There were nearly 100 million eyes on Super Bowl LI on Feb. 4, 2017 when the New England Patriots won the first-ever overtime championship game in NFL history 34-28 vs. the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots came back from being down 21-0 to the Falcons and 21-3 at the halftime.
Following many highlight-reel plays from both sides, the Falcons still held a 28-20 lead with five minutes left in the game before the Patriots were able to drive down the field and tie the game up and win it in overtime. Besides so many people losing their collective minds over what had just happened, many including myself were left to wonder, where was Buffalo Wild Wings?
For those not in the know, for any NCAA Division-I men’s basketball game during the NCAA tournament, Buffalo Wild Wings has a commercial campaign promoting the restaurant and how its a great place to watch the big game. Fans of college basketball have become used to it, it is usually trending on various social media sites under tags like #pressthebutton and #bdubsovertime.
To be fair to the restaurant, no Super Bowl game had ever gone into overtime in NFL history. Buffalo Wild Wings had no reason to even book a commercial slot in the most expensive TV advertising spots of the year. I guess that the restaurant will have to develop a better plan for if a situation like this would ever happen again.
Buffalo Wild Wings is certainly not the first company to either market its food or beverages to the sports fan, and it most certainly will not be the best. For it to remain in people’s heads in overtime situations though, it will have to be more proactive next time or risk further damaging its brand awareness.
P.S. Although I didn’t want the Patriots to win, the fourth quarter and ensuing overtime were one of the greatest comebacks in sports history regardless of the absence of Buffalo Wild Wings commercial. As much as it pains me to say it, congrats to the New England Patriots.
