Super Bowl commercials cost $5.6 million for 30 seconds

Companies wary of placement among political ads

As is now an annual tradition, the price of a 30-second Super Bowl commercial has reached a record high. Spots are going for $5.6 million for half a minute of airtime during Super Bowl LIV, which Fox will broadcast Feb. 2. This being an election year, the most expensive Super Bowl commercial will be 60-second ads for former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and for President Trump, whose presidential campaigns each forked over more than $10 million. 

Harris Diamond, CEO of ad agency McCann Worldgroup told NBC News that clients were concerned about their Super Bowl commercials airing directly after a potentially controversial political ad. “Placement is going to be very important,” he said.

Still with the Super Bowl attracting nearly 100 million viewers and annually being the most-watched TV event of the year, advertisers won’t be shying away from getting their products in front of as many eyes as possible.

Ad age is tracking which companies have bought air time so far. Anheuser-Busch InBev leads the way with four 60-second spots, including promoting Bud Light Seltzer, its entry in the hard seltzer trend. Facebook has bought 60 seconds of airtime, marking its first foray into Super Bowl commercials. Kellogg’s will run a 30-second ad starring Jonathan Van Ness of “Queer Eye” fame introducing the new Pop-Tarts pretzel flavor. Kia will run a 90-second spot showing off its factory in West Point, Ga.

It remains to be seen whether any company will place an off the wall commercial in a small market in hopes of it going viral the next day, as Old Milwaukee did with Will Ferrell a few years ago. 

Live sports have become the last bastion of advertisers as people cut the cord and those who do pay for cable watch recordings on DVR to skip the commercials.