The Most Notable Trend In 2022 Super Bowl Advertising? Humor

The trends in Super Bowl commercials tend to reflect the mood of the country. You don’t want to take a chance on your ad falling flat when you’ve paid a record $6.5 million for the spot, so brands pay attention to the mood of the country when they plan.

So what can you expect in today’s game airing on NBC? Something funny, with a lot fewer mentions of or allusions to COVID-19 than last year.

While the 2021 game featured spots saluting the nation’s resilience approaching the first anniversary of the pandemic, this year, with the second anniversary looming, people aren’t in the mood for reflection. They want escape.

Zeta, a marketing cloud company, noted in its “Five Super Bowl 2022 Predictions for Marketers” that the country is searching for humor: “As we return to normalcy, people want to laugh again following years of the pandemic. Advertisers will rely on humor to connect with audiences, rather than focusing on pulling the heartstrings of Americans with inspirational messaging. Viewers can expect to see more humor and adventure in commercials this year than ever before.”

That’s on display in an early-release ad for Amazon about Alexa, which features couple Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost. The commercial imagines what would happen if Alexa could read minds, playing out funny scenarios in which the voice AI messes with the famous couple’s marriage.

Another commercial, for AT&T Fiber, features Ashton Kutcher’s ex-wife, Demi Moore, and current wife, Mila Kunis, in competition with each other as they note that they “have a lot in common.”

A spot for BIC EZ Reach lighter spotlights the oddball friendship between Snoop Dogg, a Super Bowl LVI halftime performer, and Martha Stewart. Snoop makes veiled references for using the lighter for his “favorite activity” (which goes unnamed—NBC and other networks have refused to air cannabis ads during the big game).

Even Super Bowl teasers, such as one with Idris Elba for Booking.com, are taking a humorous bent.

Super Bowl trends have always mirrored the cultural mood. Two decades ago, in the first Super Bowl after 9/11, ads focused on themes of national pride and togetherness. Last year, many were also inspirational, though humor was still there, too, for a country looking for relief from relentlessly downbeat headlines.

This year, with the pandemic stretching longer than most people imagined two years ago, commercials serve as a distraction and a balm.

Of course, celebrities also continue to be a major element of ads. In addition to Johansson and Jost, Kunis and Moore, Stewart and Snoop, and Elba, others appearing in Super Bowl commercials include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lindsay Lohan Kevin Hart, Mike Myers and more.