For Super Bowl ads this year, booze reigns supreme and crypto disappears

The hottest ticket in town for advertisers is officially sold out. Fox said on Monday that in-game ads for Super Bowl LVII have all been sold.

The big game between Kansas City and the Philadelphia Eagles takes place on Sunday.

The Super Bowl is advertising's biggest stage, with companies jockeying to get their products in front of the more than 100 million people that watch each year.

Mark Evans, executive vice-president of ad sales for Fox Sports, said a few ads went for more than $7 million US for a 30-second spot. Most sold between $6 million and $7 million.

Companies spend millions more to create the ads themselves and book celebrity sponsors.

A bevy of booze brands will be in the Super Bowl ad lineup this year.

Anheuser-Busch remains the biggest advertiser with three minutes of national airtime. The beverage giant, parent of the Bud, Ultra and Busch beer brands, said in June it would end the exclusivity deal it first struck in 1989.

So in addition to celebrities hawking Budweiser and Michelob Ultra, viewers will see some famous folks touting the qualities of Heineken and Coors, and even suggesting they drink Rémy Martin cognac or Diageo whisky — responsibly, of course.

Aside from alcohol, big brands — including Pepsi Zero Sugar, Doritos, M&M's, Google, Downy and Kia — will all be advertising during Super Bowl LVII, which airs Sunday on Fox, and on Canadian networks TSN and CTV.

Viewers in Canada will be unable to see most of the ads — whether they're watching the game on TSN, CTV or Fox — due to a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 2019. "Canadian ads will now be broadcast by Canadian channels and also shown on [the] Super Bowl American broadcaster," the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission says on its website, noting that most of the American ads can be viewed online.

"American ads might also be aired on Canadian channels that hold the broadcasting rights as U.S. companies can buy advertising time in Canada for this highly watched sporting event."

'Zero representation' of crypto companies

Out this year: crypto companies.

Last year's Super Bowl was dubbed the "Crypto Bowl" because four cryptocurrency companies — FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com and eToro — ran splashy commercials. It was part of a larger effort by crypto companies to break into the mainstream with sports sponsorships. But in November, FTX filed for bankruptcy, and its founder was charged in an alleged scheme to defraud investors.

This year, two crypto advertisers had commercials "booked and done" and two others were "on the one-yard line," Evans said. But once the FTX news broke, those deals weren't completed.

Now, he said, "There's zero representation in that category on the day at all."

Evans said most Super Bowl ads sold much earlier than usual — with more than 90 per cent of its ad inventory gone by the end of the summer, as established advertisers jockeyed for prime positions.

But the remaining spots sold slower, partly due to the implosion of the crypto space, as well as general advertiser concerns about the global economy, Evans said.

Last year, NBC sold out of its ad space briskly and said an undisclosed number of 30-second spots went for $7 million US, a jump from the $6.5 million that 2021's ads were sold for.