The Today Show Hosts Look A Lot Different In Their Super Bowl 2022 Commercial
Getting a jump on the Super Bowl commercial buzz, NBC's "Today" team is putting out a PSA in support of young girls going above and beyond to pursue a variety of interests. The "She Can STEM" campaign is kicking off with some familiar faces in a light-hearted approach to guide girls toward science, technology, engineering, and math, according to PR Newswire. This collaboration between ad agency Deloitte Digital and the Ad Council combines humorous moments with the "Today" show hosts alongside STEM role models and members of the AAAS IF/THEN Ambassadors Program including Tiffany Kelly, Mitu Khandaker, and Karina Popovich.
The Ad Council is all about campaigns that go the distance, notable for its famous "Smokey the Bear" ads to prevent wildfires. The story of Smokey Bear started in 1944, making it the longest-running PSA campaign in U.S. history. According to Today, the Ad Council has teamed up with its hosts in the past for PSAs for Feeding America and disaster preparedness. The renewed partnership is going all in with a bigger crew to keep kids dreaming big.
Ad Council president and CEO Lisa Sherman said, "With the She Can STEM campaign we can show girls, non-binary youth, and trans youth that their passion in STEM can become a reality." For that to happen, the anchors on the "Today" show are dipping into a retro daydream.
The Today Show hosts go back to school
The "She Can STEM" PSA Super Bowl commercial stars Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, Carson Daly, and Craig Melvin in a groovy '70s dream. After an inspiring chat, Guthrie muses, "I wish they had those kinda cool careers for women when we were growing up," before entering a vision of a classroom mashup. The five anchors are looking very '70s as they sit at their desks in sweater vests, braces, big glasses, letterman's jackets, lots of stripes, and hair that suits the decade.
"So in this flashback we're all the same age?" Daly asks. "Yeah," Kotb responds with her flippy pigtails and throws a paper ball in his face. When the teacher asks what everyone wants to be when they grow up, girls offer modern answers like making immersive video games, revolutionizing 3D printing, and analyzing data from the cloud. Guthrie is more interested in getting extra credit, Melvin just wants to "get his hands unstuck" from some kind of solar system project, and Roker states confidently, "I wanna be a meteor." Daly gets the last jab and makes it clear he "was a baby in the '70's."
Kotb said on Today, "We're showing in this ad, 'Wait a second, look how far we've come.'" The team showed a behind-the-scenes look at making the commercial that shares wonderful throwback photos and their own memories of school. You can check out the PSA on Super Bowl Sunday during pregame coverage between noon and 3 p.m. ET on NBC.