NEW YORK (AP): Super Bowl announcements each year offer a snapshot of the American psyche. And this year, it’s a doozy.
After a year of pandemic and isolation, tumultuous elections closed by a riot at the Capitol, and periodic uncertainty about whether there would even be a Super Bowl, sellers must be careful. The ideal: to promote your brands to a tired audience that seeks comfort and escapism without crossing any line that may provoke viewers.
So Will Ferrell is partnering with GM – and Awkwafina and Kenan Thompson – on a cross country line to promote electric vehicles. Amazon plays with sexual innuendos when a woman gets distracted with her new assistant Alexa who looks like actor Michael B. Jordan. And Anheuser-Busch offers a hopeful look at a time when we can say “let’s have a beer” to friends and co-workers again.
“Comfort is key,” said Villanova University marketing professor Charles Taylor. “Being nervous will draw attention, but you run the risk of stepping out of your comfort zone at a time when people have been docked at home and economic times are difficult for many.”
The prize for those who achieve balance, right? The opportunity to enter the psyche and (virtual) water cooler of about 100 million viewers who will watch CBS’s Super Bowl LV broadcast on Sunday.
NEW WORLD ORDER
With big names like Coca-Cola, Hyundai and Kia this year, newcomers are in a hurry. This year’s Super Bowl will show more than 20 first-time advertisers, more than double last year’s eight if you exclude campaign ads. to a count from research firm iSpot. Many are full of cash thanks to the changing habits of consumers during the pandemic.
It’s a big surprise when a brand can afford the estimated $ 5.5 million entry fee for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl. This year’s class includes companies that brought us food, let us shop online, and helped us work from home. Among them are delivery services DoorDash and Uber Eats, the workplace In fact, the Vroom vehicle site, the newly captured holder the investment app Robinhood and computer accessories company Logitech.
Most take contrasting advertising approaches. DoorDash demands a dose of nostalgia from the characters on Sesame Street. Logitech follows in the footsteps of celebrities with the support of hip hop artist Little Nas X with the intention of emphasizing that its products, such as keyboards and mice, help artists and manufacturers “challenge logic.” .
And in what is surely the first in Super Bowl history, an announcement from Inspiration4, a fully civilian space launch backed by SpaceX, offers the chance for viewers to join the mission. Courtesy of payment processor Shift4 Payments, whose CEO, Jared Isaacman, will lead this mission.
PANDEMIC LIFE
Some marketers tried to change habits and lifestyles during the pandemic. The Tide ad depicts a guy who doesn’t want to wash a clean-looking sweatshirt with the face of Jason Seinfeld star Jason Alexander. But as the sweatshirt picks up trash and the dogs drool, Alexander’s face begins to frown and only hides when Tide saves the day.
By suggesting that you may wear more of the same clothes and wash them less, the ad encourages the use of detergents, said Kim Whitler, a professor of marketing at the University of Virginia. “They would not have posted this announcement if COVID had not passed,” he said
Meanwhile, Amazon knows that people trapped at home year-round could be fantasizing about something new. So a woman’s new Amazon Alexa takes on the voice and body of actor Michael B. Johnson, to the dismay of her unfortunate husband.
Meanwhile, a Cheetos ad shows real-life married couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher vying for a bag of Cheetos Crunch Pop Mix to the tune of Shaggy’s “It Weren’t Me,” evidencing the worn-out nerves of ‘a couple who have been trapped inside for too long.
“That’s what happens when Mila and I lock ourselves in a house together for a year,” Kutcher tweeted about the ad.
CHOICE? WHAT CHOICE?
In contrast to last year’s Super Bowl, which included campaign announcements from both Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg, politics can’t be seen this year. With, that is, the possible exception of the online concert market Fiverr, which has mocked that its ad involves the total landscaping of Four Seasons..
There are also MIA announcements regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, which sparked widespread protests across the country last summer. Advertisers may continue to emerge from a disastrous 2017 Pepsi announcement in which Kendall Jenner played a protester who loves police with an iced soda. It had to be a blast to minimize the protests and it was finally dragged.
Marketing professionals who want to attract the emotions of viewers this year offer vaguely hopeful and forward-looking message boards.
Toyota’s spot looks ahead to the Olympics and Paralympics, though both face a possible postponement again while the pandemic drags on. Her ad shows Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long’s journey from orphans in Siberia to Olympian, ending with the phrase, “We believe there is hope and strength in all of us.”
And the Anheuser-Busch corporate brand spot shows typical pre-pandemic scenes of people sharing a beer: kitchen workers, orchestra players, cubicle occupants, strangers in an airport bar, and recalls to the people who will have to wait for it again.
“So when we come back, remember, it’s never just about beer,” says a voice-over. “It’s about telling this simple human truth. We need each other.”