An Analysis of Super Bowl Advertising

"We obey people we don’t trust to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like, using money we don’t have, for gratifications that don’t last, killing animals we don’t hate, for pleasures that don’t satisfy, dreaming of a life we don’t deserve, and praying for an afterlife that doesn’t exist. We are a stupid species."

–Philip Wollen

The Goal

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest television events of the year in the US, and it is known nationally for the wild ads aired during commercial breaks. The purpose for me to document all the advertisements was to see what was being marketed to such a large, diverse viewing audience. My primary goal was to determine approximately how many ads were not animal-friendly (such as McDonald's commercials) or included animals/animal products. All these ads I will be discussing come only from during the game (including halftime), not before or after, and are only video ads during commercial breaks, not sponsorships like the Pepsi halftime show.

Themes

There were four main recurring themes I noticed in most of these commercials. For reference, these themes are advertising methods used that are unrelated (or only tangentially related) to the product a company is attempting to sell.

One, celebrity endorsements; never have I seen so many ads with celebrity appearances, and never have I seen so many ads with multiple celebrities in each. Clearly, since this is one of the most-watched television events of the year, advertisers know that it's time to spend the big bucks to bring in big names because I guess the public is more willing to believe the marketing if it comes from celebrities. Overall, I noted 35 celebrity cameos, but I'd say there were at least double, considering that I don't know or care about most celebrities and so many commercials included multiple stars.

Two, chaos. Most Americans are aware of the strange ads aired during the Super Bowl, and this year was no exception. Many commercials focused on how silly, zany, colorful, and loud they could get while still trying to get their point across. While some were admittedly funny, I found most simply annoying and trying too hard to be out of the box.

Three, sustainability. There are some notable exceptions to this one. What first comes to mind are Fox's advertisements for their new show Lego Masters; there are few things less sustainable than a show centered around building useless things with thousands and thousands of colored plastic bricks. However, many companies touted their sustainability practices, like new electric cars and advancements in renewable energy.

Four, technology. So many ads had to do with technology like online streaming platforms and phone carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile were really pushing their 5G plans. Car commercials both touted their advancements in technology as well as their sustainability initiatives. I think this is an indication of how much tech has taken over our lives and a small glance into how it will dominate it in the near future.

Totals

Overall, there were a total of 100 commercials played during the Super Bowl: 18 in the first quarter, 21 in the second, 25 at halftime, 17 in the third quarter, and 19 in the fourth. At $5.6 million per 30-second ad, that adds up to more than $550 million dollars, though some commercials were 15 seconds and some were more like a full minute. (Bear in mind that this total also includes local ads, which will differ based on your location.)

There were only seven fully nonvegan food commercials (things like Zaxby's and Cheetos). However, there were twelve other commercials that were advertising vegan-friendly products/services but used/mentioned something nonvegan in the commercial (such as Heinz ketchup with burgers and Sabra hummus with hot wings). In addition, at least seven ads used live animals, with six of those being horses – a symbol of freedom, I suppose; in four of the ads, people were riding the horses. There were also seven commercials for products that may be (but probably aren't) vegan but are tested on animals (so many Tide Pods ads).

In the first half and halftime, there was only one beer commercial but there were four in the second half, with three of those being in the third quarter. (This doesn't really have anything to do with veganism, but some beers aren't vegan-friendly; also, I just thought there'd be way more than that.) There were eight (nonlocal) car commercials, which I think we can safely assume have leather interiors, adding up to a total of about 40 non-animal-friendly advertisements, or 40% of the total Super Bowl advertising and over $220 million. All the other ads were mostly tech, along with some nonalcoholic drinks, vegan foods (like avocados), movie trailers, and Fox's upcoming shows.

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