Americans are fatigued by the pandemic, and are looking forward to brighter days ahead.
But unlike most advertising these days, Super Bowl ads are designed to appeal to a broad audience. With about 100 million people watching the game, this is not the place for targeted messages that will connect with a small group of people. Super Bowl ads need to tap into wider social, cultural and economic trends. So what do this year’s ads tell us about the state of the country? One clear takeaway: Americans are fatigued by the pandemic, and are looking forward to brighter days ahead. As a result, the tone of this year’s Super Bowl ads was remarkably positive. Most years, the Super Bowl is a mix of humorous, cheerful spots and more thoughtful, emotional advertising. For every funny Bud Light spot, there is typically a more serious ad, like Google’s wistful « Loretta » spot in 2020, or Airbnb’s « We Accept » ad from 2017. This year, the tone was relentlessly upbeat. Only a few advertisers tried to address anything remotely serious, like Salesforce and Google, and even these had a positive tone. This suggests that the more emotional and serious messages simply aren’t resonating this year. After two years of a pandemic, people need positive messages and encouragement. Similarly, there was almost no mention of the pandemic, aside from an ad from testing company Cue.
