From the most intense game of the year to the most fascinating commercials, the Super Bowl is something we all look forward to even if we are not watching the game. The Super Bowl has become more than a football game. It is a cultural phenomenon that brings everyone together, even if they’re not football fans. The Super Bowl commercials have become an event on their own, its companies, brands competing against each other to create the most interesting and unique memorable ads.
From celebrity appearances to trying to leave a lasting impression. Last year’s Super Bowl had a commercial with Usher and Kim Kardashian. Where Usher announces he is doing the Super Bowl halftime show for the 2024 Super Bowl. In 2020 there was an ad for Sabra humus that had a ton of influencers like Charlie D’Amelio, Brittany Broski, Zack King and many more. The way they grew from just A-list celebrities to TikTok influencers. Shows the culture impact it has for expanding them. Seeing who is trending at the time and targeting the next generation.
It is the unexpected pairings in the commercials that make them so interesting. Seeing celebs who you’d never imagine together because how different they are. The Super Bowl of 2022 they had a commercial with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart for a Bic EZ reach for a lighter. In the 2024 Super Bowl one of the commercials was a CeraVe moisturizer commercial with Michael Cera. They chose him specifically because of his last name. It was one of the top five commercials of the year because people thought it was so funny and clever.
Some commercials shown in the Super bowl also have brought awareness. The Dove commercial from 2024, Played the song it is a hard knocked life from the movie Annie of 2014. About not keeping girls from sports and body confidence. They quoted in the commercial “The knocks don’t stop girls playing sports low body confidence does” Showing Statistics of 45% of girls quit sports by the age of 14 and quoted “Together we can keep them in the game Join the Body Confident Sport program”.
They’ve also had some controversial commercials. This year they had an ad talking about how dads work so hard and to appreciate them more, from Israel they had paid for multiple ads for the Super Bowl Sunday. People were very upset about it because they saw it as propaganda. Everything going on with Palestine and Iseral. So many people were saying how politics aren’t allowed in sport until it is about Iseral. A lot of people even were saying things like “If its “to all the dads?” Show ALL the dads! The imprisoned Palestine ones, the injured ones, the broken one, the dead ones!
Another controversial one was a Christian ad from “He Gets Us” One of the commercials they did this year for the Super Bowl was a ad where people from conflicting social locations engaged in each other in the Christian ritual of washing feet. With people who were apart of the LGBTQ+ community, religions, immigrants, races and even a police officer. People were so upset because of the way they didn’t and didn’t appreciate it.
Five million of dollars it costs to run a 30 second commercial this year. This year there were 59 commercials in total, there are about 123.4 million viewers watching it. It was the most viewed live event since the moon landing. That is an amazing statistic given how stratified our viewing preferences have become in the 21st century. This creates a shared experience and captive audience for companies to push products in front of! Pop Culture is all about bringing people together over shared ideas and even though people were rooting for different teams, this live event brought people together in a huge way!
