#15 Themes from the Super Bowl & Cultural Imprinting
“Historians and archaeologists will one day discover that the ads of our time are the richest and most faithful daily reflections any society ever made of its whole range of activities.”
Marshall McLuhan
Hi, and thanks for joining me again this week. I got some lovely comments from last week’s newsletter on the power of storytelling in times of Brexit, really appreciate those who got in touch.
On Monday morning I watched the Super Bowl highlights - there were some really great ads and a fantastic Half-Time show by JLo and Shakira (JLo’s political messages were clever and perfectly timed). I’m sure you’ve read quite a lot about the Super Bowl already, but to echo McLuhan, ads are a good way to capture the ‘mood’ of our present time. Here are four themes I identified from this year’s ads.
1 Hollywood Nostalgia
Everyone loved the Jeep ad with Bill Murray, The Shining ad by Mountain Dew, Walmart used all of its licensed IP to deliver a strong message and Porsche evoked the thrill of the first Fast & Furious movies. While the advertising industry worries about a crisis of creativity and efficiency, Hollywood is really thriving and getting people to pay for more content than ever (at the moment I pay for BBC, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, ITV, Channel 4, and soon Disney+). With the streaming wars in full speed ahead, and combined with the safety net of movies that evoke warm, fuzzy memories, we are craving for a revival of the 80s and 90s when everything was simpler.
2 Social Purpose
Some brands used the opportunity to talk about a social cause, but considerably less than in previous years. Olay’s Make Space for Women was an okay ad, Secret’s Kicker got a lot of backlash by implying that women’s talent in sport is somehow still surprising. Budweiser’s Typical American did a half-job at trying to smash negative stereotypes of Americans through viral videos while trying hard to not get too political. Microsoft Be The One was the only ad that really had a powerful and authentic story, supporting The 49ers’ coach. Audiences are getting more suspicious than ever to brands making grand statements when every single topic can be seen as ‘polarising’ at the moment.
3 Bridging individualism
The long tail is longer than ever with different niches/audiences/ communities emerging and establishing spaces online and offline around specific topics. Some brands showed that they could cater for all tastes and preferences across all target audiences. Avocados from Mexico showed that no product is too crazy or weird for fan communities. Sabra Hummus used celebs, drag queens, musicians and TikTok stars to satisfy everyone’s cravings. Heinz’s Four at Once showed that no matter what kind of movie or setting you might choose, everything is better with ketchup. There are plenty of audiences of 1, and still some brands have the charm to appeal to all of us.
4 Humanising Technology
With concerns around safety and privacy, alongside tax evasion and election meddling from big tech companies, a lot of effort went into making technology more human. Google’s Loretta brought many tears to people (a sort of ‘Up’ movie in ad form), Facebook tried to focus on the power of community and groups, T-Mobile talked about family ties made stronger by 5G. Amazon Alexa’s ad was my favourite by far (I think it might be the most-watched ad of all of them with 60 million views). They all tried to make us forget about the biased algorithms and political agenda that makes all of this possible.
I’m a huge fan of the advertising theory of cultural imprinting, which argues that ad campaigns change the landscape of cultural meanings around a brand or product. Cultural imprinting requires a large audience, and that’s why the Super Bowl is so important - as it is seen by hundreds of millions around the world, its power resides in the ability to convey the same cultural meaning to a global audience.
Why is a Superbowl audience more valuable than the fragmented audience of the same size? During the Superbowl, everyone knows that everyone else is watching, and so any brand image that's conveyed during the Superbowl is almost guaranteed to take root in the broader culture, and therefore to be perceived "correctly" at a later date.
Thanks so much for reading. It’s my birthday on Monday, so I’ll be off for a nice long weekend in Barcelona.
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Cultural Patterns is a newsletter by Florencia Lujani about culture, creativity and strategy. If you’ve enjoyed it, consider subscribing :)