Laugh, but Not Too Hard: New Super Bowl Advertisers Keep It Light in Pandemic

Entertainment

February 4th, 12:21pm

Asharq Al-Awsat

Rapper Cardi B appears with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as their "Wayne's World" characters in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on February 3, 2021. Uber Eats/Handout via REUTERS.

In a teaser ad Uber Eats released ahead of the Super Bowl, actor Mike Myers, reprising his role as Wayne from “Wayne’s World,” tells sidekick Garth what is on everybody’s mind: “2020, man, that was a great year...not.” The food delivery app and other brands doing well during the pandemic including electronics brand Logitech and gardening company Scotts Miracle-Gro, will replace long-time advertisers during Sunday’s Super Bowl LV telecast. The celebrity-laden ads aim to inject some humor and levity into the year’s most-watched US televised event after 11 months of social distancing and lockdowns, Reuters reported. Longtime advertisers Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Budweiser and Coca-Cola are sitting out the match-up between Kansas City and Tampa Bay to fund COVID-19 vaccine efforts or save money. Their absence makes room for a new roster of advertisers that have boomed as the world faces a third wave of the health crisis, marketing experts said. “I’ve never seen this many first-timers as a percentage of the advertisers,” said Charles Taylor, a Villanova University professor of marketing. Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B will join Wayne and Garth to sing a jingle and tell viewers to eat locally, kicking off a $20 million Uber Eats campaign to support independent restaurants. Logitech, maker of computer keyboards and webcams which consumers rushed to buy as they worked from home, recruited rapper Lil Nas X to appear in a spot reflecting how artists have used technology “to create the future,” set to his newest song.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2784921/laugh-not-too-hard-new-super-bowl-advertisers-keep-it-light-pandemic