Credit: Unsplash

Despite some notable absences, it’ll still be a day of classic commercialism.

The amusing thing about every subsequent Super Bowl is that it gets progressively harder to tell how many people are watching for the actual game and how many people just want to see the commercials. I know people who absolutely despise both football and commercials every other day of the year that still religiously tune in to the big game to watch both. It’s bizarre, I admit, but you can’t deny the appeal of the sheer spectacle of it all, and despite, y’know, everything, this year’s game should prove to be no less of a spectacle.

According to an announcement from ViacomCBS, almost all of the Super Bowl’s 30-second ad spots have already been sold to various advertisers. There’s still a little bit of wiggle room if anyone wants in, but they’re not gonna have the luxury of deciding their own timeslot at this point. Each of these ad slots has sold for $5.5 million at the bare minimum, if not far more than that in a few cases.

While the show will feature many mainstay brands and companies, a few of the big boys like Coke, Budweiser, and Pepsi have decided to opt out of this year’s ad parade in an effort to preserve staff safety, with Budweiser in particular donating their usual ad purse to the advancement of COVID-19 vaccinations. While Pepsi as a product won’t have any ad space, PepsiCo will still run ads for its snack brands like Frito-Lay, and will be sponsoring the halftime show.

Anheuser-Busch joins Coke, Pepsi in skipping Super Bowl ads for iconic brands https://t.co/evpuQrC5z0 pic.twitter.com/ZoothvcCBq

— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) January 25, 2021

Taking the big boys’ places will be several up and coming brands that have found relevance in the stay-at-home world. These include newcomers like Fiverr, Mercari, Vroom, and TikTok. Oh, and there will also be a football game between the Buccaneers and Chiefs, but we’re not really talking about that right now.