Courtesy of BMW
In January 1994, Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel were introduced to something that would soon change the world. During a taping of the Today show, they began discussing a new email address to which viewers could send feedback. This flustered the usually unflappable hosts, especially Gumbel, who didn’t know what to make of the “@” symbol.
“I wasn’t prepared to translate that as I was doing that little tease,” he says. “That little mark with the ‘a’ and then the ring around it.” Later, Gumbel wonders: “What is Internet, anyway?”
“Internet is uh, that massive computer network,” Couric responds. “The one that’s becoming really big now.”
The clip eventually ended up on YouTube, where it has been viewed 1.6 million times. Now, 21 years later, Couric and Gumbel are revisiting their moment of charming infamy by appearing together in a Super Bowl XLIX commercial for BMW. The 60-second spot, which will air in the first quarter, showcases the i3, an electric vehicle made primarily of carbon fiber and produced in a wind-powered factory.
The full commercial:
Distilled to one line, the theme of the ad is “Big ideas take a little getting used to.” This is something Couric and Gumbel know a bit about. In the early 1990s, the nascent Internet mystified them. But both told USA TODAY that they weren’t alone.
“I’m kind of amused by the whole thing,” said Gumbel, the longtime host of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. “I guess I’d simply say that in being so ignorant about it, I was just like everybody else – only I happened to be on TV showing my ignorance.”
“I think people our age relate to what we were saying, and people who are younger enjoy mocking us for saying it,” said Couric, who’s now Yahoo’s global news anchor. “Although I think a lot of my contemporaries act like they were much more aware of what was going on than we were. And I think that’s a case of hindsight being 20/20.”
The new ad debuted on Monday during the Today show and features both old and new footage. Couric and Gumbel spend the second half of the spot driving the newfangled BMW i3. By design, their conversation in the car is similar to the one they had about the Internet in 1994 on Today.
Courtesy of BMW
“Look, we’re not actors, and so we’re not really acting,” Gumbel said. “We’re just being ourselves and it fit with what they asked us to do.”
Trudy Hardy, vice president of marketing of BMW North America, said that the initial cut of the spot included less of the two broadcasters bantering than in the final version. But the second half of the spot was missing something.
“I didn’t quite know what it needed,” Hardy said. “But the agency went back and said, ‘Let’s bring Bryant and Katie back. Let’s film them in the car.’ And I said, ‘That is it.’”
Hardy said that the ad concept was one of 10 initially devised by agency Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + partners. The automaker hasn’t advertised in the Super Bowl since airing two 30-second spots in 2011 and wanted to make sure its new campaign was unique. “You need to make sure you have a Super Bowl-worthy commercial,” Hardy said.
Last fall, the company reached out to Couric and Gumbel. Neither needed much convincing. Gumbel even said that he and Couric had dinner and laughed about the idea. “We’re gonna have so much fun doing this,” Gumbel recalled the two saying to each other. “And that’s been the way we’ve approached it from the beginning.”
B-roll of the commercial:
For Couric, who as a desk assistant at ABC News in the late 1970s changed the ribbon on the Teletype machine, it’s been fascinating living through the technological revolution.
“I had a cell phone that was the size of a shoebox,” she said. “It’s just remarkable when you think back on it, to realize the changes that we’ve witnessed in a very short period of time.”
The world has definitely changed, although Gumbel is still adapting to it. “I still don’t Tweet,” he said. “I’m not on Facebook. I’m not on Instagram. I’m 66 years old. Yes, I know my way around the computer and I do have email and I’m on every day. But I wouldn’t say I’m Internet-savvy in the least. I know my limitations.”
Two decades after their first conversation about the Internet, Gumbel and Couric aren’t surprised that it continues to make people laugh – sympathetically, of course.
“I guess it still resonates because the future kind of creeps up on us,” Gumbel said, “whether we want to realize it or not.”