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On February 11th, over 100 million viewers, dozens of brands, and the American football teams Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will gather to compete in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although American football doesn’t have much prominence in Latin America, the event still draws attention due to the magnitude of investments in advertising, commercials featuring artists and celebrities, and the halftime show with international stars.
This particular edition is being labeled as one of the most costly in history. Tickets to the Allegiant Stadium range between $8000 and $12000 — 70% more expensive than in 2023 according to figures cited by CNN — while a 30-second commercial can surpass seven million dollars. It is, in itself, a clear symbol of the capitalism that the left criticizes so much. However, even the American progressive agenda finds it impossible to refuse to participate, given the exposure that the Super Bowl historically provides to everything on screen.
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Now, not everything is rosy for brands that once saw woke fashion as the ideal tool to make them “more diverse” and thus increase their sales. That’s in the past. Advertisements focused on immigration issues, like Budweiser did in 2017 or as attempted by the construction company 84 Lumber with the border wall, won’t be seen anymore. Now the bet is “on nostalgia, humor, and emotion in the Super Bowl,” as stated by Michelle Deignan, vice president of operations at Oreo in the U.S., to Variety magazine. After several years, companies have realized that the path is not to tackle ideological disputes. Disney grasped this separately after years of infiltrating said trend into their projects.
The key is to return to the traditional
The spokesperson for Oreo, a brand returning after years of absence, emphasizes how “life in general is harder for consumers.” Certainly, viewers are not only coming from experiencing a pandemic, they are enduring a delicate global economy and witnessing ongoing wars in the Middle East and Europe, as indicated by the magazine. So, it’s almost necessary to return to advertisements that distract them, even if it’s just for the three-hour duration of the event, from that reality.
Returning to the traditional is the key, and the commercials released before the game prove it. Lionel Messi, the world champion of the Argentine national football team, stars in a commercial for Michelob Ultra beer; Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor and former governor of California, becomes an action character for the insurance company State Farm. Jenna Ortega, an actress with Mexican and Puerto Rican roots, will go on the hunt for some Doritos Dynamita.
Meanwhile, the 65,000 spectators attending the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas will see a performance by the singer Usher, probably very different from the politically tinged show Beyoncé did in 2016 when she performed the song “Formation,” whose original video criticizes the American police for alleged racial discrimination.
In reality, Americans have more serious problems. For example, credit card debt reached a record high at the end of 2023, totaling $17.5 trillion according to the Household Debt and Credit Report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The reason: high inflation during the Joe Biden administration.
