Super Bowl ads are moving on from pandemic with humor and hope

Squarespace

10/02/2022 19:00

By Lisa Richwine
    LOS ANGELES, Feb 10 (Reuters) - A year ago, many Super Bowl
advertisers tiptoed into the U.S. football championship trying
to respectfully acknowledge a difficult year in the COVID-19
pandemic. 
    This Sunday, brands will return to the big game using the
time-tested tactics of going for big laughs, or trying to uplift
audiences with messages of strength and triumph.
    While COVID-19 remains a concern, new cases are on the
decline across the United States, some areas are scrapping mask
mandates and health experts are optimistic that the virus is
becoming more manageable. 
    The game itself, in front of 70,000 people at SoFi Stadium
outside Los Angeles, will look more like pre-pandemic times than
last year when the crowd in Tampa, Florida, was limited to
one-third capacity. Many commercials will reflect that.
    "We're hopefully getting a little bit back to the normal.
There's fans in games and there is an excitement," two-time
Super Bowl winner Eli Manning told Reuters.     
    Manning and his two-time Super Bowl champion brother Peyton
will appear in an ad that features a road trip in a party bus to
promote Frito-Lay products including Doritos and Mountain Dew.
    The Super Bowl offers brands the chance to get in front of
the year's largest U.S. television audience of around 100
million viewers. Broadcaster NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp
 CMCSA.O , charged as much as $7 million for 30 seconds of
commercial time.  
    Advertisers are not expected to mention the pandemic
explicitly, but some will tout the ability to bounce back from
challenges. Budweiser, for example, will tell the story https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/chloe-zhao-directs-budweisers-return-super-bowl-ad-battle-2022-02-02
 of one of its trademark Clydesdales recovering from injury.
    The beermaker, owned by Anheuser-Busch Inbev  ABI.BR , sat
out last year's Super Bowl, instead donating to support COVID-19
vaccine awareness. The company decided to come back with a more
serious tone, said Budweiser Vice President of Marketing Daniel
Blake, rather than something akin to its comedic talking frogs
of the past.
    "It was key to return to the stage with a message of hope
and resilience for America," Blake said. 
    The game will feature a mix of returning advertisers and
brands making their first Super Bowl appearance.
    Returning brands include carmakers such as GM  GM.N  and
Nissan  7201.T , Kellogg's  K.N  Pringles and travel website
Expedia  EXPE.O . 
    Amazon.com  AMZN.O  will offer the first trailer for its
much-anticipated "Lord of the Rings" streaming TV series that
will debut on Prime Video in September.
    Newcomers will include cryptocurrency exchanges FTX Trading
Ltd and Crypto.com.  
    "A lot of brands are taking stock of the times that we're in
now and the rise in curiosity around crypto and the metaverse,"
said Adweek editor Shannon Miller.
    Meta  FB.O , the company formerly known as Facebook, will
pitch its Quest 2 virtual reality headset. The commercial shows
an animatronic singing dog that has faded from popularity but
finds a new and exciting life in the metaverse.
    Elsewhere, celebrities will abound. Arnold Schwarzenegger
will portray Zeus to promote an electric BMW  BMWG.DE , while
Gwyneth Paltrow will tout Uber Eats  UBER.N . Zendaya will
appear on behalf of Squarespace  SQSP.N  as woman who turns to
ecommerce to save her struggling seashell business.    
    "We're not going to see all this COVID stuff like we did
before. People are tired of thinking about all that," said
Ronald Goodstein, associate marketing professor at Georgetown
University's McDonough School of Business.
    He said brands returning to familiar themes or mascots such
as the Budweiser Clydesdales will appeal to audiences this year.
    "I think people are looking for some tradition. People like
comfort given the time we have now, and there's some comfort in
nostalgia," he added.
    
    

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Chloe Zhao directs Budweiser's return to Super Bowl ad battle   
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 (Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles;
Additional reporting by Amy Tennery and Aleksandra Michalska in
New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
 ((lisa.richwine@thomsonreuters.com; 
Follow me on Twitter @LARichwine; 
1-424-434-7324; 
Reuters Messaging:
lisa.richwine.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))