Two years ago, Coca-Cola’s 60 second Super Bowl advertisement featuring people singing a multilingual version of “America the Beautiful” sparked a national discussion of immigration and diversity. (Click here to read my comments in response to the bigotry that followed that ad. ) Is it any surprise, given the moment of history we’re living in, that Coca-Cola decided to dust it off for Super Bowl LI and run it again?
And they weren’t the only ones who ran a political advertisement in the Super Bowl. Airbnb, the community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book accommodations around the world, ran an advertisement that promoted its view of an open, multicultural world, reflecting its commitment to housing refugees. “We believe no matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love, or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept.” A hashtag at the end of it read #WeAccept, and it went viral on social media by halftime of the game.
84 Lumber, a Pittsburgh-based national building supply chain, ran an advertisement that was so controversial that Fox wouldn’t air the complete version of it. (It’s available here and worth a look.) It featured a Spanish-speaking mother and daughter making a grueling trek across Mexico in search of a better life. Apparently the depiction of the mother and daughter confronting a border wall between the United States and Mexico was “too controversial.”
Budweiser’s Super Bowl advertisement featured the journey that Adolphus Busch made from Germany to St. Louis in the 1800’s and the discrimination he overcame on his way to success. Unbelievably, the hashtag #BoycottBudweiser trended earlier in the game (the advertisement had been running for days before the game). Later on, however, that same hashtag was being used by others to defend Budweiser and mock the boycotters.
And then there was Audi. Audi’s advertisement advocated equal pay for women. Narrated by a father asking questions about what to tell his young daughter one day as she competed in a go-cart race, he said, “Do I tell her that despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence, she will automatically be valued as less than every man she ever meets?” The young girl won the race, and her father remarked that maybe he will be able to “tell her something different.” The advertisement ends with Audi of America’s statement that it is “committed to equal pay for equal work.”
We are living in an unprecedented moment in history. The Super Bowl is without question the biggest day of the year for advertisers. And in this moment of history, companies did not shy away from calling out President Trump and his politics (even if none specifically used his name), offering up loud rebukes against xenophobia and sexism.
Let me remind everyone that we are a nation born of immigrants. The President’s election, and his recent actions on immigration and other issues, has divided our country. Advertisers paid $5 million for 30 seconds of air time to reach more than 110 million viewers. I think they were very successful. Let’s hope their messages were loud and clear to Washington.