As the regular NFL season comes to a close and the Super Bowl approaches, fans and viewers alike look forward to the biggest event of the year for sports and TV commercials. Those interested in securing a slot in this year’s Super Bowl had to cough up a record-breaking $5.6 million for just 30 seconds of advertising time. For the most part, the commercials aired on Sunday were light-hearted, many sticking to themes of nostalgia, positivity, unity, and as always, celebrity. 

It appeared that many companies chose a more comedic approach this year, providing escapism from the political and social unrest present across the nation. As one chief creative officer put it, “some wonderful dumbness.” The commercials that seemed to have the most significant impact on viewers were those that took a more heartfelt approach. Google’s ad about an elderly grandfather using the platform to aid his memory of his late wife received an outpour of emotion on social media. As one advertising executive put it, “the ads that people remember most over time are the simplest ads with human stories, and that was missing for the most part.” 

Many felt that the ads featured in this year’s program lacked this human connection. They instead focused heavily on celebrity appearances and seemingly meaningless storylines that fail to leave an impact on viewers. During the broadcast, viewers are subject to over 80 commercials making it easy for some to get lost in the chaos and manic of others. With this in mind, without a clear message or impactful moment, an ad often is quickly forgotten by viewers. Hulu turned to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady while Cheetos featured rapper MC Hammer. Although entertaining, some felt the celebrity appearances distracted viewers from the meaning or purpose of the ad itself. 

In terms of Super Bowl firsts, Sabra hummus became the first Super Bowl commercial ever to feature drag queens, casting two contestants from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to star in the commercial. This cultural milestone was met with outrage by conservative activist group One Million Moms, who recently led the charge in demanding Hallmark remove ads featuring brides kissing each other. Following the broadcast of the Sabra ad, the group began circulating a petition that the commercial is excluded from further broadcasts. Super Bowl LIV also became the first Super Bowl to features national commercials from two presidential candidates, including President Trump and presidential candidate Michael R. Bloomberg. The broadcast included two ads from President Trump, together costing his campaign more than $11 million. The political tone of these ads stood out among others that attempted to avoid sensitive topics amid the looming Democratic caucuses in Iowa and 2020 presidential election.

Still, it is crucial to consider the amount of time and consideration poured into every second of each 30-second commercial. Typically, companies spend months preparing and brainstorming ideas for their featured commercial. According to the New York Times, the awareness of Super Bowl ads usually peaks just two weeks after the initial broadcast. Less than an hour after the game had ended, not a single commercial featured was among the trending topics on Twitter. Given the lack of buzz surrounding these commercials, one can’t help but wonder where advertisers went wrong. Over the next few months, these commercials will likely disappear from public discourse entirely, slowly being integrated into regularly scheduled cable programming.

Last week a major business deal took place between Barstool Sports, one of newest most recognizable sports media outlets in the country, and Penn National Gaming Inc. Barstool sports founder Dave Portnoy started the company back in 2003 as a gambling news periodical that grew to what it is today, a multifaceted multimillion dollar company. Since the roots of barstool are seeded in gambling the merger doesn’t only make sense from a companies standpoint it also adds a poetic punctuation mark to a past filled with barstool sports doubters.

Penn National reported that the deal was for a 36% stake in Barstool and in exchange Barstool got a massive check cut their way. Barstool sports received 135 million in cash and 28 million in nonvoting convertible preferred Penn National stock. Penn National also gets exclusive rights to use the Barstool brand in its gaming venues and products. After it was all said and done Barstool Sports value soared to 450 million dollars.

More than 17 billion dollars has been wagered since the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalized sports gambling netting 1.2 billion in revenue for sports books. When asked about the two companies business together Penn National Chief Executive Jay Snowden said that their companies brick and mortar casino’s older demographic will complement Barstools younger following. The name of the game for these gambling companies is retaining customers and by adding Barstool Sports loyal fan base to Penn National gaming a steady stream of gamblers will always be at their fingertips.

image: https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-barstool-sports-culture-of-online-hate-they-treat-sexual-harassment-and-cyberbullying-as-a-game

Article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/penn-national-gaming-to-buy-minority-stake-in-barstool-sports-11580274060

This year’s Grammys was a night that many will not soon forget, full of emotions and sorrow following the sudden and tragic death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. Although the awards began on a somber note, host Alicia Keys was determined to bring viewers, artists, and mourners together in the name of music. 

An article featured on CNN on Monday morning shared just some of the many grievances aired by artists off stage. Among one of the night’s winners was Tyler the Creator who’s 2019 record IGOR won best rap album. IGOR debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts and became Tyler’s first number one album in the United States. After accepting his award, Tyler voiced his frustrations with the Recording Academy for consistently organizing “guys who look like me” in rap and urban categories. He felt that classifying his music as rap was a “backhanded compliment” that failed to acknowledge the complexity of his genre-bending sound. Like many hip-hop artists, Tyler feels that regardless of how genre-bending his work becomes, it will always be categorized as rap or urban. Tyler even went on to criticize the use of the term “urban,” which he feels is just “a politically correct way” to say derogatory terms in reference to the black community. Tyler expressed his desire to be accepted and recognized “on a mainstream level” and not forever restricted to “urban” categories. 

This criticism has been consistently vocalized by black artists who feel they suffer unwavering mistreatment by the Academy. Artists like Frank Ocean and Kanye West have since boycotted the awards in recent years due to the Academy’s failure to recognize “era-defining” black artists. Both Ocean and West have been known to work in a range of genres outside of rap, including gospel, pop, and R&B. Tyler’s remarks come soon after the Academy announced a new diversity initiative enacted to ensure inclusivity, diversity, and equal representation of artists. Such changes, however, will offer little change if not put into practice on an industry-wide scale.

Apple could see some impact from coronavirus in China, Cook says

In this article it explains how Coronavirus is effecting Apple. Coronavirus is a deadly disease that started in Wuhan, China. It is spreading rapidly and has affected up to 4,500 people in China. The disease it starting to be fatal killing up to 100 people. Apple could even see some significant impact on the virus. They could have to close their stores in Wuhan and reduce hours in other locations because of it. Several of their retail partners have also closed stores in China. Apple had robust sales, in there first quarter setting a record for the highest it’s ever been. China is Apple’s biggest iPhone market, so they are worried about what this virus will do to their sales. Many of their electronics are also assembled in China, so many factors could go into Apple’s decline in sales and revenue. Apple, as of now, is very unsure what will happen to their products, income, and sales. They are currently working on mitigation plans to make up for their expected production loss. The way that the coronavirus is spreading it does not look good. It has also spread over to the United States and Europe, so it is multiplying. This is not good for businesses because workers and production could be affected by this deadly disease. It interested me to learn that the virus isn’t just effecting people, its effecting companies, and their production. Apple is supporting and donating to help find the cure and get this disease contained, so it doesn’t effect anyone else.

As of Tuesday Facebook updated its site to reflect the current landscape of media. Many social media users worry about their privacy while on certain applications. Facebook in particular has been working with advertisers, selling them information about Its users. Now users are given more control and advertisers less. Deep in the settings of Facebook there is a “Off Facebook Activity Tool.”

This tool, that was announced in August, is not easy to find as it is buried deep in your settings under “Your Facebook Information.” Once on this tab you can access the “Off Facebook Activity Tool”, which allows you to see all the websites Facebook shares data with, and remove that information from account, turn off tracking for specific sites, or disable them completely.

https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/you-can-now-stop-facebook-from-tracking-your-activity-on-other-websites-heres-how.html

The intense competition and rapid growth of Disney+ subscriptions has Netflix thinking twice about their prices.

The release of Disney+ and Apple TV+ has Netflix experiencing a slight falloff in subscription growth. The analytics from Netflix’s fourth-quarter earnings report showed they came up short on their projections, yet again. This made it the third quarter in a row that Netflix subscriptions had not been up to par.

Netflix had already been facing a slow down in membership growth last year because of their price raise, along with competitors coming on the rise. However, their competition will only continue to grow with the introduction of newer, more convenient and cheaper media-service providers. Disney+ prices already undercut Netflix’s prices, making them more appealing to consumers from the jump. Disney+ has an option of charging $7 a month or $70 for the year, whereas Netflix’s starting price is $9 a month.

Many believe Netflix needs to realize the price-sensitivity of Americans before they start losing extreme amounts of subscribers. Needham analyst Laura Martin predicted Netflix to lose more than 4 million subscribers in the next year if they do not adjust their prices to even the playing field with their competition. She says, “Netflix must add a second, lower-priced service to compete with Disney+, Apple+, Hulu, CBS All Access and Peacock, each of which have $5–$7/month choices.”

As a whole, Netflix needs to be more affordable if they want to keep their company afloat. Martin suggests a $5-$7 per month tier for users, lessening sharing of passwords and attracting the attention of lower-income consumers.

Sources: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/28/why-netflix-pricing-may-decrease-as-risk-of-subscriber-losses-grows.html