From the “When Harry Met Sally” reunion to celebrity cameos, this year’s Super Bowl commercials tried staying fun and lighthearted rather than including politics or a “controversial” message of some sort.
The Super Bowl is supposed to be a fun event for friends and family to watch together. Including politics in the advertisements can bring down the mood of the party, especially since various family members might support differing sides.
I think most commercials that air during events like this should be lighthearted. Some examples of this are the Mountain Dew Seal commercial or the Ritz commercial with actress Aubrey Plaza and artist Bad Bunny from this year. The advertisements that always get the most laughs and excitement in my family are the ones that feature popular celebrities.
Along with surprising appearances of beloved celebrities, gross-out humor is also what sticks out on social media. While watching the Nestle Coffee Mate commercial with a man violently moving his tongue around, I immediately thought, “Oh, this is going to be all over my For You Page tomorrow.”
These major companies did not want to risk people bashing them on social media over political commercials. The only advertisement I’ve seen causing controversy was a commercial for The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism featuring Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady.
People on social media were not happy with this commercial, as @wickedspecialst on X posted, “The audacity of Snoop Dogg doing an anti-hate ad after who he just performed for?” This user was referring to Snoop Dogg performing at President Donald Trump’s inauguration back in January.
Companies shying away from politics for the Super Bowl stems from commercials during Trump’s previous term. Back in 2017, Budweiser created a commercial about Adolphus Busch coming to America from Germany and the xenophobia he goes through while traveling to St. Louis, and meets his soon-to-be partner Eberhard Anheuser. This commercial happened to have aired months after Trump signed an executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.
However, I do think there are some topics that should be spoken about in commercials at big televised events such as the Super Bowl, to make people more aware of the topic. Novartis, a pharmaceutical company, featured a one-minute long commercial centered around women’s breasts. After catching viewers off guard, a message appears saying “So much attention. Yet so ignored.” Another message then came up about breast cancer awareness.
Nike also premiered a commercial focusing on women. The commercial featured female athletes such as Caitlin Clark, Sha’Carri Richardson, Sabrina Ionescu, Jordan Chiles, A’ja Wilson and Sophia Wilson. This definitely comes off as powerful since women’s sports are known for not receiving as much attention as men’s sports.
“Clearly the advertisers are trying to target the female audience, given the rising number of female viewers for the big game and the NFL in general in recent years,” stated Linli Xu, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
Although there were not exactly any political commercials at this year’s Super Bowl, there were some that still had very important messages that can be eye-opening to viewers. Along with fun advertisements that could make everyone at a Super Bowl party laugh together.
jcaramag@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of @TVLine, X
