The “king of beers” will not rule this year in the Super Bowl 2021 commercial space.
Budweiser is the latest corporation to give up advertising during this year’s broadcast, choosing instead to join a public awareness campaign for the COVID-19 vaccine.
For the first time in 37 years, the company will not broadcast its game theft ads, Anheuser-Busch, which owns Budweiser, announced on Monday.
“Like everyone else, we look forward to bringing people together, reopening restaurants and bars, and cheering on friends and family,” said Monica Rustgi, Budweiser’s vice president of marketing. “To do this and to bring consumers back to the neighborhood bars and restaurants, which have been hit by an exceptionally strong pandemic, we are intervening to support critical awareness of the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Thirty-two Super Bowl commercials would cost about $ 55 million a piece. Instead, Budweiser will direct some of the money to Ad Council efforts to raise awareness about the vaccine, as well as a 90-second COVID-themed “film” called “Bigger Picture,” by actress Rashida Jones. It will be broadcast digitally until the Super Bowl, which will be broadcast on February 7, 2021 on CBS.
Other Super Bowl commercial giants, such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Hyundai, will also take a step back from this year’s game, reallocating their funds in the light of the pandemic. Pepsi, for example, will focus primarily on its break show, titled The Weeknd.
“Instead of buying a traditional 30-second Super Bowl ad, we decided to double the 12 minutes Pepsi already has in the middle of the game – Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show,” Vice President of Marketing Todd Kaplan said in a statement. .
Coca-Cola executives have said they will not run ads in this year’s show to “ensure that we are investing in the right resources in these unprecedented times.”
Many others are struggling to figure out how to get the right tone amid the devastation caused by the virus.
“There’s concern about Super Bowl advertising this year,” Bill Oberlander, co-founder and creative executive of the Oberlander advertising agency, told The Post recently. “For the Super Bowl, you usually go big or go home. I think brands are going home, rather than spending tens of millions of dollars and not understanding. They say, “Let’s wait until this storm subsides.” ”
In recent years, Budweiser commercials in the Super Bowl have stolen the show, with commercials with singing frogs and imposing Clydesdales. Last year, their favorite commercial for the crowd challenged the stereotypes of a “typical American” by showcasing the extraordinary actions of ordinary Americans.