What Trump’s media strategy has in common with brand activations
Plus: Brands are selling unity, but who is buying?
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at how Trump took a page out the playbook for corporate brand activations, and the messages of unity that ads took on during this year’s Super Bowl.
Scroll to the end to see: how Shepard Fairey is pitching in for Los Angeles fire relief for the music industry 🎸
What Trump’s media strategy has in common with brand activations
To understand President Donald Trump’s media strategy around the biggest television show of the year, it’s helpful to think of his actions as a brand activation. To command and control as much of the nation’s attention as he could around the Super Bowl, Trump simply took a page out of the advertising playbooks for consumer products.
Even as Americans cut their cords and watch fewer hours of live TV every year, the Super Bowl remains a tentpole event that people tune in to see. Rather than zipping past commercials on their DVR or YouTube TV, the splashy ads are considered part of the programming. Brands pay big bucks to get their ads on during the game—the cost of 30 seconds of airtime is now as high as $8 million—though the true cost is much higher. Brands often tee up their ads by prereleasing them online before the game and they follow through with brand activations afterwards to milk their 30 seconds for as long as possible. Trump did something similar.
The Super Bowl is already a big day for the president since the network that airs the game traditionally gets a newsy pregame interview. Had Trump relied solely on his pregame interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, though, the headlines would have been out of his hands and might have focused on some of his most unpopular policies.
Even sitting down with a friendly network (Fox will become the first network in U.S. history to air a show hosted by a president’s family member), poses its risks to a president’s narrative. Trump was asked questions about his actions, like putting the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, in charge of cutting government spending (a judge recently put restrictions on Musk’s powers, and polling shows Musk is becoming increasingly unpopular); his threats of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which spooked the stock market before Trump reversed course and pressed pause; and stubbornly high consumer prices that haven’t gone down since he took office despite campaign promises to do so.
But rather than rely on the pregame interview alone, Trump attempted to design his own news cycle around the game. Trump was the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl, grabbing precious airtime showing him saluting the flag during the National Anthem, and like a consumer brand seeking to maximize its ad time, he teed up his appearance and made time for some follow-through.
En route to New Orleans for the game, Air Force One’s path crossed over the recently renamed Gulf of America. With an oversize map as his prop, Trump signed a proclamation making Sunday “Gulf of America Day.” The rename and proclamation, of course, does nothing to lower prices or make the U.S. safer, but it does have an awful lot in common with brand stunt naming, like IHOP temporarily calling itself IHOb to promote its burgers, or Coors Light, which released limited-edition “Mondays Light” beers to promote its product on the day after the Super Bowl.
Trump left the game early after incorrectly predicting the Kansas City Chiefs would win, but on his way home he looked to make more news, picking a fight with Taylor Swift on his social network and announcing a plan to stop minting pennies. The penny idea is one that’s been floated before, not to mention the fact that Trump’s authority to unilaterally do so is unclear. Still, it has all the hallmarks of his favored form of governance: showy, visceral, and easy to understand.
Trump also announced 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel Monday, which may not be as simple or popular, but considering the bread and circuses of his Gulf of America Sunday, the news may well be drowned out by his preferred narratives.
Previously in YELLO:
Brands are selling unity, but who is buying?
Sometimes a Super Bowl is just a football game with expensive ads. Other times it’s a window into the soul of a nation.
Sunday’s big game was the equivalent of former President Joe Biden wearing a Trump hat, a show of unity for a nation leaning right, but not quite as MAGA as it might appear at first glance.
Many of the ads during the game were America-focused, like Lays, which promoted its potato chips as made from American-grown potatoes, and MSC Cruises, which played off differences between Americans and our British cousins.
Others emphasized unity — like Jeep Wrangler, which tapped Harrison Ford for an ad with the line “Freedom is For Everybody” — but the task is easier said than done. Ontario, Canada, ran its ad calling for working together over trade wars, and Fox News aired ads claiming it’s “For All America.” While the network’s sky-high ratings certainly prove it’s America’s favorite news channel, their frequent carping about Democratic-led cities and states suggests the tagline is conditional. You can’t be a patriot if you hate half your country.
The mortgage lender Rocket said its ad and accompanying live, in-stadium singalong to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” were meant to bring millions of Americans together, but left unsaid is the fact 2024 saw lower home sales than at any point in nearly 30 years. Though Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to “lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply,” so far it’s just words. Instead of lower housing costs, we get a singalong.
This Super Bowl sent conflicting messages. The NFL removed pandering end zone “End Racism” lettering it’s shown since 2021 and replaced it with “It Takes All of Us” and “Choose Love.” There were ads denouncing antisemitism and hate, and at the same time, at least in some local markets, ads from one of America’s most famous antisemites, the rapper previously known as Kanye West. At least the veiled protest of a halftime show was on theme. Dressed as Uncle Sam, Samuel L. Jackson chided Kendrick Lamar for being “too ghetto” and said at one point, “that’s what America wants, nice and calm.”
The cultural message of this year’s Super Bowl was full of contradictions, unity on the surface and discord bubbling just beneath. And perhaps that’s where America is right now, more comfortable singing about home than building one, more willing to paper over divisions with feel-good slogans than confronting them head on.
Have you seen this?
Trump wants to dismantle the agency that provides weather forecasts. It will make your life worse. The Trump administration and Elon Musk are reportedly taking aim at NOAA, the agency responsible for the National Weather Service and many other crucial functions. [Fast Company]
Shepard Fairey designed this shirt for MusiCares LA Wildfire Relief. 100% of the proceeds from this limited-edition shirt from the artist go to MusiCares, a program for emergency and recovery efforts for the music industry. Fairey’s design adapts his “Lotus woman” illustration with the Seal of The City of Los Angeles. [Bandcamp]
Ye website down after selling swastika shirts, ecommerce platform says site violated terms. Shopify said in a statement, “This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.” [NBC News]
Let’s hear it for the separation of powers. As Trump’s administration attempts to push the limits of executive power, the courts are pushing back. [Whig]
History of political design
“Verboten! (Forbidden) You Can’t Let This Happen! Buy War Bonds” poster (ca. 1940s). This World War II era poster encouraged Americans to buy war bonds to defend the Declaration of Independence.
A portion of this newsletter was first published in Fast Company.
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