“The fundamental question in this is not necessarily what are consumers comfortable seeing on television,” Sam said. “It really centers around how do advertisers think about buying power and spending power of some of these communities and where are they comfortable making strategic investments in it to support diversification of the consumer that’s watching it?”
He said Super Bowl advertisers continue to ignore LGBTQ+ people because of the stereotype that “because people tend to not align our community with sports. Furthermore, professional sports and, specifically, the NFL have struggled with the navigation of homophobia and transphobia for a number of years,” Sam said.
Leaning on resource groups
Some brands also pointed out that they worked with diverse resource groups to help them craft their commercials and create more inclusive storytelling.
For example, Pringles said “from the onset of strategy and creative development we consulted our internal Business Employee Resource Groups (BERGs), including the Kellanova African American Resource Group (KAARG), Hispanic Resource Group HOLA, Collage Group and multicultural agency Cien+, who contributed to insights used in the development of our ad spot to ensure inclusivity across cohorts.”
Popeyes said it sought counsel from McKinney’s executive director of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging, Chandra Guinn. “As needed, we engage with members of Chroma, McKinney’s Employee Resource Group for colleagues of color to gain deeper insight and perspectives on the work. Both of these internal resources were involved in the creation of this ad,” the brand said.
For “Born to Play,” Solis said the NFL “sought out consultation from our internal DEI leadership and Black ERG, as well as an outside perspective from trusted professionals that were specifically knowledgeable about Ghana. We sought out the expertise of Osi Umenyiora, a former NFL star and Super Bowl Champion from Nigeria who today runs the NFL’s Africa Camp to ensure the authenticity of the scene, the players and the storyline in the narrative.”
For its other two ads, Solis said the NFL “also consulted lots of research, testimonials from kids that had been bullied or struggle with anxiety and worked with Everfi, the NFL’s partner in creating the online modules for students to help give them the tools to build healthier relationships and stronger resilience, to make sure we were representing the gravity of the issues at hand, but also treating them in away that is not traumatic for the viewer.”
Although E-Trade declined to give any specific details for the survey, it did say that it “leveraged market research and multiple diversity and anti-racism resource groups to review our diversity, equity and inclusion strategy, and to provide feedback throughout the process,” and 72andSunny New York, the agency behind its spot, had its director of equity, diversity and inclusion “on set throughout the shoot, as well as reviewing content post-production.”
Representation behind the camera
Of the 49 directors confirmed doing Super Bowl commercials this year (some will direct more than one ad), only three are women. Jess Coulter directed M&M’s commercial, Lucy Bridger is behind Dove’s ad and Agostina Gálvez directed Poppi’s ad. Only eight of the directors are people of color, including Gálvez, who is Hispanic; Calmatic (Charles “Chuck” Kidd II), who is Black and directed Popeyes’ ad; Andrew Dosunmu, who is Black and directed NFL’s “Born to Play" spot from agency 72andSunny; Taika Waititi, who directed the TurboTax ad, identifies as half Jewish and half Māori; Mike Diva, a Korean-American director behind DoorDash’s spot; Mohammad Gorjestani, who is Iranian American and directed NFL’s “Tackle Bullying” and “Mental Game” spots; and Tarsem Singh, who is directing the Toyota and CrowdStrike ads.
All of the remaining 39 confirmed directors are white men. One of those is Google’s director, Adam Morse, who is blind.
Elsewhere in production, Pringles said its commercial was executive produced, produced, and production-managed by women, and the brand tapped Cien+, a multicultural agency, to help in production and casting.
Come Near said 51% of its production crew for its 15-second “He Gets Us” were female, 16% were people of color and an estimated 5.5% to 8% were LGBTQ+ (that the organization is aware of). For its 60-second ad, Come Near said 37% of crew members were female, 42.% were people of color and 14.7% were LGBTQ+. The organization said it is not clear if any crew members for either spot had disabilities.
TurboTax said the team at R/GA, the agency behind its Super Bowl spot, was “68.4% female and 31.6% male; 18.4% Black, 10.5% Hispanic or LatinX, 10.5% Asian, 2.6% American Indian, 57.9% white.” On the production side, “R/GA is pledged to the Free The Work organization designed to include diverse partners in all of our competitive bids. Of the lead artists and partners who were awarded for the project (such as director, photographer, editor, etc.) roughly 56% identified as underrepresented,” the company said.
The NFL worked with Little Minx, a certified female-owned production shop, to produce its “Born to Play” Super Bowl spot. According to the NFL, 96% of the 100-person crew that self-reported were people of color, “with the majority of them being from Ghana. Seven U.S.-based crew traveled for the production, 70% of them are POC.” The agency behind its ad, 72andSunny Los Angeles, was 36% diverse.
Even / Odd, a minority and immigrant-founded and owned production company, produced its “Tackle Bullying” and “Mental Game” spots; 54.35% of the production crew that self-reported identified as people of color.
The Martin Agency created Oreo’s spot and its team comprised of 77% women and 54% people of color. Only half of the Oreo spot’s Hungry Man production crew responded to a diversity survey. The findings are as such: 20% identified as female, 5% as Black, 11% as Hispanic, 1% as Asian, 1% as American Indian or Alaska Native and 1% as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. PXP also helped produce the commercial and its team was comprised of 75% women and 41% people of color.
FanDuel’s ad was created by Wieden+Kennedy New York, of which 56% are people of color and 10% are LGBTQ+ individuals. Wieden+Kennedy Portland did DoorDash’s commercial and 13% of that team are Asian, 15% are Black, 4% are Latinx, 2% are Middle Eastern or North African, 17% are of two or more races, and 17% are LGBTQ+.
DoorDash said, “Our director is Korean-American, a member of the production company leadership is LGBTQ, one of our lead VFX producers is POC, one of our sound mixers is female, and our composer is AAPI. We are also working with a certified woman-owned prize company to coordinate the official rules and fulfillment of the sweepstakes.”
M&M’s said “roughly” 62% of the BBDO New York and Omnicom agency team working on its Super Bowl commercial were “from underrepresented groups, including women, individuals part of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.”
The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism said its Quantasy & Associates’ agency team were all people of color or women, while 50% of the production crew were diverse.
Zulu Alpha Kilo worked on Booking.com’s ad and its 25-person agency team was 60% women, “with nine nationalities represented.”
Kawasaki said its Super Bowl ad’s “edit team was 83% female. Our post work was completed by The Mill U.S. which consists of 40% women and 32% individuals from diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds.”
BMW said 59% of its production crew were people of color.
Hellmann’s production crew was “42% female and 42% of the crew identified as Asian, Latinx, African American or mixed race.”
In-game advertisers including AB InBev and TurboTax said they do not collect data on the people who work on the commercials.