Super Bowl XLIX drew in about 114.4 million viewers, which made it the most watched broadcast in US TV History. But as we know, most of those viewers might not have turned in for the game so much as the advertisements. Advertisers pay over a million dollars for just a 30-second spot, release advertisements early online, and pay monumental amounts for celebrity guest appearances and endorsements just in the hope that their ad (and brand) will take off after the Super Bowl. Even USA Today launches their official “ad meter” to see which ads were the most effective.
Usually the ads that score the highest on USA Today’s totally not official or at all scientific meter are the ones that are funny and appeal to a wide audience of people Whichever one is the funniest usually starts trending online, and the brand takes off into celebrity status. As a result, you usually get bombarded with silly, downright stupid, and loud advertisements all meant to strike your funny bone.
Airing in the third quarter of the game, the most significant and stunning ad was from the No More campaign. The campaign’s end goal is to address domestic violence and sexual-assault awareness. Instead of humor, the ad depicts two friends texting, where person B invites Jess out to her Super Bowl party. Jess, saying that ,“Jake [their significant other] is in one of his moods.” Person B asks Jess where she is, Jess starts typing, but never responds. After that, the following messages appears, giving people a number to text to learn more about domestic violence and how to help:
“There are many signs of domestic violence and sexual assault. Learn how to help. Text ‘No more’ to 94543.”
The ad was just 30 seconds long, but it definitely left its mark. The airtime was donated by the NFL, who received backlash after the way it handled Ray Rice’s own domestic violence case. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, one in three women and one in three men have been victims of physical violence by a partner in their lifetime. Almost half of male and female victims of rape were assaulted by an acquaintance or intimate partner.
A 30-second ad about domestic and sexual violence might not seem too important. However, there is still sigma surrounding domestic violence as well as sexual violence, with a lot of cases (especially where the victims are male) going unreported. Football is still very much a male dominated hobby, so the No More campaign’s ad is impacting on multiple levels. Broadcasted to over a 100 million people, there’s a good chance that a victim saw it and might have the courage to speak out.
This is the second time that the No More campaign has had an ad featured in the Super Bowl. Last year’s commercial involved a woman calling 911, making a fake pizza order to let the operator know that she was in trouble, was not alone, and needed help right away.
