I usually do a Super Bowl commercials post, but it’s a lot of work and I’m in my toad era. We have coverage today of Beyonce’s Verizon commercial and Ben Affleck’s Dunkin commercial. You can see a more comprehensive list of the commercials here. I wanted to talk about Cardi B’s commercial for NYX’s Duck Plump lip gloss. It was originally a one minute commercial with the first half featuring Cardi and some dancers and the second half a joke about dudes putting the lip gloss on their d*cks while women experts tell them that’s dumb. The people at CBS decided the second half was too suggestive and so NYX cut it down to 30 seconds with a QR code to access the full ad. I’m embedding the full version below and here’s a link to the ad that aired live. Here’s more, from NPR:
When I spoke with Shayne Millington about the cheeky Super Bowl ad she was planning with Cardi B., the advertising executive was excited about the prospect of tweaking male sports fans in a way Big Game ads often don’t do.
But the NFL threw some cold water on her plans Sunday, preventing makeup brand NYX from airing part of their ad suggesting that men may have mistook the name of their Duck Plump lip gloss and used it in a certain private area. Instead, they aired 30 seconds featuring Cardi B and displayed a QR code viewers could use to access the full ad.
Millington, the Chief Creative Officer at McCann New York, told me before the game that the ad was an attempt to turn the tables on traditional Super Bowl advertising.
“You have to really look at how women have been portrayed in Super Bowl ads and in the past, and it’s not great,” she added. “So, on a platform as big as the Super Bowl where men have [traditionally] had the upper hand with humor…[this time] women will have the last laugh with Cardi B.”
Turns out, Millington’s ad was among the sauciest in a Super Bowl where brands played it safe even more than usual, perhaps due to the mammoth, $7-milion-per-30-seconds fee for airtime.
Of course this ad was cut. They can’t offend their target audience. It was a fun, memorable ad and it should have been aired in full. I don’t consider it too racy for the Super Bowl, but I guess I don’t have little kids or whatever excuse they’re using. I remember some of the sexist ads the Super Bowl has aired in the past, and I’m glad we’re moving away from that. NYX is an excellent brand, I own a lot of their products, and I hope they end up getting more publicity after this. Duck Plump retails for $13, it’s vegan, and NYX is giving free shipping when you order it through their site.
Incidentally, Uber Eats also edited their intended ad after backlash from allergy awareness groups. The ad focused on people forgetting things, including Jelly Roll forgetting his face tattoos and Jennifer Aniston forgetting David Schwimmer. The original version featured a man allergic to peanuts eating peanut butter, but it’s not funny to make fun of people’s allergies and Uber wisely took that out.
Removing the peanut allergy guy baffles me. Do you guys know of a single person who was offended by that 5 second video? Like an actual human and not just a twitter bot? I say this as a peanut allergy sufferer! No it wasn’t the funniest thing in the whole world but to be offended by it???? HOW? WHO?!
Honestly, my first thought was “somewhere out there is absolutely somebody who does not realize that peanut butter is made from actual peanuts.” I mean, this is the state of the human race now. It’s a completely plausible scenario.
This is also why our cars now come with warnings not to drink the battery acid.
Honestly, it didn’t fit with the rest of the forgets. All the others were harmless but this forget leads to death? Nah. I am an allergy mom and my peanut allergic daughter saw the original and didn’t find it funny. Take that how you will.
It was great seeing ads for some of my fave brands. I love NYX cosmetics. I also love E.L.F cosmetics and loved their ad with Judge Judy and some of the Suits cast members. It was hilarious, esp “Louis”.
Yes. E.L.F products are similar to NARS. I didn’t want to pay $40+ for the Orgasm blush so I got a similar color from E.L.F and it has staying power. Def recommend.
Cardi is getting tons of inadvertent advertising by this! Great recommendation for her NYX cosmetics.
As to nut allergies, it depends on how allergic you are to nuts. I have celiac disease and I cannot completely avoid gluten entirely. This is painful every time it happens, but is not immediately life threatening. My friend’s son is allergic to nuts, and I have experienced his going into shock. That is absolutely scary and without the epi pen and hospital he would be dead. I applaud and appreciate removing the guy with peanut allergies from the commercial—don’t go there.
I thought the peanut butter guy was the least funny part of that commercial so I’m glad they took him out, but definitely didn’t see that bit as offensive.
As for Cardi- it seems to me like cutting the ad was the right thing to do- way too many little pitchers with big ears asking questions after seeing that. Plus, by cutting it, it makes people more curious to see what they missed. So many Super Bowl ads get lost in the shuffle – this “controversy” makes hers stand out and creates more interest in the product. I want to try it!
EXACTLY, @A
Disappointing and terrifying.
The full ad is hilarious!
That NYX ad is hysterical😆😂🤣. CBS has never had a sense of humor. I’m old enough to remember the Smothers Brothers show.
I honestly didn’t get Cardi’s commercial, I can barely remember it and I didn’t remember it was for makeup and was so confused when the QR code came up at the end. I just found the whole thing to be a mess. Maybe because it was edited?
Great Effing Spot!
It is a *Duckin’* great spot! I thought the 2nd (edited out) part was FUNNY!!
Ooh, deflating! 😂 I think I’ll shop for some NYX today …
Yeah I don’t think people get as easily offended as some people like to pretend. I can’t imagine anyone was actually offended by the peanut allergy joke or anything in the Cardi B add. I mean think most people were hung up on the fact Jesus was taking out ads.
They can put on ads for HIMS and ED and and Peyronie’s disease drugs but not for this? Hmkay, CBS.
I get why they took the peanut allergy thing out. Peanut allergies are legit deadly- they dont just get the sniffles, their throats close up.
I think it was likely less that they pulled that part because people were sooooo offended and more likely that they just reconsidered downplaying a deadly allergy.