The Super Bowl is something that many look forward to every year. Despite the health crisis, the game continued to attract hundreds of avid fans to the stadiums. But most importantly, many parties at home so that they could watch the games together and enjoy the performance of the break. Due to the sheer volume of people who support the game, it is not surprising that brands use these events to showcase some of their products and even pay a lot of money for their ads to run.
Unfortunately, some ads are not approved. And today, we are seeing a very disappointed T-Mobile CEO, Mike Sievert, because of a banned Super Bowl LV commercial that was not allowed to appear in the big game on Sunday.
According reports, Sievert claims that one of his Super Bowl commercials was rejected. The announcement, starring Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, was banned in the big game because of a protected rights agreement with Verizon, which is the official sponsor of the NFL.
The 60-second ad shows the two football stars talking about Brady’s next move in a video call. Gronkowski was encouraging Brady to retire and visit Florida. But, due to irregular cell service, all Brady could hear was that he should be playing with the Tampa Bay Buccanners and Gronkowski would join him.
The ban is very interesting, as T-Mobile never mentioned any of its rivals in the commercial. At the end of the announcement, T-Mobile calls itself # TheGOATin5G, which refers to “Greatest of all time”.
With no direct mention of its competitor, many believe the ban came about because Verizon was not satisfied with the ad’s content. But there may also be another reason why the ad is being declined, as suggested by users in this Reddit thread.
Instead of waiting for the big game to launch, T-Mobile decided to do it on Twitter. But have reports that T-Mobile still has a second spot ready to air on Sunday. Let’s just wait and see if this ad will also be banned.
You can watch the ad here:
Source: 1, two