Ahead of its broadcast of Super Bowl LIX from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, La., various reports have indicated that FOX Sports has sold at least 10 advertisements of 30 seconds each for $8 million. Although the company had been sold out of ad inventory for the Big Game in November, some advertisers decided to pull out following the Los Angeles wildfires. This allowed Mark Evans, executive vice president of sales at FOX Sports, to re-enter the marketplace and garner these higher price points. Yet Katie Nolan, who is hosting her new Casuals podcast with SiriusXM, conveyed exasperation surrounding a phenomenon pertaining to ads for the championship matchup.
During the most recent edition of the show, Nolan outlined a trend that she has observed taking place over the last few years in that companies release advertisements to preview their spots airing on Super Bowl Sunday. Specifically highlighting the Championship Round games over the past weekend, she expressed frustration towards the paradigm and opined that she would push a button to opt out of seeing the ads if it was possible. Nolan proceeded to compare what was taking place to when someone wants to watch a Super Bowl advertisement on YouTube but is prompted to watch another spot before seeing the video.
“Like what are we doing where people are like, ‘Yeah, [did] you see that Matthew McConaughey Uber Eats preview Super Bowl ad where he prepares to be Mike Ditka and takes forever to have a convincing Ditka impression?,’ something that if you’re playing Ditka, you should have ready or be closer to before you start trying to do to the mirror,” Nolan said. “What the hell is that? I might never use Uber Eats again.”
Nolan evinced that millennials have been subjected to the most advertising out of any generation and that the content is ostensibly ubiquitous in the marketplace. Moreover, she divulged how some companies are also facilitating reunions of casts from beloved television shows to participate in these spots as well. Nolan does not believe advertisements are ever going to be written in a manner that is creatively free and that those who have pecuniary oversight are going to ultimately have the final say.
“Ads are frigging everywhere,” Nolan said. “We are constantly being bombarded with content. Influencers are giving us ads that they are legally supposed to disclose to us, but a lot of them, let’s be honest, aren’t doing it. And so everything is an ad, and what I want to make sure is that we don’t let these advertising companies make us feel like we should be grateful for the content. I don’t want us to start treating it like a show or like a piece of creative content. It’s not – it’s an ad – it’s trying to sell you something.”
Rather than taking risks in advertisements, Nolan felt that companies do not want to dissuade people from the content or experience subsequent litigation. The Uber Eats advertisement starring McConaughey sent Nolan “into a spiral” over the past weekend, leading her to question exactly what was going on. Furthermore, she felt that the advertisements during the Super Bowl last year were dystopian as she watched the Super Bowl alone.
“So basically the point of this yap is like, ‘Cut it out with making me feel like I should be excited about your commercial. Just sell me whatever you’re trying to sell me and get out of the way,’ and if you find that, ‘Well, that’s too expensive to spend the $7 million plus the $5 million we have to pay Shane Gillis to be in our commercial,’ if that’s too expensive for you, then make a different choice because it’s not making me want to use your product anymore,” Nolan concluded. “I never really used Uber Eats, but now I’m not going to because McConaughey.”
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