Companies take different paths with Super Bowl ads
After a year of pandemic fear and isolation and a tumultuous election, brands waged battle during the Super Bowl’s commercial breaks on Sunday night.
Many stuck with nostalgia and light humor to entertain and connect to the 100 million viewers who were expected to tune in to the CBS broadcast.
Some of the commercials: Cadillac went with an update to the classic 1990 film “Edward Scissorhands,” with Timothée Chalamet as the title character’s son enjoying the Cadillac Lyriq’s hands-free “Super Cruise” Technology.
M&M’s enlisted Dan
Levy to show how a bag of M&M’s given as an apology can help people come together. And Will Ferrell teamed with GM — and Awkwafina and Kenan
Thompson — on a madcap cross country dash to promote electric vehicles.
“There’s so much going on in this country, advertisers want to be a little more cautious and a little more safe around what they put out,” said Vann Graves, director of the Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University. “The Super Bowl is a respite in many ways of what’s been going on.”
Others took a different route. Budweiser decided not to run any of its iconic ads featuring the Clydesdale horses or new products for the first time since 1983.
The company had announced it will use the money it would’ve spent on the Super Bowl ads for COVID-19 vaccine awareness instead.
Meanwhile, officials at Walt Disney World said the theme park resort wouldn’t host its annual Super Bowl parade this year featuring the game’s star players because of the coronavirus pandemic. But the resort said it still planned to film its annual ad after the game, usually featuring the Most Valuable Player looking at the camera and saying those famous words: “I’m Going to Disney World.”
In the ads, the song “When You Wish Upon a Star” plays over shots of the featured player passing or running and scenes of fans screaming and jumping. At the end, an off-camera announcer acknowledges the Super Bowl win and asks the player, “What are you going to do next?” Amid jubilant celebration, the player responds “I’m Going to Disney World!”
“Disney Parks hopes to be able to bring back our other Super Bowl traditions next year, including letting football and Disney fans see and cheer on their favorite player in the park,” Disney officials said in a blog post.