Blog: Super Bowl

Rihanna’s performance at the Super Bowl LVII over the weekend was remarkable for several reasons, but most of all was that she had not performed a show at this scale in seven long years. “The wait is almost over”, Apple Music’s Ebro Darden teased in promotions leading up to the big night, and the wait simply being over arguably mattered more than whatever Rihanna decided to do onstage.

What is ASMR? ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, a sensory phenomenon that is increasingly known to induce relaxation and counteract anxiety. ASMR is known to induce a tingling sensation which usually spreads across the scalp and back of the neck when triggered by audio and visual stimuli.

Even before the St. Louis (now LA) Rams were setting records in the NFL during the 1999-2001 seasons, earning the nickname ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’, the Super Bowl was viewed as an unrivalled opportunity to advertise brands, products, and movie trailers to the masses that tune in (or increasingly stream) to watch the showpiece for the world’s most valuable league .

The egg that beat Kylie Jenner for the highest number of likes on an Instagram photo partnered with Hulu to promo an ad following the Super Bowl. Rather than ‘sell out’ for a branded message, The Egg’s (also known by fans as ‘Eugene’) first spot on Hulu (titled: S1 E1), was a message encouraging people coping with mental health issues to seek support from Mental Health America – providing the relevant links.

Over the last few years, brands have been taking increasingly political stances. Whether Heineken’s ‘Open Your World’ 2017 ad, or Gillette’s ‘We Believe: The Best Men Can Be’ spot at the start of 2019, there has been a growing trend for brands boldly (and some say, haphazardly), entering the ‘political’ sphere.