1. Introduction
[1.1] The Super Bowl is the final game of the National Football League championship held annually in the United States, reaching hundreds of millions of people. During the 2024 edition, the cosmetics brand Cetaphil was one of the companies using this space to advertise. Cetaphil not only used typical advertising strategies but also added contextual elements from the life of one of the finalists in the championship, Travis Kelce, who at the time was revealed to have been dating the singer Taylor Swift. This initiative goes beyond the logic of advertising and joins the rationale of fan studies and fandom in seeking to attract fans through the affection shown for the image of the "totems" of adoration or "big little figures" (Maffesoli 2006, 279) and their symbolism (note 1).
[1.2] We analyze the commercial to categorize its visual and narrative elements and how they are used by the brand to capture the affectivity of Taylor's and Travis's fandoms and fans to boost product sales. Understanding what it is to be a fan comes from a relationship with the term itself and individual categories that can help or prevent the individual from classifying themselves as a fan. Van Driel et al. (2018) seek to explore some individual categories that make people consider themselves fans, such as strong emotional time, personal involvement, personality, enjoyment, and so on. However, it has to be said that the very notion of what it is to be a fan is not only different from feeling part of a fandom (I like the Chiefs/Taylor) but also not equivalent to group identification with a fandom (I'm one of the Chiefs/I'm a Swiftie). Nevertheless, due to the closeness of these two audiences (fans and fandom fans), people who do not self-identify as fandom fans may be included in research on fandom and become the target audience for advertisements, which is the case with this Super Bowl Cetaphil commercial. More specifically, beyond trying to reach fandoms, the brand uses topics and elements common to both types of audiences to reach fans who do not identify with the fandom characteristics.
[1.3] The commercial features the relationship between a father, an American football fan, and a daughter, a Taylor Swift fan. The father is getting ready to watch an NFL game. At first, there is a distance between father and daughter, as they do not share the same passions, but then the daughter seems to identify with the event when she sees the Cetaphil commercial on TV. Taylor Swift's and Travis Kelce's names are not mentioned, but there are characteristic elements of their professional careers throughout, which shows the media's appropriation of their symbolism and draws the public's attention. Some of the most representative symbolic elements in the commercial are the friendship bracelets and the colors and numbers on the team shirts.
[1.4] Taylor Swift fans and people who identify with the practices of this fandom make friendship bracelets and exchange them with each other at events (note 2). This activity reaffirms the identification between people with the same interests and who belong to the same fandom—or, as Maffesoli (2006) would say, tribe. In the commercial, the bracelets are used to demonstrate the father's willingness and interest to connect with his daughter's passions, which also reflects how the Taylor Swift–Travis Kelce phenomenon attracts both young audiences (Taylor fans) and sports fans (like the father, a Kelce fan). This symbol brings together two distinct cultural spheres: sport and pop culture.
[1.5] There are also many references to the numbers 13 (the day of Swift's birth and considered by the artist to be one of her lucky numbers) and 89 (the year of the artist's birth and also a reference to the album 1989 rereleased by the singer in 2023), which are printed on the daughter's and father's shirts, respectively. The numbers symbolize Taylor Swift's identity as an artist and the reference to them on the players' shirts can be interpreted as a direct representation of the impact that Swift has on her fans, especially those who, like the father in the commercial, are sports fans and are now also interested in Kelce's personal life, since the player's relationship with the artist brings the father closer to his daughter's passions. This also reinforces the impact of Taylor Swift's presence at the season's games, which attracted a larger audience. Both shirts are red, symbolizing the colors of the Kansas City Chiefs, the team Travis Kelce plays for, and another of Swift's albums, Red, released in 2012. These symbols help to create a point of convergence between fathers and daughters, reflecting how their relationship can be a topic of conversation between different generations and interests, as the commercial itself highlights with the phrase: "This season, dads and daughters found a new way to connect. Let's celebrate the game time glow."
[1.6] The Super Bowl is an event that brings together a vast audience of American football fans and entertainment viewers, mainly around the performance of artists at halftime, creating a point of intersection between distinct cultures. It is interesting to note that even though she was not an invited halftime performer, Taylor Swift's presence at Kansas City Chiefs games throughout the season resonated with the audience, bringing the two worlds closer together. From this perspective, Maffesoli's (2006) theory dialogues with the case study; such conversations and repercussions are the result of the notions of contemporary tribes, but also this constant, multiple, and immediate movement of online interaction creates and strengthens a sense of belonging, regardless of physical or geographical contact. More than the affectionate and preestablished tribes of Taylor Swift fans and Kelce fans, this interaction and meeting of common themes gives rise to a converging intense affective nebula, in which both tribes find themselves sharing (and creating) common experiences, symbols, and narratives. In this way, sports and pop culture fandoms are strongly becoming communities that not only consume the products intermediated by athletes, artists, and entities but also produce the narratives and values that sustain such personas—for example, discussing the relationship of Taylor and Travis and how it affects the individual careers of the celebrities.
[1.7] By using celebrity symbols, Cetaphil is exploiting the affective nebula of people who are interested in the singer and in the player. This "commodification of affections" goes beyond the sale of a product; it is directly linked to the construction of an experience that involves the emotions and values of consumers. The placement of Cetaphil's advertising in the middle of the routine of preparing this meeting of two tribes to watch the Super Bowl creates a symbolic link between the consumed object (the cosmetic) and the affections generated by joining a community (fans), transforming the product into something more than a consumer item but part of a life experience and shared identity. Silva (2023) argues that this appropriation of affections by marketing reflects the dynamics of contemporary capitalism, where emotions, values, and sense of belonging become commodities that are continually negotiated and exploited by the media. The success of Cetaphil's advertising, in this case, depends not only on the quality of the product but also on how it fits into the affective narrative and the construction of an experience that speaks directly to the audience's emotions. In summary, the narrative of affection constructed between the characters in the video, regardless of its fidelity to everyday life, is an attempt to capitalize on the affection between communities and sell a positive experience, supposedly enhanced by the consumption of Cetaphil products.
2. Multimedia
Video 1. "#GameTimeGlow 💚 A New Sports Tradition for Dads & Daughters," YouTube, posted by Cetaphil, February 9, 2024.
3. Notes
1. It is important to point out that the term "big little figures" is a direct translation from the Portuguese edition of the text to English.
2. This idea is born in the song "You're on Your Own, Kid" (2022) from the singer's album Midnights (2023), in which she writes about making such bracelets as a way to savor the moment in which they live, because time passes quickly: "So, make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it."
4. References
Maffesoli, Michel. 2006. O tempo das tribos: O declínio do individualismo nas sociedades da massa (The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society). Forense Universitária.
Silva, Pedro Henrique Marçal. 2023. O Amor como Mercadoria: Uma Pesquisa Socioantropológica em Torno do Aplicativo de Relacionamento Tinder (Love as Merchandise: A Socio-Anthropological Investigation into the Tinder Dating App). Bach. thesis, Federal University of Uberlândia. https://repositorio.ufu.br/bitstream/123456789/37358/1/AmorComoMercadoria.pdf.
van Driel, Irene I., Walter Gantz, and Nicky Lewis. 2019. "Unpacking What It Means to Be—or Not Be—A Fan." Communication & Sport 7 (5): 611–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479518800659.