The Billboard ad features former NFL defender Colin Kaepernick, near Raymond James Stadium, before the Super Bowl LV. (Patrick Smith, Getty Images)
Most Americans don’t like to see political statements made by brands, according to new research on the next Big Game in commercial advertising.
A Morning Consult survey conducted January 25-26 asked dozens of questions about the Super Bowl, from the halftime show to watching the game, this is a big deal this year. And, of course, lots of questions about the ads. The Super Bowl is the super bowl of advertising, so it makes sense that it’s a big part of pre-game research.
Among the many issues related to advertising, the first was on the topic of political content in brand advertisements. Specifically, asking “In general, do you believe it is appropriate for brands or corporations” to “make political statements”.
Among adults, only 13% called it “very appropriate” and 23% responded that it is “somewhat appropriate”. But 23% said “it is not very appropriate” and the largest number, 28%, selected “nothing appropriate”. This is the majority that considers political messages in brand advertisements to be “inappropriate”.
Also in the survey, respondents were asked how much they like to watch Super Bowl ads, in particular that they make a political statement.
A tiny 7% of respondents said they like these ads “very much” and only 15% said they “like” them a little. A greater number of 21% said they did not “like” them very much, but a huge 41% said he doesn’t like it “at all”.
62% do not like it or, to put it another way, only 7% of people truly Enjoy them.
In a somewhat contradictory result, the survey found that 59% of Americans consider social justice messages in advertising to be at least somewhat appropriate, against 28% who consider these messages to be “inappropriate” to some extent in brand advertising.
On the topic of social justice messages in Super Bowl ads specifically, 20% of adults said they like watching these ads “a lot” and 25% said they like “a little”. 13% said they did not like them “very much” and 24% said they did not like them “at all”.
These are close numbers, with social justice arriving a little more favorably than unfavorably, but with more people tightly against that tightly for. However, a result markedly different from the issues of political statements.
Naturally, when you analyze it, the results vary between different demographic groups. For example, men were less likely than women to enjoy social justice ads, but they were more likely to enjoy political statements than women.
Republicans by a huge margin don’t like political statements in Super Bowl ads (68% to 12%). Democrats don’t like political statements in ads either, but the margin is not as pronounced (51% to 34%).
Among Republicans, ads that promote social justice are no liked it (60%) much more than they enjoy (24%), while the opposite is true with Democrats, who largely enjoy (66%) social justice messages in advertisements, rather than disliking (20%).
There was also a break on the part of the issue of advertisements promoting civil rights.
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