Super Bowl ads this year aim increasingly at women, with more messages of female empowerment, as marketers seek to navigate a polarized political environment for the biggest US sporting event.
With women making up a large segment of the viewing audience, advertisers are giving them a greater voice and offering messages about women controlling their own destiny, according to previews released ahead of today’s Super Bowl LIII between the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots.
“We will see advertisers run messages that skew toward women, but they will be very careful not to offend men along the way,” said Timothy Calkins, a Northwestern University marketing professor who researches Super Bowl advertising.
Racy sexual ads are unlikely in the #MeToo era, Calkins added.
“I think advertisers are going to be very afraid to run anything remotely suggestive,” he said.
One of the female empowerment ads features tennis star Serena Williams for the online dating site Bumble, where she speaks about how women can “make the first move” and take control of their lives.
Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker appears in one message where she shocks restaurant staff by ordering Stella Artois and interacts with Jeff Bridges reprising his Big Lebowski role.
Cosmetics brand Olay is to run its first Super Bowl spot with Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress Sarah Michelle Gellar with a #KillerSkin theme.
A Toyota ad features female football player Antoinette “Toni” Harris, who wants to be the first woman in the NFL.
It is logical to appeal to women who make up about half of the Super Bowl viewing audience, analysts say.
The Super Bowl remains one of the top marketing events of the year with 30-second spots costing about US$5 million to reach the estimated 100 million US viewers, an outlier in a media environment that has become increasingly fragmented into targeted segments.
Bettina Cornwell, a professor and director of sports marketing at the University of Oregon, said that the latest ads are part of a broader trend where brands are promoting their social values.
“Brands are beginning to use that stage to communicate their values, and that includes empowerment, environment-friendly behavior and societal support,” Cornwell said.
However, advertisers are likely to stop short of the approach taken in the Gillette “toxic masculinity” ads that sparked calls for boycotts.
“We’ll see advertisers talking about women’s empowerment, but not in a polarizing way,” Calkins said.
According to a survey by the research firm 3Gem, about 77 percent of viewers said that politically charged ads for the Super Bowl are not compelling, while 60 percent said that a funny ad made them more likely to buy a product.
Pace University marketing professor Larry Chiagouris said it might be bad strategy to advertise female empowerment rather than doing something about it.
“Brands would be wise to practice what they preach and put more women in C-suite offices or make better products for women, rather than talking about it in a commercial,” Chiagouris said. “Why is a brand of toothpaste an arbiter of social values? What brand doesn’t stand for empowerment?”
Chiagouris said he believes brands would eventually move away from social and cultural messages, and find other creative ways to stand out.
“I suspect there will be some backlash to these ads and we will see a turn back to the entertainment value of the messages we had in past years,” he said.
Chinese pair Liang Wenbo and Li Hang on Tuesday received lifetime bans from snooker for match-fixing after a “heart-breaking” corruption scandal rocked the sport. In total, 10 Chinese players were handed bans of varying lengths by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). Lu Ning, Zhao Xintong, Yan Bingtao, Chen Zifan, Zhang Jiankang, Bai Langning, Zhao Jianbo and Chang Bingyu were the other players suspended. Yan, the 2021 Masters champion, has been banned until December 2027 after his initial seven-and-a-half-year suspension was reduced following his early admissions and guilty plea. Former UK Championship winner Zhao Xintong is to serve a 20-month suspension, reduced
Iga Swiatek on Saturday said it would be “disrespectful” to her vanquished opponents to talk about her propensity for winning bagel sets after thrashing Wang Xinyu without losing a game at the French Open. The world No. 1 won 6-0, 6-0 in just 51 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier to reach the last 16. Across 57 matches in 17 Grand Slam appearances in her young career, Swiatek has already won 19 sets to love. Yet she knows how it feels to be on the wrong end of a bagel, having lost three sets at majors 6-0 herself, although all of those came across
Although basketball fans in Taiwan are looking forward to seeing Dwight Howard play next season, the former NBA superstar said that could be “difficult” due to the pay cut the Taoyuan Leopards have proposed in contract negotiations. TVBS on Wednesday reported that the eight-time NBA All-Star and the Leopards, the franchise he played for in the T1 League last season, have reached an impasse over salary, which reduces the chance local fans would get to see the star next season. “I was offered a contract which was 65 percent less than they gave me the first time I came to Taiwan, and
SEMI-FINAL SHOWDOWN: Djokovic said that he is looking forward to facing off against Alcaraz after the Spaniard beat Tsitsipas, saying it should be his biggest challenge so far Beatriz Haddad Maia yesterday became the first Brazilian woman to make a Grand Slam semi-final in 55 years after beating Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur at Roland Garros. World No. 14 Haddad Maia came through against seventh-ranked Jabeur 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1. The 27-year-old left-hander follows in the footsteps of seven-time major winner Maria Bueno who was the last Brazilian woman in the semi-finals of a major at the US Open 55 years ago. Bueno, who passed away in 2018, made the last four in Paris in 1966 before the advent of the Open era. “Ons is not easy to play against, you have to be
RSS