Politics Crashes the TV Party

The first of two 30-second ads from President Trump’s campaign, which together cost more than $11 million, aired in the first commercial break after kickoff. The spot focused on Alice Marie Johnson, a woman who was serving a life sentence in federal prison on charges related to cocaine distribution and money laundering when her case was brought to Mr. Trump’s attention by Kim Kardashian West, the reality television star. Mr. Trump commuted Ms. Johnson’s sentence in 2018.

It was the first Super Bowl to feature national ads from two presidential candidates, and the political tone of the ads stood out in a broadcast filled with companies trying to avoid sensitive topics the day before the Democratic caucuses in Iowa.

Before the second-half kickoff, the billionaire presidential candidate Michael R. Bloomberg presented an ad about gun control that featured Calandrian Simpson-Kemp, whose football-loving son died in a shooting in 2013. Mr. Bloomberg has swarmed the Democratic field with over $275 million in advertising, according to the ad-tracking firm Advertising Analytics. This was not his first Super Bowl commercial touching on gun laws — he did the same in a 2012 ad with Thomas M. Menino, then the mayor of Boston.

The Jay-Z Influence

Another exception to the escapist fare was a spot on police shootings. Surprisingly, it came from an organization that has shied away from the issue: the National Football League. The spot showed the retired 49ers wide receiver Anquan Boldin reflecting on the 2015 death of his cousin, who was shot by a police officer, and it included a dramatic re-enactment of the killing.

The commercial promoted the N.F.L.’s Inspire Change initiative, a social outreach program that the league has put together with Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z. Colin Kaepernick — Mr. Boldin’s onetime 49ers teammate — set off an uproar a year after the killing by kneeling during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality. The N.F.L. struggled with its response for years.