ROANOKE, Va. – There are two epic showdowns happening Sunday night, one between Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes and the other between all of the commercials during the Super Bowl.
Companies pay the big bucks for these ads.
This year, 30-second slots sold for $5.5 million.
Virginia Tech’s associate professor of public relations and advertising division coordinator Dr. Nneka Logan said ad inventory nearly sold out.
Logan believes because of the difficult year the pandemic brought on we could see a shift in commercial themes.
“I also expect we’ll see ads that will try to make us feel good. Whether it’s through humor or whether it’s through for emphasizing resilience, recovery and renewal things that have a forward-looking message,” said Logan.
Other big companies that we’re used to seeing advertise, like Budweiser, Coke and Pepsi, won’t have commercials this year for different reasons related to the pandemic.
Pepsi is still sponsoring the halftime show but isn’t having a traditional ad.
Coke had layoffs because of low sales due to the pandemic and Logan believes not spending money on a Super Bowl ad may show employees that the company cares.
Budweiser is donating money that would have been spent on commercials during the big game to the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative’s Vaccine Education.
“I think the changing nature of the Super Bowl advertising is also reflecting the changing nature between business and society and we’re really starting to see a lot of companies embrace their corporate social responsibility in big huge events like the Super Bowl,” Logan said.
Some of the brands that passed up ad time have sister companies that will still run commercials.
Companies like Mercari and Vroom will have an ad for the very first time.