Facebook's first ever Super Bowl ad will focus on Groups

Facebook has attempted to overcome a year of PR disasters with some high-profile adverts for its services featuring celebrities, such as Portal commercials starring Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook taking this one step further by airing a Super Bowl ad.

This year will mark the first time that Facebook has advertised during the Super Bowl, and the company is going all out for the occasion. The Wall Street Journal reports that advertisers pay up to $5.6 million for a 30-second commercial spot during the event.

The Facebook ad will be a 60-second spot featuring Chris Rock and Sylvester Stallone, promoting the social connection aspects of the Groups feature. People have reported seeing actors including Stallone and Rock meeting on the Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to film the commercial.

This will follow Super Bowl advertising by tech companies in previous years, such as Hulu's Instagram egg ad that promoted mental health awareness last year and a 2018 Amazon Alexa ad featuring celebrities like Gordon Ramsay, Rebel Wilson, Cardi B and Anthony Hopkins. Other tech companies have used Super Bowl ads to showcase everyday people using their products, like Microsoft's gaming accessibility ad or Nintendo's Easter-egg-stuffed Switch ad.

As younger people flock to platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, Facebook has become the social media network of the Boomer generation. With the Super Bowl increasingly a Boomer event as well, it makes sense for the company to target their ads to this audience.