When requested why the NFL selected Unhealthy Bunny at an October 22 press convention, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell answered, “He’s one of many main and hottest entertainers on this planet. That’s what we attempt to obtain. It’s an vital stage for us. It’s an vital factor to the leisure worth. It’s fastidiously thought by means of.”
Goodell added that the NFL just isn’t going to cancel Unhealthy Bunny’s efficiency as a result of backlash.
“I’m undecided we’ve ever chosen an artist the place we didn’t have some blowback or criticism,” he stated. “It’s fairly onerous to do when you’ve gotten lots of of hundreds of thousands of individuals which can be watching. However we’re assured it’s going to be a terrific present.”
Clearly the NFL didn’t rent Unhealthy Bunny accidentally, and executives knew there could be some right-wing backlash. As Wired’s Anna Lagos put it, this was “a calculated enterprise transfer and a continuation of its technique to rejuvenate and diversify its viewers.” Lagos defined:
The league is conscious that its conventional viewership base is getting old. Attracting youthful audiences and the rising Hispanic market is a enterprise crucial. Unhealthy Bunny, essentially the most listened-to artist on Spotify worldwide from 2020 to 2022, represents the important thing to accessing that world market.
The NFL’s partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, launched in 2019, was designed to do exactly that: inject cultural relevance into the halftime present, an occasion that had turn out to be predictable and artistically secure. Kendrick Lamar’s acclaimed and politically charged efficiency in 2024, which used American symbolism to ship a blunt critique of racism, demonstrated that the NFL is prepared to take calculated dangers if the result’s cultural relevance and world dialog.
By selecting Unhealthy Bunny, the NFL not solely secures a world famous person, but additionally aligns itself with a story of inclusion and illustration.
Jay-Z defended Unhealthy Bunny to a TMZ photographer who requested on October 27, “Why are individuals hating on him?” Hov responded, “They love him. Don’t allow them to idiot you.”
