Newsjacking the Big Game: How the Kardashian’s empress of excess did it to us again
Try as we might, we just can’t keep up with the Kardashians.
Super Bowl LII was a thrilling game with the two best-performing teams in the regular season. It featured a jaw-dropping offensive explosion and the improbable journey of Nick Foles from backup QB to Super Bowl MVP. It had Justin Timberlake as the halftime performer. The commercials featured some outstanding work by Tide. There was a #AlMichaelsShakeYourBooty hashtag campaign. It had it all.
And then Kris Jenner went and stole the whole damn thing.
Newsjacking the Super Bowl is the holy grail of subversive marketing maneuvers. By peeling away a captive, built-in and global audience that spans the entire spectrum of humanity and one glued to not only the game but every break in between is tricky; there’s a reason commercials cost $5 million per 30-second spot and are the predominant format. But the Kardashians have never been your traditional marketers.
In a family that has leveraged a daughter’s sex tape, a father’s transitioning, an in-law’s drug-fueled descent and another’s fascinating madness (Kanye!), you’d be forgiven if you believed most of the controversial firepower to draw attention to and obsession of America’s First Family of Fame has already been deployed to remarkable effect. But you’d be wrong.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Kylie Jenner (no doubt with her mother and publicist Kris Jenner by her side) released an 11-minute love letter welcoming her “baby girl” to the world in a film that is a mixture of home-movie, behind-the-scenes documentary, and the type of addressing-the-camera commentary reserved for tear-jerkers and most often featuring a dying parent passing on hard-earned life lessons to their unborn child.
Shot by Tyler Ross, known on Instagram as White Trash Tyler and a collaborator of Kayne West and Kylie Jenner’s boyfriend Travis Scott, we see a private pregnancy of one of the world’s most public personalities in intimate detail.
“Baby Girl” Jenner – no name has been released yet – was actually born on Feb. 1, three days before the Super Bowl. While the pregnancy was held secret and away from the public glare, they engineered the announcement for maximum audience impact. Super Bowl LII likely recorded 100 million viewers, but Ms. Jenner notched 23 million views for “To My Daughter” in just 16 hours – all without paying a dime.
For the Kardashian matriarch, you could call the whole thing a proud mother’s giddiness for her new granddaughter, or vengeance for the Kendall Jenner/Pepsi fiasco (Pepsi is a stalwart Super Bowl advertiser and sponsors the halftime show). As Bustle stated, “People Want to Cancel This Super Bowl to Celebrate Kylie’s Baby News Instead.” A Mom-ager’s work is never done.
Whatever the reason, the buzzing conversation once again demonstrates a powerful brand with a loyal and highly-engaged audience can still disrupt one of the most hallowed marketing institutions if the provocation is compelling enough. The Super Bowl’s magic is partly the lingering effect of talking about it the next day. When that social exchange is compromised by an intruder, the benefit of paying premium dollars for a commercial is also called into question.
Oh, and Pink did a roaring National Anthem while under the weather with the flu – did you catch that lozenge moment right before she started singing? But no one is talking about that either.
Kevin Nabipour is managing director, content strategies at Allison+Partners.
