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The Super Bowl has long served as a major front in the long soda war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi. This year, the beverage giants will lead this battle elsewhere.
Coca-Cola said on Friday it would not run ads on CBS’s Super Bowl LV show, citing a “tough choice” made to “ensure we are investing in the right resources in these unprecedented times” . Coke’s announcement follows a similar announcement made by rival Pepsi, which has chosen to focus on its annual halftime show rather than running commercials for its flagship drink (its parent company, PepsiCo, will broadcast a advertisement for his Mountain Dew soda with various Frito-Lay snacks).
Coke declined to make the executives available for further comment. The company spent $ 10 million on ads placed in Fox’s 2020 Super Bowl LIV broadcast, according to data from Kantar, an ad spend tracker.
Decisions by beverage companies to sideline their drinks will undoubtedly spark more questions about the financial foundations of the Super Bowl in an era of economic flux. The coronavirus pandemic has forced many advertisers to cut budgets and reallocate spending. In the past, Pepsi has held back Super Bowl activity during another time of crisis. In 2010, as the country recovered from a severe recession, Pepsi decided not to run ads for any of its drinks, ending a 23-year streak of drink promotion during the Big Game.
CBS, which is looking for roughly $ 5.5 million for Super Bowl TV advertising packages, has yet to declare a liquidation of its in-game commercial inventory. Last year’s game generated roughly $ 435 million in sales. advertising spending, according to Kantar – a new record.
Coca-Cola last left the Big Game in 2019, choosing to run an ad just before the broadcast kicked off, but not in the event itself. In doing so, the soda maker ended an 11-year streak of Super Bowl commercials.
Coke has become a mainstay of the Super Bowl over the past two decades. Working hand in hand with the advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy, Coca-Cola has, to use one of its slogans, brought the game back to life.
In 2008, the beverage company put on a dazzling spot showing Macy’s Thanksgiving balloon characters (Underdog and Stewie from “Family Guy”) chasing a balloon version of a Coca-Cola bottle – to be foiled by Charlie Brown. Recognizing that more Super Bowl viewers were using smartphones during the game, Coca-Cola in 2013 ran a social media feed of its famous animated polar bears commenting on all Super Bowl commercials. In a previous Super Bowl run (the soda giant took an eight-year hiatus after 1998), Coke tugged at the heartstrings with an ad featuring former Pittsburgh Steeler ‘Mean’ defensive tackle Joe Greene tossing a jersey to a young football fan. The appearance of the ad in Super Bowl XIV in 1980 helped make it a classic (although the ad had previously aired on television.
More soon…
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