Companies Breaking Stereotypes: Super Bowl 50

Written by contributor writer Gabriella Hoffman 

The Super Bowl is an event that more than 114.4 million people tune into watch. The year was Super Bowl 50 and the Denver Broncos came out on top to beat the Carolina Panthers 24-10.

While sports fanatics tuned into the Super Bowl for the game, many people tuned into for the commercials. This year everyone took to social media to not only share their reactions during the game but during the commercials, giving their opinion on the good or bad or what a company could of done better.

Some companies used the Super Bowl to their advantage to share a positive light and create a change for the good. Other companies continued to do what sells, which is have sexist commercials that many people are trying to change.

The Representation Project

The Representation Project takes a unique approach to become interactive with Super Bowl 50 commercials this year. This year two hashtags were buzzing around twitter from this project: #MediaWeLike and #NotBuyingIt. These interactive approaches gave viewers a chance to weigh in on their impressions of the commercials.

“Our #NotBuyIt and #MediaWeLike campaign inspires people to join together in celebrating good representations and calling out the bad, everywhere from advertising to merchandising.” – Therepresentationproject.org 

The mission of The Representation Project includes:

“…inspires individuals and communities to challenge and overcome limiting stereotypes so that everyone…can fulfill their human potential.”

I believe this is standpoint that is necessary during the iconic event of Super Bowl 50, with 114.4 million watching, this event is a prime event to inspire individuals to challenge and over come stereotypes. This campaign was able to ignite a global conversation, while engaging millions of views to bring a better representation of society into commercials.

Positives from #MediaWeLike

Let’s point out the positives of the evening from #MediaWeLike including the commercial from MINI Copper.  They took a stand and defied labels. They gained strong reviews by breaking stereotypes and making a stand against labels in today’s American society. This ad opened with Serena Williams, stating this is not a girl car, then panning to another individual saying this is not a gay car, the ad continuing by scrolling through a variety of people and making an impact that MINI USA is defying labels.

No More Campaign 

The No More Campaign, to end domestic violence and sexual assault, aired an ad at the beginning of the third quarter, which was simple but made a resilient impact. No spoken words were used, but a texting conversation between two girlfriends to bring awareness to the many signs of domestic violence urging American to become aware and learn how to help by texting “No More” to 94543. This issue is nothing to be taking lightly but once again having a commercial during the Super Bowl brings this awareness to the massive audience watching this epic media driven television event.

Bud Light Party

All in all over the course of the night I was watching closely to find the were sexualizing women, as the Super Bowl has a history of displaying sexualized commercials, do we all remember the burger chain, Carl’s Jr. ad campaigns? A girl in a bikini eating a huge burger, talk about sexism in the media. Continuing on a more optimistic note, Amy Schumer being the star of the Bud Light Commercial got positive feedback from ladies as well, as it should this commercial feature humor and the important of beer on the American culture. The whole time the commercial did not call out anything that would showcase sexist but instead showcased how a man and woman work together and have a good time.

So what do we do now?

I gather a different vibe from last night, I was delighted to see Representation Pledge tweet that woman across the country have been feeling a greater since of respect with the commercials this year. This was enlightening and long over due. Not only did this group start the conversation, it brought it followers from across the world and other companies joined in. It is never to late to join the movement, to be part of the change. The Super Bowl is an avenue to get the word out, but it up to us to change the culture ultimately. Be part of the change.