Coca-Cola Pulls Super Bowl Ad, New Spot Will Send Message Right Before Anthem
One of the NFL’s longest-running advertisers is pulling the plug on the biggest game of the season in lieu of a message about unity prior to the Super Bowl itself.
Color me cautiously dubious.
On the one hand, few entities deserve to be knocked down a peg or two quite like the NFL.
To be completely honest, I still love the NFL. I’m unashamed to admit that it’s one of my favorite sports and has been for quite some time.
That being said, it’d be disingenuous to say that I’ve been thrilled with the politicization of the league or the sheer incompetence of that rube masquerading as a “commissioner,” Roger Goodell.
As Fox News reports, “CBS is seeking between $5.1 million and $5.3 million for commercial packages that air” and whatever cut of that that the NFL would lose out on should reflect poorly on Goodell.
Again, I love professional football, but if anything can get through the thick skulls of the NFL higher-ups, it’s dollars and cents.
But on the other hand, is Coca-Cola really the company to try and send such a message?
As the Fox News report notes, Coca-Cola is nixing an 11-year run of Super Bowl ads and will instead run an ad just before kickoff. It will not be a part of the actual Super Bowl broadcast at all.
In a vacuum, that sounds great for those wanting the NFL to receive their just deserts in the form of lost ad revenue.
I just have serious reservations that Coca-Cola is the company to pull this off.
“We have a long history of using the country’s biggest advertising stage to share a message of unity and positivity, especially at times when our nation feels divided,” Stuart Kronauge, senior vice president of marketing for Coca-Cola North America and president of its sparking beverages business unit, said in a statement per Fox News.
“This year, we decided to place our ad just before the national anthem as Americans come together in their living rooms to remind everyone that ‘together is beautiful.’”
“We all have different hearts and hands; heads holding various views. Don’t you see? Different is beautiful. And, together is beautiful, too,” is the 1975 quote from artist Andy Warhol that the commercial will be inspired by.
Look, in and of itself, there’s nothing inherently wrong with diversity and inclusion. They’re unquestionably two of the tenets that America was built on.
The problem arises when ideas of diversity and inclusion get twisted into identity politics. Look no further than the recent Gillette ad targeting “toxic masculinity.”
Considering some of the more left-leaning stances of Coca-Cola, I have serious reservations about this whole thing.
But hey, if they can pull it off correctly without leaning into leftist drivel, good for them. It would actually be a huge boon for the soft-drink company. If they fall flat on their faces? Well then, it won’t just be the NFL losing money come Super Bowl Sunday.
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