One of the Verizon ads for Super Bowl LVI featuring Jim Carrey reprising a previous role is already receiving some pushback.
There are people who love the Super Bowl, and there are people who love Super Bowl ads.
The Super Bowl is one of the most highly anticipated events every year for many reasons beyond the game being played within four 15-minute quarters. People love the food, they love the halftime show, they love to gamble, and one of the things people love most about the Super Bowl?
Those ads. Those expensive, often ridiculous ads.
One Super Bowl ad with Jim Carrey is receiving pushback
The Super Bowl has certainly been no stranger to controversy through the years. After a “wardrobe malfunction” with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson back in the day, the league decided to tone down its halftime show acts, something that they have clearly come back around on in recent years.
Super Bowl ads cost a lot of money. Like, insane amounts of money. According to NBC, each 30-second commercial will reel in $6.5 million.
Some of these ads will undoubtedly be hilarious. Some will be confusing and we’ll all collectively wonder why anyone would ever pay $6.5 million plus the cost of the marketing team that put together such a ridiculous commercial.
Some companies go all out with Super Bowl ads. The more ridiculous, the more memorable, right?
Verizon is resurrecting a popular character portrayed by actor Jim Carrey. The Cable Guy is making a comeback during Super Bowl LVI.
Jim Carrey will reprise his role as "The Cable Guy" in @Verizon's upcoming Super Bowl commercial.
— Boardroom (@boardroom) February 7, 2022
The 1996 film grossed over $100M worldwide. pic.twitter.com/8FnzaQIsGU
The NLPC (National Legal and Policy Center) is asking Verizon to pull the Jim Carrey commercial, calling Carrey “vicious” in a statement.
"“Regardless of how one feels about the former President, Carey’s artwork is so vulgar and over the line, Verizon should not air the ad,” said Paul Chesser, director of the Corporate Integrity Project for the National Legal and Policy Center. “This is who Verizon and Chairman/CEO Hans Vestberg decided should promote its powerful new wireless service, on the day of the biggest sporting event of the year – one which is intended to bring Americans together for fun and to forget the troubles of the world for a few hours.”Statement via NLPC news release"
Whether or not Verizon will adhere to the demands of the NLPC remains to be seen. Given the amount of money they likely spent on the ad just to get Jim Carrey to be part of it, it might be unlikely.
The fact that they have already released a 10-second teaser for the Carrey ad is also indicative that they will not likely pull the full ad, but anything is possible.
This almost certainly won’t be the only Super Bowl commercial causing some controversy in the next couple of days.