Super bowl ads go sweeter

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No matter how rough the action gets on the field, when the New England Patriots meet the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII, the advertisers will be playing nice.

Most commercials that Fox Broadcasting will run during the game—for which sponsors are paying record prices or close to it—will be taking a milder, sweeter approach. There will be cute animals, at least one talking baby, an appeal to help fight AIDS, a talent contest, light-hearted parodies and enough celebrities to fill several seasons of Dancing With the Stars.

“So many advertisers are promising to show their soft, friendly side,” said Jim Nail, chief strategy and marketing officer at Cymfony, a research company. “Maybe it’s because people are getting their fill of blood and guts in political advertising.”

The tone of the 40 or so Super Bowl spots, along with related campaigns online and in stores, will be in marked contrast to the commercials shown during last year. Many of those drew complaints for slapstick, cartoonish violence that was deemed crass or even callous.

The misbehaviour in the spots for Super Bowl XLI included a bank robbery, a monster run amok, a man throwing a rock at another man, fights among office workers, people slapping each other across the face and men tearing out patches of chest hair.

Some of that bad behaviour was out of this world—literally. In a commercial for FedEx, set on the moon, an astronaut was obliterated by a meteor.

By contrast, there will be “no dying this year,” David Lubars, the creative leader at the FedEx agency, said. “We have several commercials that are all fun and nice,” said Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer at BBDO North America, part of the BBDO Worldwide division of the Omnicom Group.

The commercials include spots for PepsiCo beverages like Amp Energy and Diet Pepsi Max as well as a commercial featuring the singer Justin Timberlake “having a lot of fun with himself and his reputation,” Lubars said.