

Each of the businesses has a website, Facebook page, Twitter account and videos – and all were created specifically for the Wix campaign. Wix has released teaser ads to social media and YouTube.

Wix has hash-tagged the commercials as #ItsThatEasyCampaign. The company is hoping to get the message across that creating a web presence is super easy, even for very small ventures. "There's zero coding," Eric Mason, director of marketing and communications, tells mediapost.com. And that makes it a great Web tool for "chiropractors, doctors, babysitters, lawyers just starting out and for weddings where the bride and groom want a kick-ass Web site. They see Wix and say, 'Whoa, I can do that!'"

The Super Bowl ad campaign employs a lot of humor, especially football humor.

Some feedback on the sites shows that not everyone understands that the NFL retirees are not actually small business owners; people have been asking where they can buy Favre's specialty cheeses or Owens's pies.

So, it makes sense that Wix is reportedly planning to sell real items from the advertising campaign. According to some reports, they'll be printing t-shirts with the pretend business logos and selling them in the lead-up to Game Day on Feb. 1.