In a divided USA – troubled by politics, equality issues and disasters – NFL sponsors are turning to comic commercials to unite the nation around the a new season for the country’s biggest sports league. After all, despite the ratings dip, the racially charged player protests and the brain injury scandal, the NFL is still set to generate $14bn in 2017/18 and one of the very few things the majority of Americans can agree on is that most of them love football.
As the season kicks-off, we monitored at least 24 league sponsors activating their NFL rights across 37 brands through 40-plus television ads and at least 55 digital spots – the majority of which were lighthearted in tone and revolved around humour.
Very few of these silly, slapstick spots have values-based messages or an underlying seriousness beneath the humour: from corny puns and play on words, to deadpan humour, daft dressing up and simple silliness – low-brow comedy is THE creative trend for the start of the new NFL season.
See our ‘Top 10 NFL Sponsor Comic Commercials’
1: Hyundai > ‘Safeties First’
2: Bridgestone > ‘Rookie Tire Knowledge’
3: Wonderful Pistachios > ‘Put A Smile on Your Snackface’
4: Pepsi > ‘The Fun Doesn’t End Zone’
5: Tostitos > ‘Lucky Bags’
6: Tide > ‘Rob Gronkowski and Tide Sport PODS’
7: Gatorade > ‘The Todd Factory’
8: Fan Dual > ‘Makes It Better’
9: Fedex > ‘Air & Ground Challenge’
10: Nationwide > ‘The Jingle Is Almost There’
