Springfield-based Bass Pro Shops ponies up for 30-second Super Bowl commercial
Springfield-based outdoors retailer Bass Pro Shops took advantage of the biggest TV audience of the year by airing a 30-second commercial Sunday during the Super Bowl.
The ad, which ran during the first quarter of the Kansas City Chiefs' 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, included footage of founder Johnny Morris fishing with two of his children.
A news release from Bass Pro says some of the footage is from 2019 when Morris's son, John Paul Morris, caught and released a world record-sized Arctic Char during a fishing trip at the mouth of the Arctic Ocean.
"The ad celebrates conservation and connects people to the great outdoors while underscoring Bass Pro Shops Low Price Guarantee, the numerous benefits of joining Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s CLUB and also highlights the fact that thanks to passion of their World’s Foremost Outfitters, Bass Pro Shops was recently voted America’s Best Outdoor Retailer," the news release states.
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Variety reported in January that FOX was asking for between $6 million and $7 million for a 30-second spot during its Super Bowl broadcast.
As of Monday morning, viewership figures had not been released from Sunday's big game, but the 2022 Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals reportedly averaged 112.3 million viewers.
Bass Pro Shops, which Morris founded in 1972 in the back of his father's liquor store and grew into a multi-billion-dollar business, says it will run the commercial again this coming Sunday during the Daytona 500 broadcast.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Bass Pro Shops ran a commercial during 2023 Super Bowl 57
