Super Bowl Ads Used Humor and Nostalgia to Distract From Today's Divisive Climate

Some brands tried to touch on issues while remaining lighthearted

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Super Bowl 2020 arrived amid a tense, divisive political and cultural climate. It’s unavoidable. President Donald Trump ran a political ad during the Super Bowl, as well as Democratic rival Michael Bloomberg.

With such weighty concerns in the background, it’s understandable that Super Bowl audiences may have looked to the biggest spectacle of the year for escapism, which advertisers largely seemed to pick up on. After mostly avoiding politics last year, two years after what may have been the most political Super Bowl year for advertisers ever, brands gravitated toward humor and nostalgia in 2020.

“There’s

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