Beer replaces crypto in Super Bowl 2023 ads

Following their appearance in last year's Super Bowl broadcast, cryptocurrency companies are anticipated to sit out the 2023 event, reported news agency AFP.

However, the yearly advertising spectacular — a kind of marketing battle that runs parallel to the American football championship — features a variety of beer and car firms, as well as other well-known brands such as M&M's chocolates, which has been teasing its spot since last month.

The "Breaking Bad" ensemble reunites to promote PopCorners chips in this year's commercial lineup, which also includes a collaboration between General Motors and Netflix that features an electric car navigating "Squid Games" and other settings from popular streaming shows.

The advertisements are highly profitable, frequently earning $6 or $7 million for 30 seconds of airtime. That is nearly ten times the price of an advertisement during the United States vs. Britain World Cup game in 2022.

According to Kantar, a data analytics and brand consultant, last year's game produced $578 million in advertising revenue for NBC, an increase of $143.8 million over the previous year's telecast.

Fox Sports will broadcast the event this year.

"It's a lot of money for a media spot," said Derek Rucker, a Northwestern University marketing professor. "However, where else can you get 100 million people to see an advertisement at the same time?"

The advertisements have become such an important part of the game in the United States that "a vast amount of people" actively watch and discuss the commercials during gatherings, according to Rucker.

Every year in the middle of winter, "Super Bowl Sunday" brings together families and friends for several hours of competition, revelry, and entertainment.

The Kansas City Chiefs will face the Philadelphia Eagles in this year's game. As is customary, the show features A-list half-time entertainment, this time led by Rihanna.

Over-the-top advertisements have a lengthy history, including such landmarks as Ridley Scott's minute-long commercial for Apple launching the Macintosh computer in 1984.

The commercial, which portrays a female athlete breaking a screen depicting a "Big Brother" figure, parodies George Orwell's famous novel, finishing with a vow that the introduction of the computer will demonstrate "why 1984 won't be like '1984.'"

This years most anticipated commercial may be for M&M's, which only recently entered the US cultural battlefield.

M&M's, which is owned by Mars, announced on January 24 that it was suspending a publicity campaign featuring cartoon mascots of the coloured candies after the campaign was criticised as "woke" by US conservatives due to stylistic changes, such as the introduction of a purple character, a colour associated with the LGBTQ community.

M&M's declared an "indefinite stop" of the "spokescandies" and introduced a new brand ambassador, popular comedian Maya Rudolph, in a move ideally timed to capture public attention ahead of a splashy Super Bowl ad.

Gartner analyst Andrew Frank does not anticipate politically charged advertisements this year, expecting that corporations will tread carefully in a divided country where strong messages can backfire.

"The antidote to backlash is humour, keeping it light," Frank said. "I think they would like to deescalate all of the toxicity around culture wars and things like that."

Last year's tournament featured numerous significant participants from the developing cryptocurrency sector, led by then-titan FTX and its founder Samuel Bankman-Fried.

Since then, FTX has gone bankrupt, and Bankman-Fried has been charged with fraud.

The collapse of FTX and Bankman-Fried has produced "a suitable opportunity for them to pause," according to Frank.

To compensate for the loss of advertising, Fox can now expect money from a broader range of beer firms, following the termination of a long-standing exclusivity agreement with Anheuser-Busch, the owner of the Budweiser brand.

Frank anticipates that most spots would target "leisure spending with lighter messaging of escapist enjoyment," as he put it.

The goal is to "create the impression that everything is well and that you don't need to be so frugal with your discretionary spending."

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