I think this Forbes article is telling. My sense is they are expressing disappointment that there wasn't more advocacy in the Super Bowl ads but in so doing they explain the mindset behind the shift from creative product marketing to advocacy marketing. Enter Scientology into a venue where people used to go to escape the intrusion of advocacy into every aspect of our lives. From the commentary I've been seeing this has become a serious issue. Advocacy is getting very oppressive and culty and now there it is right next to Scientology ads as though Scientology is lending it's stamp of approval to all this self-righteous and often hypocritical moralizing. All these advocacy ads are being positioned with Scientology and visa versa.
So instead of piggybacking on the popularity of creative entertaining Super Bowl ads Scientology's millions invested in these ads is contributing to a backlash against them as being uncool in your face know-besty social justice warriors. But I don't think they can stop now. That would be perceived as failure. Maybe they can reduce ad distribution and only do the shortest ads but they are stuck investing in something that only reinforces a negative public opinion. That might explain why this year's ad was so subliminal and made so little reference to Scientology. They have to maintain a presence but they can't really be themselves.
Another way to look at it is if all the ads were from religious or philosophical groups pushing their own doctrines about life and livingness. How weird would that be? Imagine NXIVM, Jehovas, Hari Krishnas, CAIR and a host of others all doing Super Bowl ads. Collectively Super Bowl ads would be considered pretty disturbing so I can see how Mr. Peanut wouldn't appreciate having to share the venue with this kind of thing - now up to 341k Views, 2471 Retweets, 10,300 Likes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonm...l-ads-were-nothing-to-celebrate/#146d8c446340
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In today’s commercial marketplace, social media is an active and tireless dialogue between brands and consumers, and companies have been forced to recognize that they can no longer tell consumers want to think, do, or buy. Instead, they need to ensure they are relevant and meaningful to consumers’ lives by positioning their company and products as representing the values they share. As such, marketing has shifted away from advertising in the traditional sense to advocacy and activism, with many tops brands playing leading roles in movements that address pressing cultural issues.
(snip)
It's a weird advertising shift alright.
Calculated? Eh. Not really. As I once wrote, the Superbowl was an opportunity for the biggest, best and most creative marketing companies and advertisers in America to display their top ads and those commercials were often given awards. The Superbowl ads were examples of the best they had to offer and these award-winning ads often earned them more clients and funds.
But television advertising is no longer the big industry it once was and there are so many competing advertising spaces through videos, Internet and other avenues that the entire industry has been diluted. There's just less money in television advertising to go around now, less money coming in from television advertising and more companies competing everywhere.
So the quality went down, just like it has in the film industry because videos and Internet series are so big now.
Instead of creative, independent ingenuity, we see the advertisers following one, single theme and lining up to that like ducks in a row.
The SJW thing is already becoming a tired theme, but the advertising agencies are onto it now, so we won't hear the end of it until they drag it completely into the ground and find another follow the leader theme.
COS hasn't changed much of anything from the ads it has had at the Superbowl since they first started, but it is possible the advertisers were all advised they should stay within that theme.
Trying to sell to a marketing niche isn't new, but selling to a marketing niche on a Superbowl ad is, well, weird, because it would be unappealing to the majority of people watching the Superbowl. That's pretty culty, like you said.
But I see it as short-lived, like a fad. I hope some sort of sincere efforts come from all this virtue-flagging, like some big recycling efforts and efforts to clean up the trash in the oceans. That would be really cool, but so far, none of these huge corporations or anyone else have stepped forward to do anything serious. So it's just more "look at me, I'm so great" BS.
Don't we all see it as exactly that, though? So COS fits right in with that. Like it's fancy foil Christmas cards with an empty message inside, from an empty church that doesn't have or believe in God in the first place. All tinsel and show.
The next few years will be very interesting.