Advertisers Want to Avoid Controversy This Super Bowl
By Movieguide® Contributor
The Super Bowl reigns as the most important event for advertisers, but experts expect companies will play it safe this year, hoping to avoid controversy.
The NFL’s championship has long been a time for advertisers to put on a show. Risky ads from the past have remained in the public consciousness for years. However, experts believe there will be few controversial ads this year as companies decide to play it safe rather than risk millions of dollars on 30 seconds that can hurt the brand.
“Advertisers are very aware that things can go wrong at the Super Bowl,” said Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Because of social media, any ad can “manage to annoy people or cause backlash. Nobody wants to put their career on the line with a certain piece of Super Bowl footage. There is a huge incentive to be cautious.”
“The investment is so high, and the attention is so great that you have to be a very brave marketer to take a big creative risk on the Super Bowl today,” Calkins added.
Instead, advertisers are expected to rely on nostalgia or previous advertising campaigns to deliver something memorable rather than release something that truly stands out.
“There is so much that is going on. We are stimulated all the time, and going back to basics and delivering things the old-school way is really something that consumers are looking for,” explained Kristina Punwani, the head of marketing for Budweiser in the U.S.
Alternatively, companies are looking to celebrity endorsements to grab people’s attention. The percentage of ads during the Super Bowl that include a celebrity has risen from 30% in 2010 to 67% in 2023. Celebrities have long been advertisers’ go-to to sell products, but even that comes with a risk in today’s highly sensitive culture.
“Not only must brands consider the cost to feature the talent, but fit with the brand and the potential for unexpected and potentially unflattering news is high,” said iSpot in a recent report. “However, there is nothing like celebrity – if done right – to spike breakthrough, engagement, and memorability of an ad.”
For example, Pringles recruited Chris Pratt to star in its Super Bowl ad. Movieguide® reported, “Pringles released a teaser for the commercial that shows Pratt facing off with a Pringles can, as well as the ad’s drop date: February 11.”
Along with the main broadcast on CBS, the Super Bowl will be shown on Nickelodeon and TelevisaUnivision. Both will feature numerous ads that are not shown on the main broadcast but are instead catered to a family or Hispanic audience respectively.
Movieguide® previously reported:
CBS and Nickelodeon are partnering to create a “slime-filled” Super Bowl experience that will entertain even the youngest football fans.
“We are excited to expand this extremely successful partnership between CBS Sports, Nickelodeon and the NFL for television’s biggest stage at Super Bowl LVIII. There is nobody more suited than our CBS Sports production team, in conjunction with our friends at Nickelodeon, to deliver an innovative and slime-filled Nick-ified telecast for kids and family, alongside our industry-leading NFL production on CBS, to create a truly unique viewing experience and broaden the reach of the Super Bowl to a new legion of fans,” said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports.
According to Yahoo! Finance, “SUPER BOWL LVIII LIVE FROM BIKINI BOTTOM will feature enhanced graphics and advanced augmented reality, bringing the historic Slime-filled telecast to SpongeBob SquarePants’ undersea home. Paramount’s multiplatform coverage of Super Bowl LVIII will feature CBS Sports’ presentation on the CBS Television Network, which will stream on Paramount+ and on mobile with NFL+, in addition to the Nick-ified telecast exclusively on Nickelodeon.”
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