An economic landscape that makes it difficult for advertisers to know how their messages will be perceived by the American public is triggering "more intense, complex questions for ad creators than in years past, such as whether or not audiences struggling financially would appreciate brands spending $5.5 million dollars on a few seconds of T.V. airtime," Lineup Systems notes in a new industry analysis article: "Will Super Bowl Advertising Ever be the Same?"
"Whether for ethical or economic reasons, Budweiser has decided against these optics and pulled key ads from the event, redirecting some of those funds for COVID19 vaccine efforts instead," writes Ali Gordon of Lineup. "That momentous decision to pull key ads for the first time in nearly 40 years marks a shocking deviation from projections made last summer about whether ad buyers would flood the market in the last weeks before the Super Bowl."
She says the changes being seen with Super Bowl advertising this year point to an intriguing possibility: "Super Bowl ads are not dying ... but instead diversifying."
