Ad that shocked audience at Super Bowl
2023.02.13 01:55
Ad that shocked audience at Super Bowl
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – When the much-anticipated M&M’s Super Bowl commercial finally aired on Sunday, it was, well, confusing. It was supposed to clarify the status of the brand’s “spokescandies,” which were put on hold after being criticized by right-wing pundits.
In it, Maya Rudolph, an actress and comedian, tosses a few of the colorful candies into the air. However, instead of having the letter M on them, they have the letters “Ma,” “Ya,” and images of Rudolph’s face on them. The candies, according to Rudolph, now contain clams. People in the video eat and look disgusted. Viewers with keen eyes will have seen the Red M&M holding up a sign that reads, “HELP!” and a Yellow M&M that appeared to be in distress toward the end.
Following the characters’ switch from heels to sneakers last year and again following a January International Women’s Day campaign featuring female candies, the brightly colored anthropomorphized M&M characters had become topics of discussion and criticism from some Green M&M fans. from commentators of the right.
Some viewers were left perplexed by the Super Bowl commercial, which was promoted as the conclusion to the drama that had been going on for several weeks regarding the status of the “spokescandies.”
Are the M&Ms safe to eat? On Twitter, one person inquired. Help me truly comprehend the #mms “Clams” #SuperBowlAd, a different person pleaded. Some found it amusing, while others found it stupid.
In a press release, the brand assures people that the spokecandies have returned. The characters express their happiness at returning in a “press conference” in another brief Sunday episode. The chyron declares: Together once more: The M&M characters are back.
It’s possible that those who paid close attention to M&M’s advertising strategy comprehended the narrative progression: M&M’s introduced Rudolph as its new spokesperson prior to the commercial’s airing.
Rudolph showed videos of changes she had made in her new role, like changing “M&M’s” to “Ma&Ya’s” and putting her own face on the candies. M&M’s also shared updates, sometimes gloomy, about the characters without jobs: Orange, for instance, created a meditation playlist for Spotify, Yellow attempted to portray Snickers, and so on.
However, the final commercial might leave you scratching your head if you weren’t paying attention, which is one risk that brands take when they use a campaign that lasts for weeks in advance of their Super Bowl commercial.
Although M&M’s pre-launch campaign was certainly one of the most intricate, the company was not the only one. It has actually become common practice for advertisers to use social media to tease, preview, and generate buzz in advance of their Super Bowl commercials, a departure from the decades-long ad wars.
Before investing in the commercials themselves, businesses spend millions on a Super Bowl ad slot alone, with some 30-second spots reportedly costing over $7 million. Online campaigns, sometimes supported by glossy, multi-page print ads like M&Ms, are a way to get more people to see the commercial and get the most out of your money. Brands can also take advantage of ad previews to make adjustments before the big game if they receive negative feedback.
However, with so many businesses employing this strategy, it becomes even more challenging to break through and surprise viewers.
Companies are eager to secure a spot in the Super Bowl despite the high cost. This is due to the fact that some of the 208 million people who watched the game last year were only interested in the commercials.
Karen North, a professor of digital social media at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, stated, “As if it were a scheduled show or entertainment, anything you run during the Super Bowl will automatically get some attention.” The question is, “How specifically do you attract attention to yourself?”
Social media campaigns could be the difference.
The characters of some brands, like M&M’s, had elaborate backstories. Others simply released teasers or gave hints as to which celebrities would be featured in their advertisements. The Sunday ad featured the winner of a TikTok dance competition, which Doritos turned into a contest for its campaign. The stakes for viewers were raised when Molson Coors and DraftKings made it possible for people to wager on the contents of its advertisement prior to the game.
Planters aired portions of a mockery of Mr. Peanut ahead of the game this year. Mr. Peanut is famously said to have “died” in a Super Bowl commercial in 2020 before being reborn as a baby, which was a very involved and widely criticized campaign in and of itself.
Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said that the campaigns not only get people to watch, but they also take some of the pressure off the commercial itself.
He stated, “The Super Bowl is a very cluttered time.” People lose interest in the game and leave the room to check their phones or talk to friends. They might turn off the TV before some commercials even start.
According to Calkins, “you go into [the Super Bowl] with a much lower risk profile” by hedging with an online campaign designed to promote the brand.
Companies that put out ads ahead of time can also see how people react to them. They can make adjustments if it’s negative. Following criticism from animal rights activists and others, GoDaddy, for instance, pulled a 2015 advertisement about a puppy being sold online and was able to replace it with a different advertisement.
Companies must do even more to stand out because of the strategy’s popularity.
“Everyone copies something as soon as it works, and then it stops working as well.” Calkins stated that this was taking place “in the lead up to the Superbowl.”
Additionally, according to Villanova School of Business professor of marketing Charles R. Taylor, hyping the advertisements raises already high expectations. A loss of a lot of money and a weak campaign can result from a disappointing ad.
He stated, “It risks derailing your strategy if [the advertisement] just kind of blends into the background.”
Additionally, the social campaigns must be successful. When it announced that it would suspend production of its spokescandies, M&M’s got a lot of people talking. However, very few people were discussing Ma&Ya’s or the characters’ search for new jobs or interests.
Additionally, the campaign did not address the company’s initial claim that the spokescandies were too polarizing, which many perceived as a concession to the brand’s being accused of being too “woke.” Mars, the parent company of M&Ms, stated in a press release that as part of its Women’s Day campaign, it was providing grants to more “change-making women” than it had previously announced.
According to USC Annenberg’s North, the candy brand’s social campaign “has caught our attention based on a crisis, but they failed to engage us in the story.” I don’t know if that’s such a good move.
