It seems bizarre that there is a Super Bowl this year. Last year, the event fell on February 2, narrowly overcoming the chaos of the following weeks, when the coronavirus began to dominate the United States. So much has changed since the last Big Game, but this year the show is set to continue. Weeknd will perform, as well as former young poet laureate Amanda Gorman, of Biden’s inaugural fame.
Those who don’t like football very much may not care much when the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers clash on Sunday, although many find the ads a big draw, no matter how silly they are. But while viewers can expect brands to be forced to tackle this difficult year – and according to a survey conducted by Lucid, 69 percent of respondents expect this year’s ads to explore important topics like the pandemic and social issues, with 76 percent expect to see people distancing themselves socially or wearing masks – they may be surprised by the still clear tone. In addition to some commercials here and there, this year’s ads will remain silent on controversial issues.
It’s quite common content, where celebrities try to sell us things. In a Bud Light commercial, beer is rescued from sudden danger by Post Malone and a host of other celebrities – typical storyline!
For Logitech, Lil Nas X makes a pseudo spoken poem, celebrating a variety of real-life creators – in particular, visual artists, light artists, a graphic designer and illustrator, makeup artist, musician and a streamer – doing their thing, and while we don’t learn their names while listening to Lil Nas X’s latest hit, we know that Logitech products help them “defy logic”, whatever that means.
Sex sells, and apparently that means Michael B. Jordan must play the part of Alexa who is seducing someone else’s wife.
Sometimes it’s more like almost stars – a Michelob seltzer commercial featuring Don Cheadle and his brother Colin plays around with the idea of real versus fake, featuring a series of fake celebrities: Megan Fox, Lucy Liu and Maluma.
AND distressingly, Dolly Parton, who had a fantastic run for the press on the pandemic (she helped finance the Modern vaccine), recreated her classic hit “9 to 5” for Squarespace, changing to “5 to 9” to celebrate second jobs and secondary runs. “From 5 to 9 / keep working working / working from 5 to 9 / until your dreams come true”, she sings. It’s a little bleak. Sure, a passion project can be liberating, but the sickly sweet tune of “work, work, work”, reminds us to monetize any hobbies we may have, it’s depressing.
Ad Age reported that while there aren’t likely to be as many auto commercials this year, the financial sector is heating up – think of mortgages, credit card companies, insurance and so on. Makes sense. Americans suffered last year from financial instability. People lost their jobs and homes and were heavily indebted during the pandemic. But most of the references we see are obscure.
In a commercial for Scotts Miracle-Gro, Martha Stewart and John Travolta promote fun in the backyard, since the space in the backyard of people has been “quite a year”, but nobody ever says the words “coronavirus” or “pandemic” .
Bass Pro Shops has gone a step further and will remind viewers that nature can make us feel better. They also don’t say the word “pandemic” and instead look for “difficult times”. According to them, we are all “an outdoor family”.
WeatherTech will make two announcements celebrating American manufacturing. Both commercials include happy testimonials from their factory workers, but fail to mention that the brand produces face shields and other Covid-19 related products.
Fiverr, the freelance service brand, will unveil its first Super Bowl ad, bent on highlighting how it served companies during the pandemic and featuring a special appearance from Trump-era Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Similar to Dolly Parton’s ad, however, it is just another promotion of side-hustle culture.
In fact, the popular job search engine will show job seekers across the country, reminding viewers that unemployment during the pandemic has skyrocketed, but fear not: with the fact, maybe we can finally get the job back.
Coors, although a commercial during the televised Super Bowl will not air, will attempt a particularly dystopian feat this year, with the goal of infiltrating your mind while you sleep with the Coors Dream Project. Frankly, this looks more like an invasion of privacy than a cute hype tactic, but what do I know?
Some brands – known in the past for their flashy ads – are making donations instead of spending millions on Super Bowl hours. Planters, which last year killed Peanut and gave birth to Baby Nut, is donating $ 5 million for coronavirus relief. Coca-Cola is hoping to save money, and Pepsi is focusing its efforts on supporting its break artist, The Weeknd. Budweiser, of the perennial Clydesdales, is investing money in vaccine education, and Kia said it will donate to “America’s youth support charity initiatives”, although they are not very specific. Corporate donations can be big business when making a statement. In January, after the insurrection, many companies withdrew PAC donations from lawmakers who were against electoral certification. When it comes to Super Bowl ads, it’s definitely a nice gesture, but it’s not much of a real stance.
You might think that companies would have more to say this year, considering that there is an ongoing global pandemic in which millions of people died, Trump just left the White House and there was an insurrection on Capitol Hill just weeks before the Super Bowl, but they are not sharing their thoughts on all of this. Corporate America wants to distract us from the elephant in the room, with beer and kind reminders that maybe we should update our life insurance. He doesn’t want to talk about why all this is, that we are very vulnerable now, left in the cold by a lethal combination of capitalism and disinformation. So, maybe we want to watch football in peace. Who could blame the executives for knowing what we really want?