Electric vehicles stole the spotlight at the US advertising event for the year - the National Football League’s Super Bowl, held 7 February. 

While auto ads are a staple of the Super Bowl ad market, at an average cost of about $5.5 million for 30 seconds, this year’s ad slate did not feature the usual blitz of auto advertisers for the 100 million or so viewers of the match-up between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

With a population of about 320 million, about 1 in 3 Americans viewed Sunday’s Super Bowl and the associated ads, Kallanish notes.

Ford, Jeep and Toyota made appearances, but their ads mainly concerned the social issues stemming from 2020. Traditionally, Super Bowl ads are used to launch new campaigns and car models. 

The two brands that did introduce new models - GM and Cadillac - were both centred on electric vehicles. Cadillac is a subsidiary brand of GM. 

GM’s ad featured comedian Will Ferrell challenging Americans to beat Norway in electric vehicle adoption. GM has been at the forefront of the Detroit Big Three in pushing for electrification and promises in the ad 30 new EVs by 2025. 

Cadillac’s ad was a callback to the classic movie “Edgar Scissorhands,” depicting the son of the phalange-challenged title character easily piloting the new Lyriq EV with autonomous driving capabilities. 

Advertising trade journal AdAge notes that this year represents a low point for auto Super Bowl ad spending, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“In a normal year, Super Bowl advertising resembles a multiple-car pileup. So many auto commercials typically run in the game that brands must be extra creative to stand out,” the journal states. At least five companies that ran ads in 2019 opted to sit out this year, and that’s down from the record 11 companies in 2018, the journal says.

The Buccanners won the game with 31-9.