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Yesterday, we learned which teams would go to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is still happening, oddly enough, and it will see a match-up that I guess people wanted to see. Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills, and the Bucs beat the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, which means that Tom Brady – who is 43 damn years old – will be quarterback for a team at the Super Bowl for the TENTH time in his career. As you can see, Tom’s wife Gisele Bundchen celebrated with the kids.

I was curious about what a Pandemic Super Bowl would look like, and it is going to be a forcibly lowkey attended event at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The NFL is putting a strict limit on who can come in person – just 22,000, which is a third of the capacity of the stadium. And if you ask me, that’s still too many people. It will also look different for those at home, with many companies choosing to pull their ads this year, or choosing to highlight vaccine information with their ad dollars.

For the first time since 1983, when Anheuser-Busch used all of its ad time to introduce a beer called Bud Light, the beer giant isn’t advertising its iconic Budweiser brand during the Super Bowl. Instead, it’s donating the money it would have spent on the ad to coronavirus vaccination awareness efforts.

Anheuser-Busch still has four minutes of advertising during the game for its other brands including Bud Light, Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade, Michelob Ultra and Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer. Those are some of its hottest sellers, particularly among younger viewers. But the decision to not do an anthemic Budweiser ad — which over nearly four decades has made American icons of frogs chirping “Budweiser,” guys screaming “Whassup!”, and of course the Budweiser Clydesdales — showcases the caution with which some advertisers are approaching the first COVID-era Super Bowl.

The Anheuser-Busch move follows a similar announcement from PepsiCo., which won’t be advertising its biggest brand, Pepsi, in order to focus on its sponsorship of the the halftime show. (It will be advertising Mountain Dew and Frito-Lay products). Other veteran Super Bowl advertisers like Coke, Audi and Avocados from Mexico are sitting out the game altogether.

The pandemic has cut sharply into sales for many Super Bowl advertisers. With pricey ads costing an estimated $5.5 million for 30 seconds during the Feb. 7 broadcast on CBS, some may have decided it’s not worth it this year. Coca-Cola, for example, has been hard hit since half of its sales come from stadiums, movie theaters and other usually crowded places that have been closed during the pandemic. It announced layoffs in December, and said it said it wouldn’t advertise this year to ensure it’s “investing in the right resources during these unprecedented times.”

[From The Associated Press]

That’s interesting, that some companies are directing the ad money to PSAs, basically. It would be a good moment to do some more emotional and sad ads, like companies do for the Olympics (the number of Olympics ads which have made me cry, my God). Anyway, I’ll only tune in for the Halftime Show, like always. This year’s Halftime act is The Weeknd. Should be… something.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty, Instagram.