Many Super Bowl Commercial Regulars Sit Out, Newbies Step Up
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TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2021 | SERVING CHICAGO’S LEGAL COMMUNITY FOR 164 YEARS | CHICAGOLAWBULLETIN.COM VOLUME 167, NO. 28 Many Super Bowl commercial regulars sit out, newbies step up Several of the biggest and most iconic its Mr. Peanut mascot in last year’s Super brands sat out Super Bowl LV, a noteworthy Bowl ad and then ran a yearlong campaign move at a time when there seemed to be few focused on his rebirth, decided to use the surprises left for the sports world after a approximate cost of its big game ad budget tumultuous 2020. — $5 million — to fund an initiative support - Budweiser and Pepsi decided not to field ing “everyday” people and organizations per - Super Bowl commercials this year, although forming charitable works. The donations are other brands owned by their parent compa - styled as either rewards for what Planters’ nies made appearances. Coca-Cola skipped parent company Kraft Heinz calls “acts of the big game entirely, along with Audi and substance,” or as funding to ensure that the Avocados from Mexico. Meanwhile, first-time S P O RT S recipients can continue their work. advertisers — some connected to the new MARKETING PLAYBOOK And car company Kia Motors America, a national past times of ordering takeout food DOUGLAS N. MASTERS and Super Bowl advertiser for 11 years running, and spending increasing time online — SETH A. ROSE this year decided to use the money instead to stepped up instead. support high school football programs shut - The championship game between the DOUGLASDOUGLAS N. MASTERS is a partnerpartnertner at LoebLoeb & LLoeboeb LLP,LLPP,, tered by the COVID-19 pandemic. According Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City where he litigates and counsels clients primarily in to a news release issued by the company intellectual properproperty,rtytyy,, adveradvertisingtising and unfair Chiefs provided a semblance of normalcy for competition. He is co-chair of the firfirmm’s intellectual ahead of the big game, the campaign is an football fans, while reminding everyone what properpropertytyt protection group. [email protected] extension of Kia’s “Accelerate The Good” SETH A. ROSE is a parpartnertner at the firfirm,m,m where he a long, strange year it’s been. In-person counsels clients on programs and initiatives in charitable initiative, which includes support - attendance at the Raymond James Stadium aadvertising,dvertising, marketing, promotions, media, ing college scholarship programs, homeless in Tampa, Fla., was allowed, but limited to ssponsorships,ponsorships, enterentertainment,tainment, branded and integrated youth assistance, and pandemic relief efforts. marketing, and social media. [email protected] just 25,000 people, about a third of the The company announced that the first dona - venue’s capacity. The NFL charged fans $100 this year’s Super Bowl broadcast. Over the tion of $50,000 would be to the Woodrow Wil - to place life-size cardboard cutouts of them - years, Budweiser’s commercials for the big son High School in Camden, N.J., and its selves in the approximately 30,000 empty game have become cultural phenomena, Tigers football team, and that donations to seats, according to Business Insider and from the brand’s beloved Clydesdales tug - additional teams will soon follow. other news outlets. Tom Brady was back ging on our collective heart-strings to the Although the Budweiser Clydesdales again as one of the starting quarterbacks, this laconic trio of frogs chirping “Bud,” “Weis” stayed in the barn this year, a team of horses time for the game-winning Buccaneers, not and “Er.” did make an appearance during the big the New England Patriots. Instead, the beer giant, whose Bud Light game, but not nationwide and not for Bud - This year, less than 100 million people brand is the National Football League’s offi - weiser. Boston Beer engaged in some mild watched the CBS Super Bowl broadcast. The cial beer until 2022, took the $1 million it Super Bowl ambush marketing by airing a disappointing 96.4 million viewers is the would have spent on a Budweiser commer - commercial in New York and Boston to pro - smallest audience since 2007, CNBC cial and donated it to the ad council’s mote its Sam Adams Wicked Hazy IPA. The reported. The lackluster viewership could be COVID-19 vaccination awareness initiative. Boston Beer ad featured horses that looked attributed, at least in part, to the Buccaneers’ At the same time, AB InBev debuted its first like Clydesdales and the Sam Adams charac - blowout 31-9 win over the Chiefs and pan - corporate Super Bowl commercial, called ter “Your Cousin From Boston” with a demic restrictions that discouraged large “Let’s Grab a Beer,” to highlight the role its wicked Boston accent. The cousin pulls a pin Super Bowl watching gatherings. beers have played and will play again in out of a carriage hitch, allowing the horses Super Bowl LV also presented a unique bringing people together. The company also to gallop off down the street. The equine challenge for brands striving to present still bought commercial time to showcase its stand-ins helped Boston Beer capitalize on entertaining commercial content to an emo - stable of other brands — Bud Light, Bud the association of Budweiser’s Clydesdales tionally raw public exhausted by ongoing Light Seltzer Lemonade, Michelob Ultra and with the Super Bowl — and spend a fraction medical, financial and social upheaval. Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer. of the amount of money a national commer - Anheuser-Busch InBev announced in Jan - AB InBev wasn’t the only brand that cial would have cost. uary that, for the first time since 1983, its directed its Super Bowl ad money toward Like AB InBev, PepsiCo. scaled back its Budweiser brand would be benched during charitable causes. Planters, which killed off Super Bowl marketing this year, deciding not Copyright © 2021 Law Bulletin Media. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Media. to advertise its flagship brand Pepsi in favor and hope, not their vehicles. Marketing five-second regional commercial that got of focusing on its sponsorship of the Super group Avocados from Mexico also took a Twitter talking. It indirectly acknowledged its Bowl halftime show featuring Canadian pass on airing an in-game commercial in part in facilitating a band of novice traders singer-songwriter The Weeknd. The com - favor of exploring its digital options, it told who briefly inflated the price of GameStop pany’s advertising instead concentrated on MediaPost. stock through Robinhood and other online marketing its Mountain Dew and Frito-Lay That left openings for a slew of commercial brokerages. Robinhood, on the other hand, product brands. advertisers to air commercials for the first pointedly avoided the topic by deciding to Coca-Cola remained on the sidelines com - time. Many newcomers came from industries air its first Super Bowl ad, a 30-second spot pletely, citing the need allocate its resources that have been flourishing during the pan - about increasingly accessible investing strategically. Brands that rely in part on con - demic shutdown, from take-out food delivery options that it reportedly had created before cession sales at stadiums and movie theaters service DoorDash and Mexican restaurant the GameStop controversy. The ad drew took a serious hit when the pandemic shut Chipotle to garden resource provider Scotts largely negative comments on social media down sports and other entertainment ven - Miracle-Gro, TikTok rival Triller, and online based on the company’s move to restrict ues for most of 2020. Atlanta-based Coca- car dealer Vroom, The Wall Street Journal traders’ use of the app to trade GameStop Cola announced the layoff of thousands of reported. In fact, in a commercial starring stock, according to Ad Age. employees in December after its revenue fell the Muppets, DoorDash took the opportu - Super Bowl LV has entered the history 9%, according to CBS News. With a 30-sec - nity to remind viewers that it’s expanded books as the first COVID-19 NFL champi - ond commercial during the big game costing beyond food delivery into delivering items onship game and — fingers crossed — an estimated $5.5 million, it’s easy to see why from con venience stores and pharmacies. hopefully the last. But the social and financial the soda company took a pass this year. While some brands have a knack for cre - effects of 2020 are likely to linger, with ven - Other Super Bowl regulars, including ating compelling commercials that tap into erable brands reassessing their positions and automakers Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Lexus, the national mood, others addressed or upstart advertisers staying in the spotlight. Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, stayed home. pointedly ignored recent controversy, with Regardless of what the rest of 2021 brings, Ford and Toyota made appearances, with mixed results. both sports and marketing will have to stay commercials focused on messages of unity Online discussion forum Reddit created a on their toes. Copyright © 2021 Law Bulletin Media. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Media..