Lil Baby performing live. Photo Credit: Frank Schwichtenberg
Rockstar Energy has tapped Lil Baby to star in its first-ever Super Bowl advertisement.
Rockstar Energy teased its Lil Baby Super Bowl ad spot in a brief clip late last month and just recently posted the entire 30-second-long commercial to YouTube. In addition to Rockstar – a subsidiary of Pepsi, which is sponsoring The Weeknd’s Super Bowl LV halftime show but will not air a commercial at the big game – companies including DraftKings, Chipotle, Indeed, DoorDash, Mercari, Anheuser-Busch, and Scotts Miracle-Gro are set to purchase Super Bowl ad space for the first time.
The 20-year-old Rockstar’s inaugural Super Bowl commercial, “Spotlight,” opens with a shot of the trap mainstay Lil Baby performing before a crowd (and beneath a spotlight) and proclaiming, “I wasn’t born in the spotlight. I had to grind and shine, like a star in the hot night.” Said spotlight then shifts away from the 26-year-old’s on-stage performance and shines upon various (non-music) professionals as they work late into the night to perfect their own crafts.
“Real rockstars don’t chase the spotlight; it chases them,” Lil Baby says in closing the Dave Meyers-directed commercial, before indulging in a Rockstar to applause from the aforementioned audience. The rapper’s “Errbody” single plays throughout the half-minute-long spot, which will reportedly cost $5.5 million to air when the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Sunday.
Worth noting is that while Rockstar Energy and several other businesses are scheduled to roll out their debut Super Bowl adverts this year, an array of prominent brands will remain on the sidelines. Coke, Budweiser, and Hyundai have joined Pepsi in deciding not to purchase commercial slots.
As an aside, this will mark the first time in 37 years that Budweiser, which closed a massive sponsorship deal with Halsey back in October, won’t air a Super Bowl commercial. The AB InBev subsidiary has however crafted an advertisement for the occasion.
Furthermore, music fans will recognize a number of familiar faces in Super Bowl LV commercials. Post Malone, who starred in a series of Bud Light Seltzer commercials during Super Bowl LIV, is among the “Bud Light Legends” featured in the company’s newest promotional effort. Stella Artois, for its part, has created a commercial with Lenny Kravitz.
Separately, “Flex Up” rapper Lil Yachty inked a sponsorship deal with Reese’s Puffs in late December, and in November, reports shed light upon the compensation that Travis Scott received from his many sponsorships.