As Madison Avenue approaches year two in its commitment to create a more diverse and inclusive ad industry, most Super Bowl advertisers are either still struggling to create commercials that depict true representation or don’t appear to be trying at all.
Ahead of this year’s Big Game, Ad Age asked every advertiser with plans to air in-game commercials about how they prioritized diversity and inclusion in the creation and production of their ads. This included how they approached casting, diversity within the agencies they worked with, and the makeup of those working on the production. While some brands had very clear action steps and outlined ways they implemented these practices in the conceptual and production phases of their ads, many could not provide specific details on the makeup of who worked on their ads. Others continued to provide cookie-cutter DEI mission statements that simply said they support the cause without disclosing much detail.
Get the latest Ad Age Super Bowl 2022 news here.
While a majority of the brands with planned Super Bowl ads participated in this article in some way, Toyota, Crypto.com, Procter & Gamble’s Gillette, Turkish Airlines, and Colgate-Palmolive’s Irish Spring declined to participate in the story. And WeatherTech, Kia, Carvana, Salesforce and Rocket Mortgage did not return multiple requests to comment before publication.
One of the biggest issues in attempting to measure diversity and track progress both in front of and behind the camera involves guidelines that prevent requiring crew members or cast to disclose information around accessibility status, with multiple brands, including Pringles parent Kellogg, crypto trading platform eToro, and BMW citing these guidelines as hurdles to providing detailed data.
“We are at the starting point in corporate America where companies recognize the need for that data and we are helping them navigate it,” said Rich Ferraro, chief communications officer, GLAAD. “We are starting now to help agencies ask those questions, and while participation needs to be totally optional, the ad industry isn’t doing it.”
Making progress
A few brands were successful in diversifying nearly every element of their Big Game commercial—from casting to the director and production crew—resulting in storylines that are also representative and inclusive.
Google is one of the only brands expected to tackle representation head-on in its commercial, which showcases the Real Tone capability of its Pixel 6. The tech giant tapped individuals and families with diverse skin tones for the spot, which also features an original song from Lizzo.
“We were also intentional about featuring individuals with disabilities, senior citizens and those from the LGBTQ+ community,” the company said.
Google’s ad was directed by Joshua Kissi, a Ghanaian-American director and photographer. He was one of the 17 professional photographers Google worked with prior to launching Pixel 6 to help test the camera to ensure it highlighted the nuances of all skin tones equally.
Google worked with Gut on the spot. The Miami-based agency’s founders are Latinx, 22% of the team identifies as people of color and 62% are female.
The goal of the commercial, and the Real Tone product, is to “address historical racial biases in the medium of photography by more accurately and beautifully rendering people of color, especially those with darker skin tones,” according to a Google spokesperson. To that end, Google deliberately featured individuals with a wide range of skin tones, across many ethnic backgrounds, including Tongan, Asian, Black, Latinx and Caucasian.
'Underscore the authenticity'
Less overt in its messaging, but just as impactful, women’s health brand Hologic purposefully selected a diverse group of female leaders both in front of and behind the camera for its 30-second ad called, “Her Health is Her Wealth.” It was directed by child., an African American director/artist.
Mary J. Blige stars in the ad from the medtech company, and for the other roles, a Hologic spokesperson said it chose diverse actors, including members of Blige’s own team, “to underscore the authenticity of the message and the diversity with which she surrounds herself every day.”
Behind the camera, Hologic assembled a female-led and culturally diverse team that includes ad agency Ché Creative, which is Black and female-owned, with Gabrielle Shirdan, executive creative director, running point; production duties were handled by Little Minx, a certified women-owned production company; and strategy, media and campaign integration duties were managed by Cheryl Overton Communications, a Black-female owned integrated marketing communications advisory.
The NFL, which in recent years has faced criticism for its diversity, equity and inclusion practices, also provided a detailed breakdown of its commercial. The ad titled “Bring Down The House,” which won’t be revealed in full until the game, begins with a brother and sister playing a football video game at their house. Soon, NFL players begin popping out of the screen and into the home.
The hero cast is a Black family and the NFL players included in the spot are “representative of the league being 70% Black,” a spokesperson said.
When it comes to those who worked on the spot, the league said 28% of the NFL's own team is ethnically diverse, while its production partners aim to hire at least 15% Black department heads and crew on every job. The NFL added that its production vendors hire their production assistants from organizations like Streetlights and Manifest, which look to create opportunities for underrepresented crew. This resulted in three production assistants who are Black and three who identify as Latinx.
But the NFL’s diversity initiatives are under a microscope in the wake of a new lawsuit filed by former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, who alleges that NFL teams have engaged in racist hiring practices. The league initially issued a statement calling the claims “without merit,” but later NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to all the clubs saying there hasn’t been enough done to advance minority hirings.
The unfolding story, which is generating major headlines, could put the league’s Super Bowl marketing under more scrutiny than normal. When asked by Ad Age whether the NFL reconsidered its Super Bowl approach in light of the situation, NFL Chief Marketing Officer Tim Ellis said: “There is no doubt that we need to continue to work harder. We are reminded of that every day and certainly right now it is clear there is so much more to do. The marketing team definitely has a role … and we take that very seriously.” But “there is no desire to pull back on what we are doing,” he added. “We still need to continue to do the things that are actually helping our communities out there. But this is a clear reminder that there is so much more to do and we all have to be better.”
Diversifying casting
According to a new analysis of past Super Bowl ads from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and CreativeX, a creative insights firm, of more than 400 Big Game commercials dating back to 2016, only 35% of advertisers cast female characters; just 4% of ads feature someone over the age of 60; and 85% of characters shown in leadership roles are male. When it comes to skin tone representation, CreativeX and the Geena Davis Institute found there was a preference for characters with lighter skin tones, with 76% of characters in Super Bowl ads having the three lightest skin tones as defined by the Fitzpatrick Scale, a system to describe a person's skin type.
As it relates to this year’s crop of ads, of the 49 commercials viewed by Ad Age as of Saturday morning, there are 37 people of color in leading or featured roles. There are also 42 women with starring or featured roles compared with 63 men. Last year, of the 35 ads that were pre-released, there were 27 people of color, 30 women and 54 men in lead or featured roles.
Sam’s Club, Pringles, Caesars Sportsbook, BMW, Vroom, Booking.com and Squarespace were among the brands that cast people of color in lead roles.JB Smoove plays Julius Caesar and Halle Berry is Cleopatra in Caesars’ ad; Kevin Hart stars in Sam’s Club’s spot; Idris Elba is the face of Booking.com; and Zendaya and rapper Andre ‘3000’ Benjamin appear in Squarespace’s ad.
Michelob Ultra’s spot features a mix of sports stars, including Peyton Manning, Serena Williams, Jimmy Butler, WNBA star Nneka Ogwumike, golfer Brooks Koepka and women’s soccer legend Alex Morgan, alongside actor Steve Buscemi and Latin singer Becky G. With this ad, Michelob Ultra is looking to extend its efforts around gender equality in sports. In August, the brew made a $100 million commitment to increase the visibility of women in sports and signed a five-year partnership agreement with The Women’s Sports Foundation to help fund the travel and training needed for female athletes to compete at an elite level.
But Michelob parent Anheuser-Busch InBev, which also is airing spots for its Budweiser, Bud Light Next and Cutwater brands, did not provide detailed data on the makeup of its casts or details regarding diversity behind the camera.
The lead talents in Pringles’ ad are both of Mexican descent, the brand said, “offering crossover appeal for both our total market and Hispanic audiences.” Pringles, whose ad in 2021 featured nearly all white men, said this year three-fourths of the principal cast members are representative of diverse backgrounds, “to ensure inclusivity and that a vast range of representation is realized throughout.”
While Meta's ad promoting the metaverse predominantly featured animatronic characters, the tech giant said, "For this spot in particular, we made sure to look at representation both in the real-life casting, and the avatar depictions found within the VR world."
Avocados From Mexico filmed its ad in Mexico and featured local talent, but it selected Andy Richter as its celebrity talent.
Planet Fitness said 54% of its Super Bowl cast are persons of color. Lindsay Lohan is the star of the spot, which also includes celebrity cameos from Dennis Rodman, Danny Trejo and William Shatner.
Intuit’s QuickBooks said 33% of its cast are people of color and the cast is evenly split between men and women. Sibling TurboTax said its ad is 50% female and 50% people of color.
Vroom’s ad stars Ariana Rosado, who is Black and Latina, and the rest of the cast is made up of diverse dancers and singers.
Rakuten pointed to its cast of “strong female characters” led by “Ted Lasso’s” Hannah Waddingham, while BMW notes that Salma Hayek Pinault stars as Hera, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger as Zeus, in its ad.
Taco Bell’s ad features a diverse ensemble cast that includes Doja Cat. While the company did not provide specifics on talent mix, it noted that last year it was able to increase underrepresented minority talent by more than 25% of on-screen, voice-over, model and influencer appearances.
There are some brands where diverse representation is either less obvious, limited to those in the background of the action, or not present at all.
General Motors is reviving “Austin Powers,” which a company spokesperson said limited its ability to diversify its casting, as it features the movie's original cast in the spot, including Rob Lowe and Mike Myers. “While we were limited in this execution to the makeup of the original cast, we have a strong record of diversity in casting across our creative lineup and remain committed to inclusion across our advertising portfolio. We know our customer base is diverse and we make it a priority across our total advertising and marketing efforts to reach many different audiences, in broad and tailored ways,” the company shared in a statement to Ad Age.
Irish Spring, Carvana and WeatherTech, all of which declined to participate or did not respond for this story, featured predominantly white casts. Lay’s commercial, which stars Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen; Amazon’s ad featuring real-life couple Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost; Expedia’s ad starring Ewan McGregor; and DraftKings’ ad introducing its new spokescharacter the Goddess of Fortune, also lacked on-screen diversity.
DraftKings noted that its supporting on-camera principals and extras across the football team, refs and tattoo parlor couple represented a diverse group.
Frito-Lay provided little specifics on the makeup of its commercials, which include the one for its Lay’s brand, and a combined spot for Cheetos and Doritos (that one features the voices of Megan Thee Stallion and Charlie Puth). It also did not provide specifics on the makeup of its cast or crew or around how it approached inclusive storytelling in the Super Bowl commercials. Instead, it pointed to efforts outside of the Big Game, like its #joyfullyBlack campaign it launched in November in partnership with Revolt.
LGBTQ+ representation and accessibility
When it comes to LGBTQ+ representation, GLAAD saw a drop in the number of celebrities who identify as LGBTQ+ in Super Bowl commercials in 2021, with about four brands creating LGBTQ-inclusive ads. In 2020, there were 11 LGBTQ+ celebrities featured.
This year, nearly none of the brands surveyed provided specifics on how they are progressing as it relates to LGBTQ+ representation, and GLAAD’s Ferraro concurs, noting days before the Super Bowl that “so far there is almost no LGBTQ inclusion.”
The NFL is partnering with GLAAD to host an LGBTQ-focused event in the lead-up to the Super Bowl, bringing together former NFL players who came out, as well as featuring a conversation around LGBTQ inclusion in Super Bowl advertising.
GLAAD has predominantly focused its efforts on on-screen representation and the storylines of the ads. To this end, Ferraro said, “we are mostly invisible as a community.”
Moving forward, GLAAD is looking beyond counting LGBTQ celebrities in ads and for the community to be featured in more authentic ways, like showcasing LGBTQ couples and families. “There was a period of time where we saw homophobic inclusion, then we were invisible or there was coded inclusion, and then we saw brands put LGBTQ celebrities front and center because of their celebrity, but the issues weren’t visible. Now we want to bring awareness to LGBTQ families and feel LGBTQ couples should be part of the diaspora of storytelling.”
Another area sorely lacking with nearly every brand surveyed is the representation of people with disabilities. There was also little information provided on how brands are thinking about accessibility.
Toyota, which declined to comment on its DE&I strategy, is the only brand to tell the story of a person with a disability. The spot focuses on Winter Paralympian Brian McKeever, who has a genetic condition causing blindness, and his brother Robin McKeever, who serves as his sight guide. Toyota, which is also an Olympics sponsor, has featured Paralympians in its ads in recent years.
The NFL noted that its spot will have closed captions and Spanish subtitles for broadcast. And Nissan said its agency TBWA and its production partners ensure sets are accessible for all. The automaker also pointed to a recent update to its website to improve the customer experience for those with vision disabilities.
Beyond that, most of the brands surveyed did not answer the question directly or said they do not track this data.
Director representation
In terms of diversity in directors, with just a few days to go before kickoff, closing the gap in representation has been slow.
Of the 54 commercials that reported director information to Ad Age as of Saturday morning, 47 are men, seven are women and five are people of color.Last year there were three female directors and five people of color.
Aside from Google and Hologic tapping a Ghanaian-American and Black director, Budweiser brought in Academy Award-winning director Chloé Zhao to direct its Super Bowl ad. Taco Bell tapped Los Perez, a director duo composed of Tania Verduzco and Adrian Perez, while Hellmann’s spot was directed by Kris Belman, who identifies as Latino.
Female directors include Georgia Hudson for Bud Light Next, Rachel Morrison for both of Michelob Ultra’s ads and Alex Prager for TurboTax.
A few brands may not have chosen a woman or person of color as a director, but looked to bring diversity to the directorial team in other ways. Avocados From Mexico’s lead director was David Shane, who is currently mentoring Thaddeus McCants, a Brooklyn-based Black director, who co-directed the commercial, according to the brand. E-Trade’s ad was directed by Randy Krallman who does not identify as a person of color, but E-Trade noted that his team is “composed of diverse leadership, including his executive producer, Sue Yeon Ahn.”
soccer skin fortnite thumbnail
Production and creative teams
Measuring progress behind the camera, at this point, varies from brand to brand and agency to agency. Many brands, including Pringles, eToro and Frito-Lay, say they either do not ask people to self-identify or do not disclose such data for privacy reasons, making it difficult to track the diverse makeup of agency teams and production crew.
For those who are reporting data, it is not always clear how they are defining diversity within their teams (i.e. if diversity includes women, LGBTQ+ representation, etc.).
Planet Fitness, which worked with Publicis and Le Truc on its spot, said 29% of the agency team is people of color and 68% is female. Taco Bell’s Super Bowl campaign was crafted and executed by an agency team comprised of 39% BIPOC talent and nearly 60% women. Greenlight worked with Los Angeles-based creative agency Haymaker, whose agency is 50% minority-owned, and has a 50/50 female-to-male ratio, with people of color making up 46% of its full-time staff. Expedia, which worked with Anomaly on its spot, said nearly 65% of the Anomaly team working on the creative were considered diverse as defined by race, sexual orientation and inclusion of people with disabilities. When factoring in gender, that number goes to 90%.
BMW’s agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, notes one-third of the team on the campaign is made up of diverse backgrounds. Caesars Sportsbook worked with Ten6 on the spot and said the team is evenly split between male and female, with 29% people of color and 8% LGBTQ+. Nissan noted its Super Bowl team was gender-balanced and 33% were from a diverse background.
Amazon’s team is 40% female, and on a team of three creatives, one is a person of color. The Amazon campaign manager, creative program managers, and media managers that led this project were all women and 50% were women of color, and its social producer was a man of color. Its Prime Video worked with Wieden+Kennedy on its ad, and the team there is 50% people of color, 32% female and 4% non-binary. In addition, Prime Video's chief marketing officer, head of sports marketing and creative marketing lead for "Thursday Night Football," which is at the center of its spot, are all people of color.
Avocados From Mexico worked with GSD&M, whose team skews heavily female and includes five diverse members representing different ethnicities. On the Avocado team, its 34 employees are comprised of nine nationalities and are 60% female.
Of the core 16 members of TBWA\Chiat\Day's team that worked with QuickBooks on its campaign, 50% are people of color and 56% are women. On the production side, 38% are women. Of the Wieden+Kennedy team working on TurboTax’s spot, 21% were people of color, 58% white and 21% preferred not to self-identify. In terms of gender, 40% were female, 44% male and 16% did not disclose. On the production crew, 66% were people of color and 50% were female.
General Motors, which worked with McCann Detroit and Weber Shandwick, said it provided an opportunity for people to self-disclose, and that aggregate data across agencies includes 20% people of color and 50% women. On the production side, while General Motors does not inquire whether a team member identifies as LGBTQ or has a disability, of those who opted to self-identify, 8% identified as a person of color. In addition, one of the post facilities utilized is a women-owned business.
Booking.com worked with Horse & Mules, whose two creative directors are Asian and Pacific Islander, and the company noted the production included multiple people of color as well as trainees from underrepresented or disadvantaged groups.
Sam’s Club’s core agency team who worked on the Super Bowl spot was 55% BIPOC and approximately 30% of the full agency team is diverse.
Brands like Rakuten, Nissan and Uber Eats noted how they work with associations like Double The Line, which allows them to hire BIPOC candidates to work alongside the chosen role and gain support and experience. Uber Eats also noted it supports Change the Lens, an initiative that asks for 15% of Black representation in the overall production crew; and Free the Work, which requires a minimum of 40% representation in crew devoted to people of color, women and members of the LBTGQ+ community.
Similarly, Verizon pointed to its Responsible Marketing Action Plan it announced in April, which in part requires all agency partners to issue a diversity readout on a quarterly basis. The last such readout from the fourth quarter of 2021 showed 39.3% representation of people of color and 51.7% female for Verizon marketers and external agencies. And at the start of 2022, Verizon committed to Free the Work’s new platform, “Invoke,” which empowers crew to self-identify securely and anonymously using permission-based practices to promote diversity while protecting privacy.
Hellmann’s parent Unilever did not provide a specific breakdown on its teams but said it supports various initiatives that focus on creative diversity. Pringles parent Kellogg also did not provide the specific makeup for its Super Bowl ad, but noted that Black-owned supplier diversity spend has increased overall for the company by 16% in 2021.
Checks and balances
In an effort to ensure storytelling was authentic and representative and also to avoid any missteps, several brands like Booking.com and FTX noted how they brought in agency employee resource groups and other diversity, equity and inclusion advisory boards to be part of the process.
FTX turned to Dentsu’s Creative Review Council to catch any gaps in cultural nuance that the core creative team may have missed. “The input of this Council impacted the storyline in our script, pulling out one scene to prioritize a more representative profound moment in time. We were very deliberate to give members of the council credit because we don’t see this as volunteer work—it’s teamwork. All participating council members are reflected in our Super Bowl team credits,” a spokesperson said.
Amazon said it worked with a DE&I panel made up of diverse individuals from the Amazon community to review the ad at both the script and pre-production stage, “to make sure we’re being mindful of all perspectives.”
Kellogg worked with its Hispanic agency, Captura Group, to aid in production and casting for the Pringles spot’s leading roles. It also engaged with its internal cultural and inclusive marketing team and business employee research group to ensure authenticity in storytelling and portrayals.
QuickBooks parent Intuit worked with TBWA\Chiat\Day LA’s Racial Equity Advancement Leadership Team to develop a set of anti-discriminatory and anti-racist language guidelines and principles to help identify, eliminate and change widely used words and terms used internally and externally that have the ability to inflict harm.
From the concept phase to the finishing process, Nissan worked with TBWA’s multicultural agency Fluent360 to ensure the storyline encompassed true representation of the cast that carried the story throughout.
Cheryl Overton, who handled strategy for Hologic's Super Bowl campaign, notes some brands, in their earnestness to do the right thing, are stumbling into some roadblocks.
"One is the paralysis of waiting until we get it right, or being so nervous to move that we’re doing nothing," she said during Ad Age's Super Bowl event this week. "What I have to encourage them is no certificate is going to come and be bestowed upon you before you get to talk about this, you have to start talking about it because this is the world we live in."
Overton advises brands need to utilize their partners and build the right teams internally, "so at least you know when you are taking these steps and forging new territories you are doing so with some backing and with some insight to fuel you."
The other side of the continuum that Overton points out is "that dreaded virtue signaling."
"We see when work is insightful and is informed by a real human truth," she continued. "When it isn’t part of the narrative or really speaking to anyone it almost feels like checking the box to say we did it."
~ ~ ~
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly included male director Stacy Wall in a list of female directors.