By Update, 1/31: Squarespace has released its full Super Bowl ad for 2018, featuring Keanu Reeves. The ad, which is strange yet compelling in the standard Squarespace ad style, Reeves is surfing a motorcycle while reciting motivational mantras from the song "Adventures in Success" by Will Powers. The motorcycle he's riding is one created by his own company, Arch Motorcycle, which was a Squarespace customer even before Reeves signed on for the ad.
Squarespace gave Arch Motorcycle's website a redesign in time for the ad's airing, using one of its default layouts. They've also created a longer video that serves as a semi-tutorial, starring Reeves teaching people how to dream up an idea for a Squarespace website.
You can watch the ad below:
And you can watch the trippy tutorial video here:
Original post below:
Squarespace has enlisted Keanu Reeves for its latest Super Bowl campaign, its fifth in a row to air during the game. And in a new teaser for the ad debuting exclusively on Esquire.com, it looks like it's going to be just as weird as its predecessors.
The campaign will feature Reeves in three different ads, all which showcase Reeves’s motorcycle company, Arch Motorcycle, which uses Squarespace for its website. One 30-second spot will air during the Super Bowl.
In a teaser for a longer tutorial video, which will be posted online, Reeves is shown building his website in the great outdoors, seeking inspiration in a crackling fire. It’s sort of what you expect the Sad Keanu meme to do during a camping trip.
“When I found out that this Squarespace campaign would be for the Super Bowl, I got butterflies in my stomach,” Reeves said in a press release. “I love football, I love watching the Super Bowl, and I love the entertainment of the advertisements that are a part of the game and the experience.”
Arch Motorcycle, which Reeves co-founded in 2011, creates bespoke high-end motorcycles that cost a whopping $78,000, according to a 2016 Bloomberg article. The motorcycles are made to order out of a facility in Hawthorne, California. “I told [my business partner], ‘OK, the reason we should do this is because the machine is amazing, and we’re going to die’ [anyway],’” Reeves told Bloomberg. “Let’s make something.”
Previously, Squarespace has enlisted celebrities like John Malkovich and Jeff Bridges for their out-there ads. Its 2017 ad, "Calling JohnMalkovich.com," even won the Emmy for Best Commercial. It looks like the company has figured out how to combine high-caliber actors with just the right amount of weird to help it stand out in a sea of car and beer commercials.
