The 2015 ad featuring Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel discussing the internet was for the BMW i3.
The Super Bowl XLIX commercial, titled “Newfangled Idea,” revisited a genuine 1994 Today Show clip in which Couric and Gumbel struggled to understand terms such as “internet,” “.com,” and the “@” symbol. The ad then jumped to 2015, showing the pair trying to grasp BMW’s new electric car.
The BMW i3 was a compact battery-electric vehicle built by BMW’s “i” sub-brand. Its launch campaign presented electric-car technology as the next “newfangled” idea destined to become familiar, just as the internet had. The commercial is sometimes misremembered as an ad for BMW generally, or for a later electric model, but the promoted vehicle was specifically the i3.
BMW introduced the i3 in 2013, making it one of the company’s earliest mass-produced electric vehicles. It stood out for its lightweight carbon-fiber-reinforced-plastic passenger cell, distinctive upright design, and optional range-extender engine in some markets.