After an NFL season like no other, the Super Bowl is finally upon us. For marketing teams across every company, this usually means they have been preparing a compelling spot to capture the eyes of viewers nationwide. But things are a little different this year. Perennial Super Bowl advertisers such as PepsiCo, CocaCola, and Anheuser-Busch, will be adjusting the strategies for many of their brands this year. For instance, Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser will be sitting out for the first time in 37 years and will instead be donating money and advertising COVID-19 vaccination awareness during the Super Bowl. Although PepsiCo will be running ads for their other brands, Pepsi is opting out of a commercial and will be solely focused on sponsoring the halftime show. Many of these companies rely on stadium sales or other in-person events and have experienced significant losses in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic and have opted to allocate their budgets in other meaningful ways. 

However, some spots and marketing campaigns have already been launched from brands such as Bud Light, Chipotle, and Tide. Bud Light will be switching things up this year, debuting their Seltzer Lemonade with this year's ad in an effort to help them propel the new product into the highly competitive hard seltzer industry. There will also be a few newcomers during this year’s Super Bowl. Despite the toll the pandemic has taken on many brands, some have taken advantage of more consumers being at home, including Mercari and Scotts - both of which will be advertising for the first time this year. Mercari, an e-commerce company, will be airing a short 15 second ad focusing on the idea that you can “buy almost anything from home,” an important concept that keeps consumers safe during these times. Scotts, a miracle gro company focused on lawn care and maintenance, will be making their Super Bowl debut using some of the extra revenue earned in 2020.