NFL Super Bowl commercial draws attention to India's farmers' protest
image for illustrative purpose
Super Bowl, the American National Football League, is a platform where some of the world's most famous ads are launched every year, and this year apart from the regular commercials the game draws attention towards the farmers' protest in India, terming it the "largest protest in the human history".
It was not immediately clear as to who paid for the expensive advertisement slot and it was aired in states other than California too. The game was played between Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs.
The 30-second advertisement began with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. and termed the ongoing farmers' protest as the "largest protest in history".
Super Bowl commercials are high-profile television advertisements known for their cinematic quality. Many of these commercials, specially produced for the Super Bowl, also feature celebrity cameos. Some of these commercials also go viral on the internet, providing additional exposure for the product being advertised.
About 100 million viewers were expected to tune in to the CBS channel broadcast when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took on the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday's game.
Super Bowl matches have been among the most-watched TV broadcasts in the United States. According to Nielsen TV ratings' estimate, the Super Bowl event in 2015 was watched by at least 114.4 million viewers in the US.
Due to the event's large audience, purchasing an advertisement spot during is expensive. According to Superbowl-ads.com, 32-second spots during this year's Super Bowl were being sold for around $5.5 million each.
Some of the pan-US advertisements this year were from Amazon, Chipotle, DoorDash, Uber Eats and Verizon, among others.
Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, are staging a sit-in protest along Delhi's borders for more than 75 days. The farmers are demanding a complete rollback of the three new agriculture reform laws and a guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system being retained.
Multiple rounds of talks between the Centre and the farmers' union leaders have ended in a stalemate. Protesting farmers fear that the new laws will dismantle the MSP system and corporatise farming.
The Supreme Court had earlier ordered a stay on the implementation of the laws, hoping it will end the protest. The protests started receiving global attention last week after tweets from Barbadian singer Rihanna, Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg and American vlogger Amanda Cerny, among others.
After this, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had urged foreign individuals and celebrities to ascertain facts and undertake a proper understanding of the matter before rushing to comment on it. "The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible," the ministry said.
