This Sunday, Super Bowl viewers at home will reportedly see far fewer commercials promoting woke politics as advertisers try to avoid alienating consumers who are already being pummeled by record prices in Joe Biden’s economy.
In other words: don’t expect a repeat of 84 Lumber’s infamous border wall commercial or Budweiser’s screed on immigration.
Corporations are playing it safe this year, relying on humor and non-controversial celebrities, according to a Variety report.
“Life generally is more difficult for consumers. They are more constrained,” Michelle Deignan, vice president of U.S. Oreo operations, part of Mondelez International, told the outklet. Oreo will have a commercial during Sunday’s game starring Kris Jenner.
“I think you’ll see those brands that lean into nostalgia, humor, emotion at the Super Bowl … those brands will resonate with the consumer.”
Corporations are more risk-averse than ever when it comes to high-profile marketing campaigns.
“Advertisers are very aware that things can go wrong at the Super Bowl,” Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, who has studied Super Bowl commercials with his students for years, told Variety.
Thanks to social media, he said, marketers realize that any ad can “manage to annoy people or cause backlash. Nobody wants to put their career on the line with a certain piece of Super Bowl footage. There is a huge incentive to be cautious.”
A 30-second spot at this year’s CBS broadcast costs about $7 million, according to an Ad Age report.
That represents a 75 percent over the last ten years.
Under Biden’s presidency, American households are facing record prices for necessities including food, energy, rent, and insurance. Credit card debt is skyrocketing as consumers are being forced to borrow to make ends meet.
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