Super Bowl

As wider context, for the first time in human history we have together created a confluence of crises — environmental, economic, and sociopolitical — that ...

Eminem’s taking a knee in solidary with Colin Kaepernick sent a definite message about the reckoning the NFL is about to undergo. Google gives both groups a meaningful product that will surely play a powerful role in all lives by honoring and enhancing the memories that mean the most to all of us. What’s so powerful about this commercial is that it shows the rising role brands are playing not just in making better products (doing less bad and more good), but in nondidactically educating consumers about new attitudes and behaviors. Google’s Pixel 6 camera commercial featuring musician Lizzo was compelling not only because it sufficiently demonstrated the “Real Tone” feature that its new camera software provides, but because it also shows how meaningful such a feature is in the real lives of those with skin tones other than white. This is an important and consistent message when you consider the public and vocal role that CEO Mark Benioff has been playing for some years, most notably at Davos, where in 2020 he declared that capitalism, as we know it, is dead. It’s right here.” So, Salesforce is arguing that we ought to protect the endangered Earth before we go soaring off to populate — and probably pollute — another home. The typical Super Bowl ad tends to be narrative- and character-driven, celebrity-centric, complex, and condensed into a short period of time (thirty or sixty seconds). Coinbase’s QR code was instead hugely disruptive not only for its simplicity but its interactivity. For those reasons and the new rules outlined above, here are commercials that stood out in the mix: Failing to showcase business in general as a powerful and necessary force for good. We believe that business is the greatest platform for change, and success should be for everyone on Earth and the planet itself. As such, Lead With We commercials focus on a company’s fundamental purpose (why it exists, rather than what it does or makes alone), and its role and impact on real people in the real world. And during the recent pandemic, we all learned firsthand that when those of us in influential positions, e.g., business leaders and consumers, exert a massive, shared effort, there is little we can’t achieve.