Behind the Scenes: The Making of a William Mattar Super Bowl Commercial 

Haunted by the ghost of Ludwig van Beethoven, members of the creative team producing the 2024 William Mattar Super Bowl commercial couldn’t sleep for three nights in a row—and they couldn’t have been happier.  

The reason they couldn’t sleep was that a rendition of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with lyrics they’d added kept running through their heads, and they took that to mean they had come up with the perfect jingle for the Mattar commercial—one so catchy it was impossible to shake. 

“We kept hearing it over and over again in our heads—Hurt. In. A. Caaar. Call. Bill. Mat-taaar—and we said, ‘That’s it!’” says Ross Lerner, one of two men credited with the Beethoven-inspired jingle and the owner of Lerner Advertising, which does the Mattar firm’s TV commercials.  

Beethoven’s distinctive Symphony No. 5 in C minor, sometimes called the Fate Symphony, was composed between 1804 and 1808 and is one of the better-known compositions in classical music. Its four-note opening—variously described as “short-short-short-long” or dit-dit-dit-dat—is said to have been either (1) inspired by the song of a yellowhammer bird Beethoven heard while walking in the park, or (2) conceived as the musical rendering of a metaphorical sound: that of fate knocking at the door. 

Whatever inspired the Fifth Symphony, Bill—who was centrally involved in the making of his latest Super Bowl commercial, strolling early every morning into the Buffalo History Museum, where it was shot, his brown attaché case in hand—loves the result. No stranger to catchy ads—the slogan “Hurt in a Car? Call William Mattar” is a familiar refrain across New York State—Bill says his latest commercial might just be in a league of its own.  

“I can tell you my 2024 Super Bowl commercial is my favorite, no question, hands down,” says Bill, whose firm handles only personal injury cases stemming from traffic accidents, advocating for maximum compensation for those who are hurt on the road.  

For a peek behind the scenes of the making of the commercial, watch the video below. 

And look for the commercial itself on Super Bowl Sunday!