On Sunday night, football and music fans alike gathered to watch the Super Bowl and all of the entertainment surrounding the big game — including its notoriously groundbreaking commercials. Known as one of the biggest nights in television with a forecasted 100 million-plus viewers this year, the National Football League’s championship has become equally known for streaming creative advertisements throughout the game.
This year, NYX Professional Makeup and Cardi B were scheduled to debut their first collaboration, a commercial for the brand’s “Duck Plump” lipgloss, in a coveted Super Bowl ad slot. However, a beauty brand representative revealed that the NFL “disapproved” of the original commercial, forcing them to switch gears last-minute. On Sunday, NYX only premiered the first 15 seconds of the 52-second commercial in which Cardi B explains the lip product’s plumping power. Since that was the only section approved for broadcast, the beauty brand used the remaining “blackout” spot to share a QR code linking to the extended version of the advertisement.
The “uncut version” shows the comedic results of Cardi B advertising the product’s ability to make lips appear “bigger” and “plumper.” However, in the commercial, men seem to have missed the “u” in “duck” and replaced it with another letter, ultimately leading to their misuse of the product.
“As a female-led brand with female creators behind the work, we’re proud of our creative idea, which flips the script on male stereotypes with lighthearted humor,” said Yasmin Dastmalchi, general manager of U.S. at NYX Professional Makeup, per WWD. “As a bold brand rooted in entertainment and as a first-time advertiser on Super Bowl Sunday, our intention was to make everyone laugh during the big game. We hope you love it as much as we do.”
Though the innuendo hindered the full premiere of the ad, the brand says the commercial’s script was designed to tout not only the gloss’ extreme plumping sensation but also parody male-centric advertising. Cardi B teased the commercial’s pun on Instagram, posting a clip of the commercial with the caption “for lips only.”
In addition to being her first beauty collaboration, the rapper shared deeper insight into how meaningful the partnership is for her.
“NYX is a brand that I’ve used since high school and that’s why it’s so special to partner with them for this campaign,” Cardi B said in a statement as previously reported by theGrio. “NYX has always made the best, affordable products, and that’s why I still use them today. We had a lot of fun making this over-the-top, hilarious commercial and I can’t wait for everyone to see.”
Shop the commercial’s Duck Plump lip gloss at Ulta Beauty and at NYX.
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