20 | FEBRUARY 25 • 2021 

OUR COMMUNITY

I

f you watched the Super Bowl along with 
nearly 100 million Americans on the 
evening of Feb. 7, you may have seen a 
commercial in which a Jewish ex-Detroiter 
played an instrumental role. 
Laura Markofsky, who grew up in West 
Bloomfield, did the PR work to get TV and 
online media buzz for the Cadillac com-
mercial that aired during the big game. 
“It’s been so exciting and truthfully a big 
honor to work on a brand of this size and 
legacy that it holds,
” Markofsky said. 
Markofsky attended Hillel Day School, 
West Bloomfield High School and the 
University of Michigan for undergrad. 
She moved to New York in 2007 and had 
stops at multiple talent agencies, eventually 
joining MSLGROUP where she currently 
serves as senior vice president.
Markofsky’s specialty is in consumer life-
style clients, especially in the luxury space, 
working on everything from American 
Express to Verizon. She’s had previous work 
in TV
, doing publicity for different shows 
on the USA Network, E! and Bravo. 
In Markofsky’s tenure with MSL, she’s 
worked on everything from JennAir, a 
luxury kitchen appliance company, to now 
working on Cadillac.
Markofsky and MSL work side-by-side 
as an integrated agency team with Leo 
Burnett, a creative agency that does work 
for Cadillac. 
“Leo Burnett had an opportunity to pres-
ent a series of Super Bowl ideas to Cadillac 
to see if anything resonated to translate off 
paper and into a TV spot,
” Markofsky said. 

“We were lucky enough that Cadillac fell in 
love with the concept.
”
The concept, ScissorHandsFree, 
paid homage to the 1990 film Edward 
Scissorhands. The commercial followed 
Edward’s son “Edgar” Scissorhands, played 
by Jewish actor Timothee Chalamet, 
through the trials and tribulations he faces 
in daily life while having scissors for hands. 
Another Jewish actor, Winona Ryder, 
played his mother, Kim.
The commercial eventually cuts to Edgar 
being gifted a new Cadillac LYRIQ, an 
upcoming electric vehicle being produced 
by the company. The car enables Super 
Cruise technology, Cadillac’s hands-free 
driving assistant, allowing Edgar to finally 
complete an everyday task without his “scis-
sorhands” getting in the way. 
“Because he’s using Super Cruise technol-
ogy, he’s able to drive and take his hands off 
the wheel, and for the first time you see a 
smile come across his face because he feels 
empowered and the freedom of not being 
hindered by his hands,
” Markofsky said.

PLANNING STRATEGY
The Leo Burnett team came up with the 
idea, and Markofsky and her team came 
up with the strategy of realizing that idea 
and garnering coverage and excitement for 
it. Carat, the media agency that supports 
Cadillac, also helped bring the idea to life.
“I think now is a time more than ever 
that people need a little bit of nostalgia and 
that comfort of things they know and love 
from when they were younger,
” she said.

An eight-second teaser of the ad aired 
on ABC’s Good Morning America on the 
Thursday before the game, and on Super 
Bowl Sunday morning, there was a coordi-
nated effort with a plethora of media inter-
views with the full ad going live online at 11 
a.m. Sunday.
When the ad went live, hits started rolling 
in, kicking off with an article in Vogue. 
“The coverage catapulted from there with 
a People.com article, CNN, Variety, Vanity 
Fair, and then by 3 p.m. that afternoon, we 
were trending on Twitter because people 
were talking about it so much,
” Markofsky 
said. “Our team kept joking we were break-
ing the internet because we were getting so 
much coverage.
” 
Markofsky said she and her team were 
working during the game, setting up a “vir-
tual war room” where the team members 
were tracking what kind of coverage was 
coming in while also proactively reaching 
out to media and sharing press materials 
with them. 
“When the ad finally aired, I cried,
” 
Markofsky reflected. “It was such an honor 
to see the results of our labor come to frui-
tion and on such an incredible stage. I don’t 
think I have ever felt such a sense of pride 
associated with a project in my career.
” 

Ex-Detroiter’s Cadillac Super Bowl 
commercial goes viral.

‘Scissorhands’ 
Thrills Fans 

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

“OUR TEAM KEPT
JOKING WE WERE
BREAKING THE 
INTERNET.”

— LAURA MARKOFSKY

Laura
Markofsky

Actors Timothee 
Chalamet and 
Winona Ryder

