15722: Super Bowl Commercials Represent Super Bullshit—And Systemic Racism.

Advertising Age published a looooong report—definitely not worth reading in its entirety—on how the annual Super Bowl commercials showed limited progress in terms of diversity and inclusion. The opening sentence says a lot:

 

“As Madison Avenue approaches year two in its commitment to create a more diverse and inclusive ad industry, most Super Bowl advertisers are either still struggling to create commercials that depict true representation or don’t appear to be trying at all.”

 

Um, why the fuck would Ad Age state that Adland is approaching “year two” in the quest to reach DE&I nirvana?

 

For starters, the lack of color in Super Bowl spots has been officially recognized since at least 2010, when Cyrus Mehri sought to bring legal action against the industry. The scenario, incidentally, was reported by Ad Age.

 

In 2020, it was recorded that divertsity—ie, the prominence and promotion of White women in Super Bowl advertising—had spiked. The second scenario, incidentally, was reported by Ad Age and the same reporter behind the latest revelation.

 

Madison Avenue’s “commitment to create a more diverse and inclusive ad industry” is not approaching year two—it’s closer to year twelve. And that’s just in regards to acknowledging the exclusivity prevalent in Super Bowl campaigns.

 

If you examine the complete history of systemic racism in Adland, the total jumps to at least 60 years. That’s year LX, to use the Super Bowl’s lexicon.

 

Madison Avenue is an undisputed discrimination dynasty.

 

Super Bowl Ads Show Limited Diversity And Inclusion Progress

 

While some advancements have been made, representation is hard to quantify

 

By Jeanine Poggi

 

As Madison Avenue approaches year two in its commitment to create a more diverse and inclusive ad industry, most Super Bowl advertisers are either still struggling to create commercials that depict true representation or don’t appear to be trying at all.

 

Ahead of this year’s Big Game, Ad Age asked every advertiser with plans to air in-game commercials about how they prioritized diversity and inclusion in the creation and production of their ads. This included how they approached casting, diversity within the agencies they worked with, and the makeup of those working on the production. While some brands had very clear action steps and outlined ways they implemented these practices in the conceptual and production phases of their ads, many could not provide specific details on the makeup of who worked on their ads. Others continued to provide cookie-cutter DEI mission statements that simply said they support the cause without disclosing much detail.

 

While a majority of the brands with planned Super Bowl ads participated in this article in some way, Toyota, Crypto.com, Procter & Gamble’s Gillette, Turkish Airlines, and Colgate-Palmolive’s Irish Spring declined to participate in the story. And WeatherTech, Kia, Carvana, Salesforce and Rocket Mortgage did not return multiple requests to comment before publication.

 

One of the biggest issues in attempting to measure diversity and track progress both in front of and behind the camera involves guidelines that prevent requiring crew members or cast to disclose information around accessibility status, with multiple brands, including Pringles parent Kellogg, crypto trading platform eToro, and BMW citing these guidelines as hurdles to providing detailed data.

 

“We are at the starting point in corporate America where companies recognize the need for that data and we are helping them navigate it,” said Rich Ferraro, chief communications officer, GLAAD. “We are starting now to help agencies ask those questions, and while participation needs to be totally optional, the ad industry isn’t doing it.”

 

[Feel free to read the full report here.]