Super Bowl advertising has always been a high-risk activity, with brands spending millions in 30 seconds of airtime alone to display their messages to more than 100 million viewers. But in 2021, the stakes are even higher after a hard-hitting year that included a pandemic, an economic crisis, demonstrations of racial justice and an attack on the Capitol building.
Some long-standing advertisers are choosing to leave of this year’s Super Bowl LV, including veteran players like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Brand experts note that in-game advertisers may need to walk a fine line with their messages, with Northwestern University business professor Derek Rucker describing the “icebergs in the water” situation.
“Going to the Super Bowl means you are speaking to an audience of 100 million or more – you have to make sure you don’t convey an unintended message, you don’t hit an iceberg along the way,” he said. “There is some apprehension on the part of advertisers – I think they are right to be cautious.”
A memorable Super Bowl ad can be worth far more than the airtime investment, which this year is $ 5.5 million for a 30-second commercial. Advertisers with a memorable commercial can stand out from the crowd, helping to win customers and build goodwill – like Apple’s famous “1984” ad, which helped it stand out in the first personal computer wars.
But a poorly executed Super Bowl commercial can wreak havoc on a company, as was the case with the 1999 Just for Feet ad that featured white hunters tracking down a barefoot Kenyan runner, drugging him and forcing his shoes to put on his feet.
“What you saw and what the brand wanted are two different things,” said Rucker of the failed Super Bowl ads. “As a brand, you need to think about the big picture and how consumers can react to it.”
CBS (the parent company of CBS Interactive and CBS MoneyWatch) will air the game on Sunday, February 7 at 6:30 pm ET. The network said at the end of last month that the ad stock is “virtually depleted”, with some newcomers buying advertising space while regulars, like Coca, are left out.
Chipotle, DoorDash
Despite the risks, the championship game remains a good opportunity for companies to draw viewers’ attention, noted Deb Gabor, CEO of Sol Marketing, a brand strategy consultancy. She pointed to Chipotle, who is showing her first Super Bowl ad this year.
“They had a pretty darn good year,” noted Gabor. “They were moving to a convenience-oriented model and had a Chipotle app well before the pandemic – they were well positioned for the changing world.”
The ad message focuses on environmentally friendly agriculture, linked to Chipotle’s marketing efforts on sourcing food responsibly – and Gabor said this is probably a topic that scores points with many consumers, given the growing concerns about climate change and the environment.
Another newcomer to the Super Bowl this year is DoorDash, which has also seen its business grow this year amid the pandemic. With restaurants limiting or sometimes closing meals indoors and consumers worried about eating out because of the risk of exposure to the virus, millions of consumers have turned to delivery apps like DoorDash to order food.
Although DoorDash did not pre-launch the Super Bowl ad, it does offer tips via teasers featuring characters from Sesame Street such as Cookie Monster (which devours cookies ordered from DoorDash, of course) and Super Grover. The teasers seem to indicate the pandemic – like Super Grover ordering paper towels – and aim to highlight “local heroes”, such as small businesses and couriers.
DoorDash said it wants to increase brand awareness by winning a Super Bowl spot and also link the ad to a $ 200 million five-year pledge to support traders, their workers and local communities. The company also said it is donating $ 1 for every order initiated on Super Bowl Sunday to the Sesame Workshop, with donations reaching $ 1 million.
“The essence of the ad is about optimism – giving something back to our communities in the hope of brightening their days and building a wave for our neighborhoods”, while also assisting Sesame Workshop, David Bornoff, head of consumer marketing at DoorDash, told CBS MoneyWatch.
DoorDash
“DoorDash is a great example of a newcomer who makes a lot of sense in being in the Super Bowl – they’ve had a lot of growth” last year, Rucker noted.
The stock trading app Robinhood, for its part, is also showing its first Super Bowl ad, coming in the wake of a few turbulent weeks when it restricted trading of GameStop and other stocks after some of its users increased their shares to heights stratospheric, followed by a plunge into the value.
Many customers were upset with Robinhood for restricting their ability to trade in stocks. The Super Bowl ad, with the message “We are all investors,” may be a way for Robinhood to rebuild his image after a reaction that includes calls for a Congressional investigation into the so-called “meme action” craze, now infamously linked to Robinhood .
Too early?
Bud Light is taking a more direct approach to recognizing the pandemic, with its announcement of Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade using the metaphor of lemons for last year’s crisis. The old message of the new brand: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
The ad shows people at weddings, parties and other events when lemons start raining from the sky – in some cases, physically injuring people and causing damage to buildings and cars. It is supposed to be a humorous metaphor for 2020, but it is also taking the risk of an approach that may not seem hilarious to some viewers right in the middle of a deadly pandemic.
“Some 18- to 24-year-old idiots will find this ridiculous and laugh at it,” predicted Gabor. “As a 52-year-old woman, I didn’t find anything attractive.”
Anheuser-Busch, in turn, is looking for an exciting ad that reminds people of the casual moments of commiseration and companionship that almost disappeared in the pandemic – drinking a beer with coworkers, remembering with friends in moments of silence and telling a joke.
“The insight comes straight from real life, as many people want to be together with their friends and family again,” said Marcel Marcondes, CMO at Anheuser-Busch, in a statement.
“The ‘safe’ approach”
Other advertisers are following a more traditional way of providing funny ads that don’t refer to the pandemic, the environment or any other crisis – except dirty clothes and stolen snacks.
“Whenever there is something going on in the world, you will often see the ‘safe’ approach,” noted Rucker. “Advertisers say, ‘We will do something funny and perennial – unless we really miss something, no one is going to hate us.'”
Take Cheetos. Your Super Bowl LV ad features actor Ashton Kutcher asking his wife, actress Mila Kunis, if she saw her Cheetos bag. Despite her orange-colored fingers and face, she denies that she is the thief, while Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me” provides the soundtrack.
Another more traditional ad comes from Tide, with a mother telling her teenage son to wash his “Jason Alexander sweatshirt”, which has the face of actor Jason Alexander in relief. The teenager insists that the sweatshirt is clean, but a series of flashbacks, featuring the sweatshirt’s many unhappy facial expressions, show that it is far from flawless.
Pringles is another brand that seeks tested and proven humor. Called “Return to Space”, the ad shows people so involved in stacking their Pringles chips that mission control misses the return of two astronauts to Earth.
“Most brands are trying to be a little light and optimistic, without polarizing or dividing,” said Gabor.