Super Bowl 2020 commercials are loaded with LGBTQ inclusivity
A slew of Super Bowl 2020 commercials that were LGBTQ inclusive were shown during the event, which made it quite a record as the Kansas City Chiefs square off against the San Francisco 49ers in Miami.
Among the ads were one that featured 49ers Coach Katie Sowers for Microsoft, another with Lil Nas X for Doritos, and a third with Jonathan Van Ness for Pop Tarts.
In total, 11 LGBTQ-inclusive commercials were during the game that was watched by an estimated 100 million Americans.
This was a far cry from the Super Bowl in 2007 when any commercial that touched on LGBTQ was thought of as unmanly.
Super Bowl 2020 commercials a record
The commercials during the Super Bowl 2020 had some of the biggest and brightest LGBTQ stars, like Ellen DeGeneres, Transparent’s Trace Lysette, and RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni Kim Chi and Miz Cracker.
It also had a showstopping mid-game break that had Jennifer Lopez and Shakira.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis gave praises for “the scale of the diverse LGBTQ inclusion during the biggest night of advertising.”
“It’s about time,” Ellis said.
Sowers, as the offensive assistant coach of the 49ers, is the first woman and first lesbian to coach a team in the Super Bowl.
Her Microsoft ad featured her historic journey from school child to pioneer LGBTQ coach.
DeGeneres also had an ad that featured her and her wife, Portia De Rossi, for Amazon wondering what people did before there was the virtual assistant Alexa.
LGBTQ stars in Super Bowl 2020 commercials
Among the ads, there was Lil Nas X having a cowboy dance off against Sam Elliot for Doritos.
Another commercial had The Queer Eye star Van Ness turning a regular pretzel into the Pop Tarts Pretzel.
Meanwhile, married soccer players Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris made a brief appearance in Budweiser’s Super Bowl 2020 commercial as “typical Americans.”
On the other hand, trans actors Trace Lysette and Isis King showed that they also had to pay taxes for the TurboTax Super Bowl commercial.
Likewise, Miz Cracker and Kim Chi made an appearance for chickpeas in the Hummus commercial Sabra.
YouTuber Lily Singh appeared with actor Busy Philipps and astronaut Nicole Stott for #MakeSpaceForWomen for Olay even as Taraji P Henson started it by supporting Girls Who Code.
Other LGBTQ stars that were featured in the commercials were Schitts Creek’s Emily Hampshire and footballer Kelley O’Hara
Super Bowl commercials then and now
RuPaul has the distinction of being the first drag queen to star in a Super Bowl commercial in 2000.
Rich Ferraro, GLAAD’s chief communications officer, said that during the mid-2000s, Super Bowl was “a dreaded day” for “ads with homophobic tropes.”
For example, a Super Bowl ad for Snickers in 2007 had two men eating a candy bar and accidentally kissing each other. They then proceeded to rip out their own chest hair to “do something manly.”
“LGBTQ people have often been invisible during the Super Bowl– advertising’s biggest night– or relegated to ads featuring homophobic tropes and stereotypes,” Ferraro said.
“This year marks a huge change,” he added.
However, there were still some people unhappy about it– including the conservative group, One Million Moms. The group spoke up against the Sabra Super Bowl ad featuring the drag queens.