This year’s Super Bowl will be – hopefully – a unique experience. And that goes for ads, too.
The title game will end an NFL season that was not entirely interrupted by the pandemic, but whose sense of spectacle has undoubtedly diminished. The Sunday night broadcast on CBS offers an intriguing showdown for fans, with Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Kansas City Chiefs led by Patrick Mahomes, who won last year’s Super Bowl.
Many viewers, of course, will tune into the Super Bowl LV primarily for the ads. This is generally true for a large number of the more than 100 million viewers annually. Despite some bleak initial predictions about Madison Avenue’s stance on the game, viewers this year will see a lot of excitement. There are also a number of A-list talents, with many stars becoming more available than usual in 2020, when filming for TV was interrupted by the increase in Covid-19.
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A high degree of uncertainty faces marketers, with large groups of viewers out the window and a range of viewer sensibilities coming out of a stressful year. Treadmills like Budweiser and Coca-Cola were left out, and, as Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro noted, movie studios are also taking a step back – a logical pause given the continued closing of cinemas.
However, the stock is virtually sold out at $ 5.5 million for 30 seconds, and many ads that circulate online – a pre-game custom, as advertisers are looking for an extra return on money – show their usual brilliance. The list of stars that will appear includes Michael B. Jordan, Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, John Travolta, Matthew McConaughey, Martha Stewart, Serena Williams, Cedric the Entertainer, Don Cheadle and Dolly Parton, to name just a few. David Fincher and Peter Berg are among the notable directors behind the camera.
The following is a running list of ads that will air during the broadcast – be sure to check for updates before the game.
Matthew McConaughey / Doritos
The pandemic receives a slight nod when it imagines the star passing through life as a not very good two-dimensional figure. Why is he 2-D? Because he hasn’t tried Doritos 3D yet, you fool! Jimmy Kimmel, as his own late night guest, offers the best speech, asking the airborne star if he drove to the studio, “or did you get here by fax?”
Will Ferrell, Kenan Thompson, Awkwafina / General Motors
After impressing the business world with the announcement that it would no longer make combustion engines until 2025, General Motors continues this crazy journey, emphasizing its commitment to electric vehicles. Ferrell, with fake anger and a beard, ridicules Norway’s leadership over the US in EV sales per capita and then recruits Thompson and Awkwafina for a trip to Scandinavia and settles the bill.
John and Emma Travolta, Martha Stewart, Leslie David Baker / Miracle-Gro
The location of this location does not resemble Corona’s tropical beaches. Instead, it is the crown scene where many Americans spent the past year: their backyard. In promoting the gay contest, John Travolta is taught by daughter Emma, Stewart brags about his green thumb and The officeBaker is responsible for the grill.
Serena Williams, Anthony Davis, Peyton Manning, Brooks Koepka, Jimmy Butler, Alex Morgan / Michelob Ultra
Athletes, we are remembered in this serious and abundantly tasty piece, usually win because they are happy, and not the other way around. And, in the good tradition of the Super Bowl, they apparently feel happy with a light beer by their side.
Don Cheadle / Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer
If you didn’t buy the idea of athletes drinking Michelob Ultra, then an easier sale might be that celebrity impersonators like to relax with the Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer. Cheadle is the only, er, organic star at this location, accompanied by the fake Serena Williams, the fake Sylvester Stallone and several other substitutes.
Dolly Parton / SquareSpace
Country legend turns his classic day shift upside down in a tribute to SquareSpace and the role the digital services company can play in parallel racing:
David Fincher (director) / Anheuser-Busch
Much has been said about Budweiser skipping the game for the first time since 1983, but Anheuser-Busch still has four minutes of total commercial time during the game. At first, the company is charging its entire portfolio of beer brands in this commercial directed by Fincher, entitled “Let’s get a beer”. No masks or social distance here – the point is the universal value of the connection with beers, now and forever (or whenever “forever” is allowed to resume).
Cedric the Artist, Post Malone / Bud Light
A gallery of the brand’s past vendors travels through a time warp portal to respond to an emergency and keep the supply chain moving:
Wayne’s World / UberEats
Carvey and Myers meet again in a callback to the nudges of the original films on product placement, complete with a special appearance by Cardi B. At least this time a cause is involved: UberEats is launching a “eat local” effort $ 20 million, with $ 4.5 million in micro grants for local restaurants in major US cities.
Michael B. Jordan / Amazon
Jordan’s credibility as a fainting protagonist in films like Creed, Black Panther and Just mercy receives an ironic nod in Amazon’s ad “The Alexa Body”. Instead of a desktop device, an Alexa user imagines the voice recognition system taking on human form like Jordan. The actor is shown teaching his phrases in French, joining her in a candlelit bath and patiently standing still while she asks Alexa to point out lawn sprinklers on her carved torso.
Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Archie Manning, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw, Jerome Bettis, Deion Sanders and Marshawn Lynch / Frito-Lay
Created by the creative agency of Frito-Lay and directed by Peter Berg, the ad brings together 10 football greats in a riff for “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”, narrated by Lynch, also known as “Beast Mode”. (Fortunately, no one tries to find out about the immortal Super Bowl when Lynch was denied the chance to win the game while Seattle inexplicably tried to move into the 1-yard line end zone against the New England Patriots and was intercepted.)
Lenny Kravitz / Stella Artois
The rock singer sincerely shouts “pulsating billionaires”, that is, all of us with that number of ticks remaining on our tickers. But who’s counting? (Don’t answer that.)