If you’re into Super Bowl car commercials, don’t go looking for any from any of the American automakers this year. Stellantis, Ford and General Motors have said they won’t be doing any advertising during the big game this year.
The Detroit Free Press reported that all three automakers not only announced plans not to advertise, but doubled down on the fact that they won’t. Stellantis was the first to reiterate that they won’t be doing any Super Bowl commercials – in a statement made at CES, the automaker cited cost cutting as the reason they’re skipping out on the ads this year.
With a continued focus on preserving business fundamentals to mitigate the impact of a challenging U.S. automotive market, we are evaluating our business needs and will (make) the appropriate decisions to protect our North America operations and the Company. In light of this assessment, we will not be participating in the Big Game this year.
Stellantis’ move to skip out on game day commercials is surprising given just how big of a splash its commercials have made in the past, like 2009’s Freedom ad for Dodge, and 2011’s Born of Fire ad Featuring Eminem.
GM also doubled down on skipping the Super Bowl, which is surprising given last year’s push of trying to get people to come around to EVs with a series of commercials featuring Will Ferrell. “We are still not planning to participate in the Super Bowl this year. We continually evaluate our media strategies to ensure they align with our business priorities,” a GM spokesperson said to Freep.
Ford, which hasn’t advertised during the Super Bowl in years, will continue its tradition of not doing so this year. CEO Jim Farley has said before that the big cost of advertising during the game is a “poor use of spending.” Said Farley in 2022,“If you ever see Ford Motor Co. doing a Super Bowl ad on our electric vehicles, sell the stock.” Farley .
Honestly, there’s nothing lost here. While there have been a few times the commercials are memorable, often they come across as trying too hard or just are outright cringe. Use those millions of dollars to bring more affordable EVs to market. Then we can talk about luxury spending on ads.