NEW DELHI: The nationwide farmers’ protest against the new farm laws once again attracted global spotlight as a commercial funded by the Sikh community of Fresno, a city in central California, aired during the most-watched television event in the US, the Super Bowl.
The video has been produced and created by Indian-American banker Raj Sodhi-Layne along with her friends. It was crowdfunded after Sodhi-Layne initiated an online fundraiser campaign. The fundraiser titled 'Support Farmers in India with AD Superbowl Sunday' raised $11,123 in a span of three days, The Quint reported.
The air time cost $10,000 since it was a regional commercial and was aired only in the Fresco county area between 3:00 and 3:30 pm PST on Sunday as a pre-Super Bowl ad raising awareness about India's farmers' protest.
The video opens with a quote by Martin Luther King Jr: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It then features some visuals from the protest and tweets by international celebrities like Rihanna. It ends with a message from the mayor of the city of Fresno, California, Jerry Dyer, who says, "We want you to know, our brothers and sisters in India, that we stand with you."
The commercial set social media abuzz, with pro-farmers' protest handles lauding "the message of support."
Super Bowl is known for airing some of the world's most famous ads. According to Kantar, in 2020, the average cost of a 30-second in-game commercial at Super Bowl was $5.25 million. This year's 32-second spots for national ads during the Super Bowl were being sold for around $5.5 million each, as shared on superbowl.com.
