The 30-second commercial is a comedic and alternate-historical take on what would have happened if the city of Troy had a CrowdStrike security expert. The spot opens with the Greek army rolling up to the gates of Troy in the Trojan Horse, the story depicted in Homer’s “Odyssey.” In the ad, instead of opening the city, Troy has a technician analyze the horse with a basic laptop. The threat is detected, and the wooden horse, filled with ancient Greek troops, is sent hurtling toward a cliff.
Of course, the Trojan Horse motif is a popular one in hacker circles, and the term is used to describe basic computer attacks. Trojan Horse software is malware designed to appear safe, so users willingly download it and then it infects their devices.
CrowdStrike produced the Super Bowl commercial in-house, and credits production to RadicalMedia, visual effects to Framestore, and editing to Union Editorial.
The spot is sure to stir up some more attention around the company, which is no stranger to online conspiracy theories. CrowdStrike’s work with the DNC, to uncover the culprits of the attack on its servers, put the company smack in the middle of the polarized political climate in the U.S. The DNC hack was linked to Russia, using phishing attacks to deploy malware dubbed Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear. CrowdStrike also analyzed the infamous 2014 Sony hack.
CrowdStrike’s revenue jumped 57% to $1.6 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2023. The company, which has more than 20,000 customers, plans to report its full-year results in early March.