Answer: $5.5 million

Here's one of the Super Bowl ads: 

Questions:

• What is this specific advertiser trying to accomplish in this commercial?
• What do you they want you to remember about their brand? In an era with so many streaming services that have trained consumers to watch shows without any ads, why do advertisers spend so much on Super Bowl ads?
• Which types of companies do you think benefit the most from their Super Bowl ads?

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (NBC with links to many of the ads):

Going all the way back to the first Super Bowl in 1967, the average price of an advertisement was anywhere from $37,500 to $42,500. Now, in 2021, you need at least $5.5 million dollars for a 30-second spot. Check here for a Google sheet with complete year-by-year list of the cost to advertise at the Super Bowl. Lots of great opportunities for math teachers with questions like:

• Which year saw the largest increase in ad cost?
• What are the trends with viewership at the game? Trends with cost of advertising? Is there a relationship between the two?
• What has been the average annual growth in ad costs from 1967 to 2021? 

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Want to hear from several NFL players who played on Super Bowl champion teams and are now staunch advocates for financial education?

From NGPF Podcast:

• Ryan Harris (Denver Broncos)
• Dwight Hendricks (NY Giants)

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.