Reddit Gets Cost-Effective Buzz With Five-Second Spot: Ad Update

(Bloomberg) -- Reddit Inc., which gained renown this year for helping fuel a runup in shares of GameStop Corp. and other beleaguered companies, extended its moment in the spotlight with a Super Bowl ad.

The online discussion site bought a five-second ad that was easy to miss live, aiming to build buzz later on social media.

“If you’re reading this, it means our bet paid off,” the company said in a message that briefly flashed on screen. “Big game spots are expensive, so we couldn’t buy a full one.”

Reddit wasn’t the only advertiser with links to the stock market’s recent upheaval. The brokerage app Robinhood had its own Super Bowl ad, telling potential customers, “You don’t need to become an investor, you were born one.”

Key Developments:

Commercials Lean Into Nostalgia (8:02 p.m. NY)

A number of Super Bowl ads drew their inspiration from previous commercials, mining nostalgia for gags.

In one, characters from past Bud Light ads (“Bud Light Legends”) help get a toppled beer truck back on the road.

Rapper Drake appeared as “Drake from State Farm,” a riff on the insurance company’s longstanding “Jake from State Farm” character.

ViacomCBS Inc.’s streaming service, meanwhile, drew complaints about crashing during the game. The timing wasn’t ideal for a company that’s both airing the Super Bowl and preparing to launch a revamped version of its streaming platform next month, rechristening it “Paramount+.” But the problems were soon resolved.

Commercials Go Heavy on Streaming (7:09 p.m. NY)

The Super Bowl kicked off Sunday with a flurry of commercials devoted to streaming content, including the new Paramount+ service set to debut next month.

Walt Disney Co. touted its series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and the movie “Raya and the Last Dragon,” both of which will appear on Disney+.

The pandemic loomed large during pre-game ceremonies, which included President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden holding a moment of silence for the more than 440,000 Americans killed by Covid-19. Poet Amanda Gorman, who rose to fame after performing at Biden’s inauguration, read a piece dedicated to front-line workers. The late Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, meanwhile, appeared as a hologram.

Procter & Gamble Co. alluded to the pandemic in a shared spot for Dawn dish soap and Swiffer floor-cleaning supplies, specifically the way that household chores have ballooned for “one person.” P&G has used its Super Bowl ads to highlight social issues in the past, and while this one stops short of pointing out that that “one person” is almost always a woman, it calls on viewers to “close the chore gap.”

Ads Celebrate 2020’s Demise (4:21 p.m. NY)

Let’s put 2020 behind us.

That’s a key message from advertisers during the Super Bowl, which remains the biggest event for brands looking to reach a wide audience. Many of the commercials airing Sunday alluded to the tumult of 2020, which included a pandemic, racial strife, a contentious U.S. presidential election and a battered economy.

Companies spent an average of about $5.5 million for a 30-second slot during the game, and CBS said it had “virtually sold out” its ad inventory. And though NFL ratings slid this year, the Super Bowl matchup of the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- with star quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady facing off -- is just about the ideal scenario for marketers. The game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. local time in Tampa, Florida.

In its first Super Bowl ad, Scotts Miracle-Gro will feature Martha Stewart, John Travolta and other celebrities in backyards, noting how such spaces “have had quite a year.”

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade will remind viewers that 2020 “was a lemon of a year,” with lemons falling from the sky. Mars Inc.’s M&M’s features a woman apologizing to another woman for having the name Karen, which in 2020 became popular shorthand for racism and white privilege.

Like other years, most ads will dance around overly contentious topics, relying on humor and celebrities to get their message across.

Fewer automakers will appear this year, while tech and e-commerce companies will have a large presence. In one ad, actor Michael B. Jordan appears as a human version of Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa.

There will be too many celebrities to count. Will Ferrell stars in a General Motors ads about electric vehicles. A two-dimensional Matthew McConaughey appears in a Doritos ad. Musicians like Nick Jonas, Lil Nas X and Dolly Parton will all make cameos.

ViacomCBS Inc., which is broadcasting the game on CBS, will tout its upcoming streaming service, Paramount+. The spot features a wide range of CBS talent, including Gayle King and Stephen Colbert.

But a Super Bowl ad isn’t a guarantee of success in the streaming market. Last year, Quibi bought a Super Bowl commercial. Then the streaming service announced in October that it would shut down, about six months after launching.

Robinhood, the brokerage app that was cast as a villain in the Reddit-fueled GameStop trading saga, will run a Super Bowl ad that tells potential customers, “You don’t need to become an investor, you were born one.”

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.