More than 100 million people in the U. S. are expected to tune in to Sunday’s game.
Sarah Michelle Gellar makes a horror movie parody for Olay. Jeff Bridges and Sarah Jessica Parker tout Stella Artois. Steve Carrell hawks Pepsi.
Star power abounds in this year’s Super Bowl ads.
Advertisers are hoping to provide some welcome distraction and entertainment as economic fears persist and the nation’s political climate remains sharply divided. As much as this year’s Super Bowl will be a battle on the field between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams, it will be a battle between advertisers over who gets the buzz – and who gets forgotten.
Celebrities are a relatively safe bet to garner good will from Super Bowl viewers who aren’t looking for a lecture. There has been a retreat from more overtly political ads that were seen during the 2017 Super Bowl from such companies as 84 Lumber and Airbnb.
“The big theme is a return to lighthearted humor,” University of Virginia professor Kim Whitler said. “There’s an acknowledgement the Super Bowl is about entertainment.”
The Super Bowl remains advertising’s biggest mass-market showcase – and one of the last remaining ones in an age of personalized ads targeted to individual interests based on data collected by Facebook, Google and other tech mammoths. Digital ads are expected to make up nearly 60 percent of ad spending by 2020, according to eMarketer, up from about 50 percent in 2018.
Yet a 30-second Super Bowl ad can cost more than $5 million. More than 100 million people in the U. S. are expected to tune in to Sunday’s game on CBS. SimpliSafe’s creative director, Wade Devers, said the home-security company is advertising during the Super Bowl for the first time because the game has “a unique audience” primed to be interested in watching the ads.
