What Bad Bunny Gets That NBC Doesn’t
This Just In: NBC hosted the Olympics, the Super Bowl, and Bad Bunny’s halftime show on the same night, so why was their messaging so poor?
Bad Bunny played an epic Super Bowl halftime show that weaved a narrative around celebration and unity. It culminated in a parade of nations with flags and call-outs for almost all of the countries in North and South America. All of this played while Bad Bunny showed off the football he carried throughout the show with text that read: "America is Better Together." The halftime show, watched live by an estimated 130 million people, was pretty powerful.
After the show ended, NBC played an in-house commercial for the Olympics. It depicts people wearing opposing sports gear running into each other and initially showing disdain before realizing they were both rooting for Team USA. The voiceover said, "For two weeks, we're all on the same team." Talk about cringe.
Our world is more divided than ever. Political parties striving for power want to keep us that way by stoking fear of the "other" — people who are not like us. NBC fully played into that narrative with this ad.
NBC's lame stance of temporary unity only when it’s convenient for them enforces our divided world and gives power to those wishing to keep us at odds with each other. Let's not forget that, as one of the biggest media companies in the country, NBC profits from our disunity and fear of each other. News programming that feeds on this fear generates views which generate ad revenue — it’s a vicious, yet profitable, cycle.
NBC's ad in contrast with the Bad Bunny halftime show is stark. Bad Bunny saw what makes the world a better place to be part of: celebrations, humanity, love. He seized the moment to put on a fun celebration of humanity that transcended language. This is the path we need to embrace. This is the way out of our divided world.
It’s a reminder to all of us that corporations and platforms have one interest: themselves. We, collectively, have the power to overcome their seeds of division and unite for change. I, for one, want to be part of the world Bad Bunny depicted — one of unity, celebration, and utter joy.
