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.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS