Carnival's Big New Super Bowl Ad: Brought to You by an Oscar Winner and a President

Carnival Corporation debuted its first ever Super Bowl ad during Sunday’s big game, and it featured a Presidential-level spokesperson.

The 60-second spot, titled “Come Back to the Sea,” features a speech by John F. Kennedy about people’s connection with the water.

“We are tied to the ocean… and when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it … we are going back from whence we came,” we hear Kennedy say during the voice-over, a snipped from his 1962 speech at the America’s Cup. The ad features various beauty shots of ships from Carnival’s various cruise lines — including Carnival, Cunard, Princess and Holland America — at sea.

Related: 10 Things You Need to Know About Carnival’s Massive New Ship

The ad, directed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister (“The Dark Knight,” “Inception”), is the biggest salvo in Carnival Corporation’s major advertising campaign to entice people to take another look at cruising.

“We wanted to convey that same feeling with people who have never cruised by showing the magnificence of the sea and its special place in our lives,” Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corporation, says in a statement. “Our overall goal is to successfully share that cruising is not what some people think it is.”

While this is the biggest Carnival ad we’ve seen, it won’t be the last. Carnival Corporation’s waging a major marketing campaign that, for the first time, is highlighting all nine of its cruise lines. Next week, it will announce the winner of its “Annual Cruise For Life” promotion, where they asked consumers to vote for their favorite Carnival marketing campaign.

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