Super Bowl Challenges That The NFL and Sports Marketers Want to Avoid

Yes, there will be a football game promoted as the Super Bowl on February 11th.

And yes, the game will be played in Las Vegas, a city once known as "Sin City," because the National Football League, believes that it’s only a sin if it doesn't try to replace the The Federal Reserve System in controlling the U.S. money supply and allows alcoholic beverages and gambling from home commercials on its telecast during hours that impressionable youngsters are watching players bash each other bad enough to cause life-altering injuries and suicides.*

And yes, the teams competing for the NFL's self-imposed title of world champions, when in reality it should be the title for American style football played between the borders of Mexico and Canada, will be the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.

And yes, the Chiefs will field what may be the most potent and publicized offensive weapon since, well, the last most publicized potent and publicized offensive weapon. (You name them because there have so many best potent and publicized offensive weapons if you believe the propaganda disseminated by the NFL and the television announcing teams, many of whom act as if they are in the NFL's PR department. In this game, the most potent and publicized offensive weapon will be the passing of  Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce. 

Certainly the NFL, CBS, and sports marketers that will pay about $7-million for a 30-second commercial will try to convince the world that the Super Bowl is the most important football game ever played and that the commercials are the greatest ever without saying "since last year's game." And they will receive millions of dollars of free advertising that helps disseminate that fabrication from various media  outlets, even though many viewers will miss the ads while they are trying to make up their minds about which unhealthy food to gorge themselves on at Super Bowl parties, downed by drinking an alcoholic beverage that scientific studies, including that of the U.S. government, says can cause serious health conditions, not excluding cancers. “A study by Cancer.gov, the central website for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the U.S. government’s principal agency for cancer research, posted, “All types of alcoholic beverages, including wine, increase cancer risk,” said Andrew Seidenberg, Ph.D., who led the study while he was a cancer prevention fellow at NCI. “Unfortunately, there have been very few attempts at educating the public about the alcohol–cancer link..."  And a post from Cancer Research UK said it’s the alcohol itself that damages your body, even small amounts. “It doesn’t matter whether you drink beer, wine or spirits. All types of alcohol can cause cancer.”

The above are just two of hundreds of posts that tell about the alcohol- cancer link, some government funded, some from private cancer prevention and treatment organizations.

Nevertheless, the NFL continues to brag about its relationship with beer and hard liquor entities. 

An NFL press release dated June 16, 2021 said, in part, “The National Football League (NFL) today welcomed Diageo, a global leader in beverage alcohol, as its first ever Official Spirits Sponsor. The multiyear sponsorship is uniquely structured with the NFL fan in mind and will include opportunities for on-site activation and engagement with adult fans, as well as broadcast, digital, and social content from NFL Kickoff through the Super Bowl.

“For years, Crown Royal Canadian Whisky has had a significant footprint with the NFL, and this sponsorship takes it to the next level for Diageo.” Not a surprise for a money-hungry league that also endorses betting from home and was built on a game of deliberate violence.

For a large number of Americans (and people who might watch the game world-wide) the biggest stars at the game will not be the players. They will be Taylor Swift, who probably will be rooting for her boyfriend Travis Kelce from the warmth of a sky box, and Usher Raymond IV, the American singer, songwriter, and dancer, who will perform during half-time. (In fact 

one of the most reported stories the day after the teams to play in the Super Bowl was decided was about Taylor Swift being in Tokyo performing the day before the Big Game and questioned if she will be able to return to Las Vegas in time to see her boyfriend, Kansas City’s Kelce play.) 

A CBS post said, that the Super Bowl half-time show is the most watched musical performance of the year. What the press release didn't say is that more people tune in to watch the half-time show than watch the actual football game.

And that's a problem for sponsors who pony up about $7-million for a 30-second commercial, not including production fees that can add many more millions of dollars to the cost.

It's a given that the days when a PR person would call up a journalist and say, "Player. X, who played in previous Super Bowls, is available for interviews and the journalist would jump at the opportunity.

It's also a fact that until the first snap of the game negative articles about the health of players and gambling at home will dominate media coverage.

So what can agency management do to make it easier for an account team whose job it is to gain favorable earned publicity? Below are my suggestions, based on my years managing and playing key roles on numerous national and international mega-sporting events (and non-sports accounts.) 

For Management

Do not staff your sports marketing teams with sports fans. Staff them with people who like and follow sports but understand that it is a business and should be handled like corporate accounts are. Also, since mega-events are always subject to attacks from protest groups, each account should also include an individual with PR crisis experience. Also make sure that the account teams has client-approved responses to any possible negative attacks, such as happened during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia, when human rights abuses waylaid sponsors’ plans. In the Super Bowl, possible thorny questions from the media can be about the lack of African-American high-level management and coaches in the NFL, a league whose players are 70 percent Black. 

And if I was still a reporter, a definite question would be, "How can you justify backing a league that encourages drinking and betting despite proven evidence about the health and financial harm doing so does to people and also still says there is no direct proof that concussions can lead to brain injuries and deaths to its players.

* (On Jan. 30, a Front Office Sports article about a recently unsealed deposition that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gave in 2022 in a head injury lawsuit against the league said, “I think there’s still a great deal of uncertainty about the causation issue. We all know there’s risks with playing football and other sports. There’s risks to walking down the street.” He also criticized the media coverage of the issue, saying, “They misstate, they misrepresent things, and when they do that, they add to a narrative that I think is unfair and unfounded.”)

For The Account Team

Media outreach should begin many weeks prior to when reporters converge at the game site. They are much more likely to "bank" feature story suggestions before they are at the site gathering information for hard news stories. And let’s face it.  PR people rarely offer journalists hard news. The overwhelming number of stories we offer are promotional

Some suggestions

• Account people should try and think like a journalist who writes around an event instead of the event itself. 

• Pitch a psychiatrist who specializes in gambling addiction to journalists in various sections of a publication and to TV producers.

• Or a dietitian who can suggest how to prepare a healthy Super Bowl party.

• Or because people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease are more apt to have a heart event during the Super Bowl (and other sporting events), hire a cardiologist to talk about how to reduce stress while watching the game.

There are many other tactics that can be used to gain reporters’ attention that can result in earned media. What’s needed are account staffers who are not afraid to toss the standard playbook and can think like a reporter who writes around an event and is not afraid to try something new.