While we are still having trouble unseeing the awkward “hero” chip bags in the Lay’s and Doritos ads, Frito-Lay brands nailed their diversity efforts. Sam’s Club, InBev’s AB brands, Unilever’s Hellman’s, GM, Vroom, and others did as well. Additionally, it was no shock to see the metaverse make a debut of sorts in big-dollar ads by Meta, Crypto.com (with Matt Damon), and Bud Light NEXT. However, it was what we heard that really got our attention in this year’s Super Bowl ads. In this special Super Bowl LVI edition of Plain Talk, we’ll foot-tap our way through our thoughts on the growth of music nostalgia in advertising. We’ll explore how it supercharged big game commercials and what this could mean for you.

At the end of 2021, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a rebranding of Facebook into Meta, its new parent company focused on a concept called the metaverse. The CEO’s speech was over an hour long and filled with concepts that may change not only how we experience social media but also how we interact with everyone in the future, at work and play. At first glance, the metaverse sounds a lot like that virtual reality game you tried, but is there more to it than these 3D games played in middle-class living rooms across the world? In today’s edition of Plain Talk, we’ll look at brands and the metaverse—and the possible impact on your marketing plan.

In this edition of our Plain Talk series, we’ll examine brand trust and corporate social responsibility and discuss how the two are interacting during the current COVID-19 global crisis. We’re exploring the ways smart brands continue to communicate and build trust with consumers from a physical distance.