Are Super Bowl ads steering clear of politics, social issues?
Companies are beginning to release their coveted Super Bowl commercials ahead of the big game on Sunday. Over the past decade, the average cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad has increased by 87 percent. The price for a spot this year is $5 million. With so much money being invested, advertisers are pre-releasing the ads.
"They really want to get as much publicity for the ads as possible," Advertising Age media reporter Jeanine Poggi said Wednesday on "CBS This Morning."
Poggi said for the most part, viewers will see "humor play out," as seen in one of the ads getting early buzz: a lip-sync battle between Mountain Dew and Doritos starring Morgan Freeman and Peter Dinklage.
"I think most of the ads will be more lighthearted and funny. A lot of the advertisers are going to steer clear of talking about politics or social issues," Poggi said.
From M&M's to Tiffany Haddish with Groupon, Poggi said there is a lot of slap-stick comedy.
"It's been a hard year. They don't want to lean into a lot of the issues that we're talking about and seeing in the news every day. They want to just keep it a fun conversation for during the Super Bowl," Poggi said.
That could also mean an absence of advertisements that echo women's empowerment tones from the #MeToo and Time's Up movements sweeping across the country.
"Last year was just under 49 percent female that watched the Super Bowl. So there's a huge, huge female audience," Poggi said. "Yet, the ads still are heavily skewed male, both in the context and the people that are starring in the ads themselves. You know, last year we took a look. There were 61 men in featured roles and 23 women. And it doesn't look like that's going to change much this year."