Jay GreesonWelp, Tom Brady is headed to the Super Bowl.
In other news, cats hate dogs and vice versa. Yeah, and 18-wheelers in the left lane of the ridge cut stink.
Can you even host a Super Bowl without Brady? Well, this will be the 55th, and it’s his 10th trip. We’re easing into making it death, taxes and Tom with each passing year.
Consider this: Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Brady each have represented the NFC one time in the biggest sporting event in this country. Now know that Rodgers and Brees have combined to spend 35 years in the NFC; this was Tom’s first year.
So while there is one close-to-constant Super Bowl face, there will be several well-known logos that will be noticeably absent.
Coke, Pepsi and now Budweiser are taking a year off from the megaplex of marketing that is the TV spots between the super plays of Super Bowl Sunday.
Sure, all of sports has felt the impact of COVID-19; the TV numbers bear that out. Since the changes because of the pandemic, events including the Masters, the World Series, the NBA Finals and the college football championship game hit record or near-record lows.
The World Series was down 27% in viewership, Alabama drubbing Ohio State was down 28%, the NBA finals were down 49% and the Masters without patrons and played in November was down almost 60%.
The NFL has had smaller TV crowds, but most measurements had the numbers declining in single digits.
But it was not the smaller audience or the exorbitant prices – it was $5.6 million for a 30-second spot last February – that have forced these super stalwarts to sit this one out. Budweiser is re-directing its money toward COVID-19 vaccine awareness.
“Like everyone else, we are eager to get people back together, reopen restaurants and bars and be able to gather to cheer with friends and family,” Budweiser marketing VP Monica Rustgi said in a statement on the beer-maker’s website. “To do this, and to bring consumers back into neighborhood bars and restaurants that were hit exceptionally hard by the pandemic, we’re stepping in to support critical awareness of the COVID-19 vaccine.”
(READ MORE: 10 myths about the COVID-19 vaccine debunked by the Tennessee Department of Health)
It’s a bold move and noble gesture. And one not entirely without self-interest, considering all the bars and restaurants that sell millions of gallons of Bud Light and Diet Coke and how relatively empty those venues have been for the last few months.
The real-time numbers of cases and deaths are staggering and larger than anyone originally projected. But the long-term financial implications from this are still unknown and will stretch out for years. In fact, Fortune published a study earlier this month showing that the COVID-19 recession may cost more American lives than the virus itself.
So if missing the Clydesdales, Bud frogs or the “What’s Upppppp?” guys or even not getting to see the next iconic Coke ad from a Mean Joe or ice-sliding polar bears helps the fight against the coronavirus and hastens the trip back to in-person gathering, well, that idea is super.
And I’m sure Tom Brady would agree.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.