When people are willing to watch 3.5 hours of TV just for the commercials, you spend a lot of money on your commercial.
Ergo, the average price for a 30-second Super Bowl ad slot in 2022 is up 18%+, to $6.5m.
That’s outside of the money companies spend to actually produce their ads (normally anywhere from $1m-$5m). Plus, this year, covid added to the bill:
(Side note: Americans increasingly love Super Bowl guac — the US imported 277m pounds of Mexican avocados in January 2021 alone, up 19% YoY.)