The mood on the field was tense during the Super Bowl, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs. Off the field, brands sought to ease the tension of the game – and the year – with cheerful commercials filled with celebrities and nostalgic characters.
Its goal was to connect with the approximately 100 million viewers who watch the Super Bowl broadcast each year.
Cadillac updated the classic 1990 film “Edward Scissorhands”, M&M recruited Dan Levy to show how an M&M package given as an excuse can help people come together. And Will Ferrell joined GM – and Awkwafina and Kenan Thompson – in a crazy race across the country to promote electric vehicles.
Perhaps the most impressive effect: virtually none of the ads featured people wearing masks, a public health priority, but also a bleak reminder of the ongoing pandemic.
With so many points of light, advertisers who took a different approach were more likely to be remembered. Jeep ran a two-minute ad in the second half of the game, starring Bruce Springsteen, asking people to find common ground. Oat milk maker Oatly opted to be weird.
“The relentless flow of encouraging ads has made it difficult for any of them to really stand out,” said Northwestern University marketing professor Tim Calkins.
In order to entertain
In an effort to be light, advertisers filled – and sometimes overstuffed – their ads with celebrities.
Cadillac hired actor Timothée Chalamet from “Call Me By Your Name” to play Edward Scissorhand’s son enjoying Cadillac Lyriq’s hands-free “Super Cruise” technology. Winona Ryder revisited her role in the classic 1990 movement as her mother.
Other ads combined celebrities with humor. Rocket Mortgage called on comedian Tracy Morgan to show a family why being “sure” doesn’t work in situations like eating questionable mushrooms, parachuting – and taking out a mortgage. State Farm showed Paul Rudd and Drake as replacements for the commercial set. And Hellmann’s comedian Amy Schumer as a “Godmayo Fairy” who helped a man deal with his leftovers.
TOUCHING POLICY
Most ads avoided the policy, but there were some notable exceptions.
Fiverr joked that his ad would feature Four Seasons Total Landscaping, the setting for an infamous press conference by Rudy Giuliani during last year’s tumultuous election, raising the question of whether the ad was political or not.
It was not. Instead, the ironic announcement was more about how small businesses can thrive with Fiverr. It featured the owner of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, Marie Siravo, talking about how to build a successful business with the help of Fiverr.
But the strongest political statement of the night came from Jeep’s two-minute ad featuring Bruce Springsteen. Even though he thought the chief encouraged people to find common ground, the very idea of “unity” during this controversial election year became polarizing.
“It is no secret that the medium has been a difficult place to get to lately, between red and blue, servant and citizen, freedom and fear,” says Springsteen, adding “we need the medium”.
FCA’s marketing director, Olivier François, said it was worth taking the risk of a serious ad to create a “cure” commercial that will be remembered long after the game. “There is a division and Bruce wants to do something, speak for common ground,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press. “You don’t stand, left or right, blue or red, the only position you take is the middle.”
“It shows where we are now as a country and our need for” common ground, “said Vann Graves, executive director of the Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University. “This is clearly not a new approach, but in today’s climate, it is effective and necessary.”
But Brooks Brasfield, 28, watching the game in Nashville with his wife, said the tone of the Jeep ad was too political for him.
“I like Springsteen and exciting ads like this in general, but this one seems too forced, given the current political climate,” he said.
GOING TO STRANGE
Oat milk company Oatly ran a surprise ad that showed its CEO singing with a keyboard in an oat field that his product is like milk, but not milk.
It was not a success with David Simmons, 24, from Louisville, Ky., Watching the game with his two roommates and his girlfriend.
“It was shockingly weird, I couldn’t focus on the next commercial,” he said. “It was terribly weird. I drink all types of milk, but I will not drink oats ”.
But Kim Whitler, a professor of marketing at the University of Virginia, said the ad “is likely to stand out because it’s totally different,” she added: “It will raise awareness because of the size of the Super Bowl audience and it’s clear about what it is – and it’s peculiar. This can work for the target. “
MORE DIVERSITY
Many ads this year featured a diverse cast, from Amazon’s Alexa ad with two black opportunities to the Even job site ad featuring a wide range of real-life job seekers. Mercari featured a mixed-race couple in its ad and WeatherTech showed a diverse workforce of its real employees.
Elsewhere, Hellmann’s ad featuring Amy Schumer as the “GodMayo fairy” featured a black protagonist and DoorDash’s ad starred “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs singing and dancing in a populated Muppet neighborhood. While it is difficult to quantify how much more diverse the ads were this year, it is certainly a long way from 2013, when there was an outcry after a Cheerio ad featured a mixed race couple.
“It’s the right thing to do and it’s a good deal,” said Graves of VCU. “Consumers are now demanding that they see themselves reflected in the brands they spend money on.”