From Immigration To Diversity, Super Bowl Ads Play Political Football

From Immigration To Diversity, Super Bowl Ads Play Political Football

NEW YORK (Reuters) – With Americans’ attention more finely tuned to the political climate under U.S. President Donald Trump, brands that dove headfirst into that conversation generated the most reaction from viewers during Sunday’s Super Bowl.

For much of the evening, the chatter around commercials by Airbnb, Coca Cola Co, and Budweiser was more exciting than the Super Bowl itself.

That changed late in the game, the New England Patriots pulled off a 25-point comeback to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in the National Football League’s first-ever overtime Super Bowl.

With the thrilling finish, viewers could exceed the 114.4 million who watched Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, providing a massive audience for advertisers who paid more than $5 million for 30 seconds of airtime.

A teaser for the second season of Netflix’s hit show “Stranger Things,” as well as celebrity-studded and humorous ads from T-Mobile and Proctor & Gamble’s Mr. Clean, drew the most attention on social media.

Still, brands such as Airbnb, that leaned into subjects of diversity and immigration, by and large sparked the most conversation among viewers. The company’s ad, featuring a diverse group of employees touting a message of acceptance, will be seen by many as a criticism of Trump’s immigration policies.

Airbnb was one of the last to buy a Super Bowl spot; co-founder Brian Chesky wrote on Twitter they purchased and shot the ad last Thursday.

The commercial was among the most discussed by viewers, generating nearly 78,000 tweets between 6:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST, data from digital marketing technology company Amobee shows.

During the pre-game, Coca Cola re-aired its ad from the 2014 Super Bowl, which featured “America the Beautiful” sung in different languages, which prompted more than 74,000 tweets.

Budweiser’s spot, telling the story of Anheuser-Busch’s immigrant co-founder Adolphus Busch, and Pennsylvania-based building materials company 84 Lumber’s ad were among the most talked about as well.

84 Lumber’s commercial had to be reworked after Fox rejected an initial version that featured a border wall, which was in the company’s full-length online version.

Amobee data found the sentiment for the ads skewed positive.

Advertisers have been grappling with how to reach consumers in the political climate under Trump, when viewers’ increasingly partisan attitudes make it more difficult to market to a broad audience.

“It’s America paying attention to us and really ranking us, when they so often try to ignore what advertising does,” said Ted Royer, chief creative officer of creative agency Droga5, which created Sprint’s ad targeting rival carrier Verizon.

Trump’s November election, and his subsequent action on immigration and other issues has nearly split the population.

That divide has left the stakes higher for advertisers devising campaigns for some of the biggest U.S. brands, which typically avoid politics, for fear of upsetting consumers.

“There’s a lot more anxiety, self-inflicted anxiety, in the country than there has been ever in the past,” said Mike Sheldon, chairman and chief executive of ad agency Deutsch, who created Busch’s first-ever Super Bowl ad.

(Reporting by Tim Baysinger; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Bernadette Baum)

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump

Imagine this: You’re a clerk to a judge in a New York State court. You graduated from the Cardozo School of Law in 2010, and since then, you have worked as an associate in a New York law firm. For five years, you worked for the City of New York in its Special Litigation Unit handling law suits against the city. You have been the clerk to Judge Arthur Engoron since 2019, getting up in the morning and traveling by subway into Manhattan to your office in his chambers, or sitting beside him in court, advising him on cases, filings, motions – the constant flow of legal documents and questions that any judge in a big city court deals with constantly.

Keep reading...Show less
Trump Touts New Push To 'Repeal And Replace' Obamacare

The late Sen. John McCain gives thumbs down to Affordable Care Act repeal in July 2017

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

Donald Trump is once again living in the past, trying to resurrect a Republican political debacle that even the Freedom Caucus has abandoned: Obamacare repeal. “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives," he spewed on Truth Social on Saturday.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}