Also: Recession watch, pay rises, and Andy Jassy.
Good morning.
Those of you who watched the Super Bowl last night know it was a great game, with a kind of odd halftime show. But I watch the Super Bowl for the ads. As a media executive, it’s useful to see who’s spending $7 million for 30 seconds of airtime. The ads also offer a window into the business zeitgeist of the moment.
So what did we learn last night? Well first, crypto is out, after dominating last year. And not just crypto—tech in general was underrepresented. Google pushed its Pixel phone. Workday ran a clever ad with Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol, and Joan Jett encouraging people to stop calling their work colleagues “rock stars.” (My personal favorite.) Booking.com featured Melissa McCarthy on holiday. And Uber hosted Sean Combs saying “Diddy don’t do jingles”…but then doing one.
Beyond that, the Super Bowl advertising was pretty standard football stuff: beer, shoes, cars, Pepsi, peanuts, Disney, Doritos, Downy, Dunkin’…oh yes, and avocados. It looks like the biggest payday went to underemployed entertainers (Meghan Trainor, Snoop Dogg, Sarah McLachlan, Nick Jonas, Ludacris) and actors (Maya Rudolph, John Travolta, Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Bradley Cooper, Ben Affleck.) Best of the breed was a Hellman’s commercial with Jon Hamm and Brie Larson co-starring in a sandwich (get it?). Clearly, that mayonnaise had a purpose.
Congrats to Kansas City for the win. If you want to know what their payday looks like, read here. Too bad for fans in Philly whose cable service was cut by vandals. And if you are wondering how halftime star Rihanna handles work life balance, go here.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
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Recession watch
The European Union will dodge a recession, per the latest forecast from the European Commission, which has the Eurozone economy very slightly growing in the last two quarters. The Commission attributed the surprise development to “the strength of the common response” among EU countries to recent shocks, such as the pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. (Bonus read: European countries have now allocated around $850 billion to dealing with the energy crisis.) Politico
Pay rises
British companies are planning their biggest pay rises in 11 years, though the expected median rise of 5% this year will still be well below inflation. More than half the employers surveyed by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Developments said they were having trouble filling vacancies. Reuters
Andy Jassy
The FT has an interesting piece on Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, and how much he has to do with the fact that the company’s value has nearly halved since his ascension to the throne. Key line: “As Bezos’ hand-picked successor, Jassy has been met with mostly goodwill so far. But if he has a vision for the future, now would the time to spell it out.” Financial Times
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