On Sunday night, Tubi pulled a FAST one on Super Bowl watchers.
The Eagles-Chiefs game’s dramatic conclusion was interrupted by a creative trompe l’oeil advertisement that was broadcast by the free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service Tubi.
The 15-second ad, which debuted during the fourth quarter of Fox’s Super Bowl LVII broadcast, begins with paying tribute to Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, the game’s announcers. Fox Corporation owns Tubo.
Unseen hand opens a Tubi on-demand menu on the TV while Burkhardt and Olsen converse in generalities about the game. After a few audible blips, the hand picks “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” the 2005 film starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, before the Tubi logo flashes on the screen.
The startling advertisement left many viewers perplexed—and outraged.
Twitter user Rico Bosco of Barstool Sports said that “Tubi should be SUED for that commercial.” Haley Cruse Mitchell, a professional softball player, said, “That tubi commercial definitely made me start a fight with my husband.”
With its 60-second commercial “Rabbit Hole,” which featured enormous, silent bunnies (gently) kidnapping humans and throwing them into holes in the ground, Tubi, which Fox Corp. purchased in 2020 for $440 million, moderately frightened Super Bowl viewers early in the game. “Find rabbit holes you didn’t know you were looking for.” The Tubi advertisements were made by the ad firm Mischief.
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