Today, the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks will take the field and play in the NFL's 49th annual Super Bowl. The Super Bowl takes on the traits of a holiday for football lovers across the country. We throw parties for friends and family, stocked with wings. fries, and brews. Not to mention, the stigma surrounding Super Bowl commercials and who can create the best one.
Public Relations happens all around the Super Bowl. There are five obvious outlets:
- NFL
- New England Patriots
- Seattle Seahawks
- all brands with placed commericals
Though the commercials of the Super Bowl are the works of advertising, the discussion each individual commercial creates is a PR situation. For instance, GoDaddy intended on releasing a commercial during the Super Bowl, but found that the public opinion was not on their side, and decided to remove the commercial. The ad seemed to be mocking Bud Light for their use of an adorable blonde Labrador in their Super Bowl commercials every year. The ad shows a puppy getting lost after falling off of its owners' truck and finding his way back home, just to have the owners proclaim that they can't wait to sell the pup online thanks to GoDaddy.
Many found the advertisement insensitive, while GoDaddy thought its audience would laugh. The PR decision was to make a statement revoking the commercial and announcing that the public will still see GoDaddy on screen during the big event. GoDaddy left their audience with a little mystery.
Check out the Super Bowl tonight, and expect to see a lot of PR talk about the Half Time Show and advertisments come tomorrow morning!
