This folder contains the data behind the story According To Super Bowl Ads, Americans Love America, Animals And Sex.
superbowl-ads.csv contains a list of ads from the 10 brands that had the most advertisements in Super Bowls from 2000 to 2020, according to data from superbowl-ads.com, with matching videos found on YouTube. FiveThirtyEight staffers then came up with seven defining characteristics of a Super Bowl ad, watched every video and evaluated each according to the taxonomy in the table below.
| Header | Definition |
|---|---|
year |
Year the spot aired, according to superbowl-ads.com |
brand |
Brand of advertiser, grouped to account for spelling and punctuation differences, and sub-brands (e.g. Coca-Cola Mini is grouped into Coca-Cola) |
superbowl_ads_dot_com_url |
Link to superbowl-ads.com entry for this ad |
youtube_url |
Link to YouTube video matched to this ad. If this field is blank, this means we weren't able to find a YouTube video for this spot — so if you find one, please let us know! |
funny |
Was it trying to be funny? Is the ad jokey, goofy, weird or silly? Funny commercials (or ones that are trying to be funny) are marked True. Anything serious or dramatic is marked False. |
show_product_quickly |
Did it show the product right away? Can you tell what is being advertised within the first 10 seconds of the commercial? If you can see the product or brand name on the screen, that counts. |
patriotic |
Was it patriotic? Did the commercial make a patriotic appeal, either clear or subtle, or include American imagery? Any glimpses of an American flag or the words "America" or "United States" counted, as did references to the armed forces, manufacturing and farming. |
celebrity |
Did it feature a celebrity? If we saw a celebrity we recognized, we checked this one off. |
danger |
Did it involve danger? Did we see any violence, threats of violence, injuries, fighting or guns? Any allusions to death or hokey injuries also counted here. |
animals |
Did it include animals? Did an animal — either real or computer-generated — show up at any point in the ad? Even one-frame appearances counted. |
use_sex |
Did it use sex to sell its product? We counted any subtle or overt suggestions of sex, sexuality, sex appeal or nudity. |