Super Bowl Advertisements: A Mirror on the US Economy, Tech & Culture
The Super Bowl is very much like Christmas for the advertising industry: an annual event where crass commercialism is not just ok, but even a little encouraged, all in a quest to brightly display American values, create awareness, and induce product and service sales growth.
This year a half minute of airtime cost advertisers up to $7 million.
The advertising industry works months in advance to craft ads which mirror current U.S. culture, economy, and society.
Advertisers seemed to sense an uneasiness this year. Even though the stock markets are bouncing back and unemployment is abating, millions of Americans are unsure of the future.
While I may have missed an ad or two while refilling my bourbon or patrolling the massive meat-and-cheese plate we had out, the solution, from advertisers’ perspective, was easy to discern as the game wore on:
Straight-up “Me, me, me – here I am” awareness advertising: A bunch of new horror and science fiction movie commercials harken the return to theatres to view entertainment. Blockbuster Video even ran an ad during the Super Bowl. Tax software and EV ads popped up in Super Bowl game breaks like field mushrooms.
Celebrities. Lots of them. John Travolta—along with television stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison from Scrubs—gave the theme song from Grease a totally new spin for T-Mobile. Serena Williams and Brian Cox pitched Michelob Ultra. Snoop Dogg affiliated with Skechers. SNL actor and social media star Pete Davidson ate John “Hamm and Brie” Larson out of a refrigerator for Hellmann’s mayo. A Breaking Bad revival lent Popcorners a hand. Ben and JLo collaborated with Duncan Donuts. Diddy did UberOne. There was no lack of celebrity star power.
There were plenty of snack food, sports drinks and beer ads. Just what Americans need.
There were a lot of dog related commercials, conforming with tradition.
The FanDual “Kick of Destiny” featuring Gronk. Is this really the best advertising creatives can do In 2023? Spoiler alert: He didn’t kick the $10 million field goal. What a surprise.
There were no cryptocurrency or blockchain ads. 2022’s Coinbase’s floating QR code is long-gone, a consequence of Sam Bankman-Fried’s avarice and FTX’s colossal failure, along with those of other crypto ventures whose heat from last year has definitely faded.
A lack of experimental ads or statements. Remember Apple’s 1984-esque Super Bowl commercial introducing the Macintosh? A direct, unequivocal and innovative proclamation by an upstart that reinforced Apple’s leadership role in myriad ways. (Here) There were no such statements this year.
Most advertisers, clearly, opted for safe, tried-and-true themes in advertising, reinforcing the view that 2023 is the “Year of Playing it Safe”.