NEW YORK (AP) – Super Bowl ads provide a snapshot of the American psyche every year. And this year it’s a doozy.
After a year of pandemic fear and isolation, a tumultuous election culminating in a riot in the Capitol, and periodic uncertainty of even a Super Bowl, marketers must proceed with caution. The ideal: Promote their brands to an exhausting audience looking for comfort and escapism without going beyond the boundaries that might trigger viewers.
So Will Ferrell is teaming up with GM – and Awkwafina and Kenan Thompson – on an insane cross-country trail to promote electric vehicles. Amazon plays with sexual innuendo when a woman is distracted by her new Alexa assistant who resembles the actor Michael B. Jordan. And Anheuser-Busch offers a hopeful look at a time when we can once again say to friends and colleagues “let’s get a beer”.
“Comfort is key,” said Villanova University marketing professor Charles Taylor. “Being tense will get attention, but it risks getting out of the comfort zone at a time when people are trapped in their homes and economically difficult for many.”
The price for those who strike the right balance? The chance to break into the psyche and (virtual) water cooler talk of an estimated 100 million viewers who will watch the CBS broadcast of Super Bowl LV on Sunday.
NEW WORLD ORDER
With big names like Coke, Hyundai and Kia calling it names this year, newcomers are rushing. This year’s Super Bowl will spotlight more than 20 new advertisers – more than double last year’s 8 if you exclude campaign ads, according to a count by research firm iSpot. Many are full of money due to the changing consumer habits during the pandemic.
It’s a bell when a brand can afford an estimated $ 5.5 million entry cost for a 30 second spot in the Super Bowl. This year’s class includes the companies that brought us our food, let us shop online, and helped us work from home. Among them are delivery services DoorDash and Uber Eats, the job site Indeed, the car site Vroom, the recently major headlines. investment app Robinhood, and computer accessories company Logitech.
Most use proven ad approaches. DoorDash uses Sesame Street characters for a dose of nostalgia. Logitech is taking the celebrity route with an endorsement from hip-hop artist Little Nas X, intended to underline that its products, such as keyboards and mice, help artists and creators defy logic.
And in what is certainly a first in Super Bowl history, an ad for Inspiration4, a SpaceX-supported fully civilian space launch, touts an opportunity for viewers to participate in the mission. Credit to payment processor Shift4 Payments, whose CEO, Jared Isaacman, will lead that mission.
PANDEMIC LIFE
Some marketers focused on the changing habits and ways we live during the pandemic. Tide’s ad depicts a boy who doesn’t want to wash a clean-looking sweatshirt with “Seinfeld” star Jason Alexander’s face on it. But as the sweatshirt collects trash and dog drool, Alexander’s face starts to frown, only to brighten up as Tide saves the day.
By suggesting that you might be wearing the same clothes more and washing less, the ad encourages more detergent use, said Kim Whitler, a marketing professor at the University of Virginia. “They wouldn’t have posted this ad if COVID hadn’t happened,” she said
Amazon, meanwhile, knows that people who stay at home year-round might be fantasizing about something new. So a woman’s new Amazon Alexa takes over the voice – and body – of actor Michael B. Johnson, much to the dismay of her hapless husband.
Meanwhile, a Cheetos ad shows couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher struggling over a bag of Cheetos Crunch Pop Mix – to the tune of Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me,’ showing the frayed nerves of a couple trapped in it for too long. .
“This is what happens when you lock Mila and I in a house together for a year,” Kutcher tweeted about the ad.
ELECTION? WHICH ELECTION?
In stark contrast to last year’s Super Bowl, with campaign ads from both Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg, politics has faded from view this year. With, that is, the possible exception of online gig marketplace Fiverr, which teased that its ad is Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
Also MIA are all ads referring to the Black Lives Matter movement, which sparked major protests across the country last summer. Advertisers can still be shocked by a disastrous 2017 Pepsi ad in which Kendall Jenner played a protester who charms the police with an ice-cold soft drink. Serious anti-aircraft defense was needed to minimize protests and was eventually pulled.
Marketers looking to pull the emotions of viewers this year are offering vaguely hopeful messages that look ahead to the future.
Toyota’s site looks ahead to the Olympics and Paralympic Games, although both face possible reprieve again while the pandemic continues. The ad features Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long’s journey from orphaned in Siberia to Olympic, ending with the line, “We believe there is hope and strength in all of us.”
And the Anheuser-Busch brand spotlight shows typical pre-pandemic scenes of people sharing a beer – kitchen staff, orchestra players, booth dwellers, strangers in an airport bar, reminding people to look forward to it again.
“So when we get back, let’s remember it’s never just about the beer,” said a voiceover. “It’s about saying that simple human truth, we need each other.”