Super Bowl ads usually offer a mirror of society, but on Sunday they provided a window into the future.
Dozens of Super Bowl advertisers have ignored the coronavirus pandemic that is hitting the country and have instead looked to the best times that are waiting to arrive. Few characters in more than four dozen commercials spread across 19 different intervals were seen wearing masks or social detachment, and some were seen assembling in small groups – including a horde of “Bud Light Legends” made up of characters from decades of popular commercials from beverage. “Come on, let’s have a beer,” says a friend to another at a corporate location at Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch. When was the last time that many people heard this?
“Brands are going a lot lighter this year,” says Brad Emmett, co-creative director at the Detroit office of McCann Worldgroup, part of the Interpublic Group. He helped create a Super Bowl ad for General Motors that featured the comedy by Will Ferrell.
Madison Avenue’s sunny layout didn’t come by accident. Executives for some of the country’s most experienced marketers say consumer research has revealed that this year’s Super Bowl audience wanted to laugh or feel optimistic, rather than cheering on their hands in difficult times. PepsiCo found that 93% of consumers expected to watch the CBS Super Bowl LV broadcast, which featured the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeating the Kansas City Chiefs, alone or in small groups, according to Rachel Ferdinando, senior vice president and director of marketing company Frito-Lay snacks unit. “We have more responsibility for creating more smiles,” she says.
Other major advertisers agreed. “I think it’s a massive launch,” said Andy Goeler, vice president of marketing at Bud Light, in an interview, referring to how customers can see the Super Bowl. “So many people from all over the country are going to enjoy the event and get away from everything we’ve been through.”
Some advertisers have deliberately sought to make people feel happy by presenting a new point about a product or service. Procter & Gamble called on Jason Alexander and dozens of his facial expressions to show what happens with a sweatshirt that is not washed properly. Uber Eats revived the “Saturday Night Live” sketch, “Wayne’s World”, complete with visits from Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey. DoorDash hit residents of Sesame Street. And Shift4 asked viewers to imagine the prospect of an all-civil journey into space.
Even one of the country’s film companies has tried to offer a ray of hope, with Comcast’s Universal studio promising to release films like “Old” in theaters – soon.
And the guest stars were in high demand. Carol Goll, who heads the global brand entertainment for ICM Partners, estimates that advertisers increased celebrity usage by about 10% in 2020. Samuel L. Jackson took over the leadership of Verizon Kenan Thompson and Awkwafina gave Ferrell a boost. Winona Ryder and Timothee Chalamet revived the 1990 film “Edward Scissorhands” on behalf of Cadillac. Amy Schumer added flavor to Hellman’s first Super Bowl ad. The event “is still the biggest stage and you have to get it right,” she says, noting that spotting a celebrity can help offset the most difficult production obstacles due to the pandemic. “Having talent definitely makes a bigger impact and creates awareness and helps to create the emotional connection between products and the consumer,” he adds.
Simply put, consumers simply cannot watch more coronavirus ads, suggests Chris Beresford-Hill, creative director at TBWA Chiat Day’s New York office, who helped create a Super Bow ad for a new taste of Mountain Dew . These commercials, which appeared en masse last spring and spoke of a nation experiencing “unprecedented times”, quickly exhausted their welcome, he says, “has become very difficult to watch.”
If the ads addressed more serious issues, they tried to inspire. Toyota told the story of Paralympic Jessica Long, who had her legs amputated below the knee at a young age. And Jeep enlisted none other than Bruce Springsteen, who called on the nation to come together after a split period in a two-minute film. “It was a brave, brave move,” says Chuck Meehan, the other creative co-director at McCann’s Detroit office, who was monitoring the work of a direct rival to his client.
An ad didn’t need jaw dropping to succeed this year. Several advertising executives found that two commercials for Rocket Mortgage led by comedian Tracy Morgan really hit the mark. The film had “classic” echoes, says Beresford-Hill.
The Super Bowl provided an interesting field for experiments. ViacomCBS used its promotional time to drive the launch of its new streaming service Paramount Plus. Several venues featured personalities from across the big media company – Stephen Colbert, Norah O’Donnell, Dora the Explorer and Patrick Stewart among them – climbing “Paramount Mountain” on a mission. The participants appeared to have been filmed individually, which raised the bar for the company. Verizon planned a kind of after-party, a concert broadcast live to raise money for small businesses featuring musicians like Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile.
Meanwhile, Mountain Dew asked viewers of its commercial to count the number of bottles appearing in the ad and then tweet the number in an attempt to add $ 1 million. “We think it has a chance to be the most watched ad in Super Bowl history,” said Greg Lyons, PepsiCo’s chief marketing officer. At a time when more consumers are able to switch between multiple screens and devices, executives felt that the concept would encourage people to watch it over and over on TV and YouTube, says Beresford-Hill, and therefore “gamify” the commercial .
Some efforts did not seem ready for the big league game. A commercial for oat milk producer Oatly featured its CEO playing music in a field and looked more like a pre-roll announcement from a selection on YouTube. A commercial for Dr. Squatch, a manufacturer of soaps and hygiene products for men, lacked the high production values expected from Super Bowl advertising players.
The broadcast was ready for gaffes by marketers. CBS sold ads to 17 newbies in the Super Bowl, a sign of the turbulent ad market that evolved during the pandemic. Some strong brands – Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Budweiser – put their main products in the bank. And while PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch spent a lot, so were start-ups and newbies like Fiverr. Vroom and Mercari. Only seven newbies bought ads on last year’s Super Bowl broadcast, meaning the 2021 Super Bowl ad list contained 142.8% more than newbies.
Advertisers didn’t talk about the pandemic, but they still put pressure on people to think about it. “We are in strange times,” says Cedric The Entertainer, the comic actor who was among the big cast in the Bud Light ad. The Super Bowl has “the best energy around it, this is very celebratory. We are used to this in America. It is the second New Year’s Eve. “