Reddit Spends Its Entire Marketing Budget On A Five-Second Super Bowl Ad

Reddit ran its own Super Bowl ad this year. It was only five seconds long but had a big message for the world.

So, the Super Bowl came and went, and we’ll talk about the ads for months to come. Speaking of which, which was your favorite this year? Say what you want, but I believe the best one was a five-second ad run by none other than Reddit.

You may have missed it – it was so short – but it’s being talked about nonetheless. The ad is really nothing special to look at. It doesn’t even feature music. It’s basically a block of text – staged as an interruption – and you may have actually missed it. If you actually wanted to read the text, you’d have to pause it, but we’ve transcribed it for you below:

“Wow, this actually worked.

If you’re reading this, it means our bet paid off.

Big game spots are expensive, so we couldn’t buy a full one. But we were inspired and decided to spend our entire marketing budget on 5 seconds of airtime. One thing we learned from our communities last week is that underdogs can accomplish anything when they come together around a common idea.

Who knows, maybe you’ll be the reason finance textbooks have to add a chapter on “tendies.” Maybe you’ll help r/SuperbOwl teach the world about the majesty of owls. Maybe you’ll even pause this 5-second ad.

Powerful things happen when people rally around something they really care about. And there’s a place for that. It’s called Reddit.”

So, what’s Reddit doing running a Super Bowl ad? Well, apart from claiming to have spent its “entire marketing budget on five seconds of airtime,” the company sent out a clear message to the world: “Underdogs can accomplish anything when they come together around a common idea.”

What just happened? pic.twitter.com/DypRp6DeQt
— Reddit (@reddit) February 8, 2021

The reference, of course, was the whole r/WallStreetBets furor from a few weeks ago, which Reddit alludes to in the last sentence “Who knows, maybe you’ll be the reason finance textbooks have to add a chapter on ‘tendies.'”

Reddit ran its own Super Bowl ad this year. It was only five seconds long, and it was awesome!

Click To Tweet

You’ll have to look up “tendies” to really get the joke here, but Reddit uses the term to speak the language of its diverse communities.

So, yeah, if you’re reading this, their bet really paid off. Nice one, Reddit!