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Super Bowl Ads Promote Electric Porsche, 5G, Election and Beer

Super Bowl’s Early Ads Include Quibi and Trump Commercials

(Bloomberg) -- This year’s Super Bowl ads, representing the costliest showcase on TV, included commercials promoting an electric Porsche, the presidential campaign and the streaming video startup Quibi.

The game, which the Kansas City Chiefs won 31-20 against the San Francisco 49ers, was close until the final minutes -- a boon for advertisers since many viewers likely stayed riveted to the screen.

Donald Trump’s ad -- his first Super Bowl commercial -- was about criminal justice reform and featured a woman who was sentenced to serve life in prison for a nonviolent drug offense. “Thanks to President Trump people like Alice are getting a second chance,” the ad reads. Trump followed up with a tweet showing the commercial and asking his followers to text if they liked the ad.

Mike Bloomberg aired a Super Bowl commercial on the crisis of children dying from gun violence. Bloomberg, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, owns Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

Porsche used the game to promote its new electric vehicle, a shot at Tesla Inc. And Hulu, a streaming service controlled by Walt Disney Co., trotted out Tom Brady to pitch its programming while sparking a debate about his future football plans.

The Super Bowl is the most viewed TV event in the U.S. and remains the place where advertisers look to make a big statement.

This game featured several return Super Bowl advertisers, including Google, Tide, Bud Light and Avocados From Mexico. Against that backdrop, Quibi stood out. Its ad featured bank robbers who watch the service’s bite-sized video clips -- and served as an introduction to the millions of Americans who have probably never heard of it.

Quibi, backed by tech veteran Meg Whitman and Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, launches in April with the promise of high-production-value videos that are less than 10 minutes long.

The ad didn’t score with viewers participating in USA Today’s unscientific Ad Meter survey, ranking 59th out of 62 commercials assessed. A Jeep ad with Bill Murray reprising his “Groundhog Day” character -- aired on Groundhog Day, of course -- topped the Ad Meter ratings. (The Bloomberg and Trump political ads were 60th and 62nd, respectively.)

Fox Corp., which broadcast the game from Miami, said it sold out its Super Bowl ad inventory. The commercials fetched as much as $5.6 million for 30-second spots.

The Super Bowl has maintained its luster with advertisers despite its audience declining in recent years. Last year’s game drew 98.2 million viewers, the worst showing since 2008.

If you hadn’t had enough football, Vince McMahon’s XFL aired a Super Bowl ad reminding viewers that the eight-team XFL begins play in February, shortly after the NFL’s Super Bowl.

Tide’s Super Bowl ad began as a typical commercial, with a guy at a Super Bowl party getting a stain on his white shirt. Then, he reappeared in a series of crossover ads throughout the game, include a promo for “The Masked Singer” and the latest installment in the “Wonder Woman” movie franchise.

The New England Patriots didn’t make the Super Bowl this year, but you could have been mistaken given the Boston flavor of the commercials. Besides Brady’s Hulu ad, a Hyundai commercial featured John Krasinski, Chris Evans and Rachel Dratch -- with thick Boston accents -- remarking on a new feature that automatically parks the car without a driver. That ad ranked second in USA Today’s survey.

Walmart Inc.’s first-quarter Super Bowl commercial was perhaps most impressive for its ability to get the rights to include so many major sci-fi characters. The ad, titled “Famous Visitors,” plugged the retailer’s free pickup option and featured Bill from “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” the pug from “Men in Black,” and both the “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” franchises. It ended with the promise of “out of this world convenience.”

The intergalactic theme of ads continued with one from Olay, which featured female astronauts encouraging viewers to tweet the hashtag #makespaceforwomen and promising to donate $1 to “Girls Who Code.” It wouldn’t be the Super Bowl without at least a few ads promoting a cause. A Michelob ad pledged to donate a portion of the sale from every six-pack to transition farmland to organic farming.

In the weeks leading up the game, Planters generated a social-media frenzy with a storyline about Mr. Peanut dying.

But the top-hatted legume was reborn during his Super Bowl ad as a character called Baby Nut -- a clear attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Star Wars’ Baby Yoda.

Tech companies had another large presence during the big game this year. Amazon.com’s ad featured Ellen DeGeneres asking her wife, Portia de Rossi, what people did before the company’s virtual assistant, Alexa. In one scene, a man asks another man to play a song while they ride in a covered wagon, and he starts blowing into a jug. Facebook Inc. promoted its Groups feature late in the game.

Google’s Super Bowl spot, meanwhile, went for the heartstrings. The ad began with someone typing “how to not forget” and an elderly man asking Google’s assistant to help him remember his wife with photos from their anniversary, things she used to say and her favorite flowers, while a montage of their life played on the screen.

He says, “Remember I’m the luckiest man in the world.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Gerry Smith in New York at gsmith233@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III, Tony Robinson

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