Michael Bloomberg $11m Super Bowl ad revealed, focusing on gun violence: 'It is a national crisis'

In the ad, Calandrian Kemp talks about her son George's love of football and how his life was cut tragically short

Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign has unveiled an emotional 60-second ad focused on gun violence that will be broadcast during Sunday’s Super Bowl.

In the ad, Calandrian Kemp, mother of George Kemp Jr, talks about his love of football and how he grew up with aspirations to one day play in the NFL.

The camera pans across photos of George wearing football jerseys and pads, clutching a ball or with his helmet by his side.

Ms Kemp then reveals how one Friday morning, George was shot and did not survive. He was 20 years old.

Her eyes tearing up, she says: “You cannot tell me that the child that I gave birth to, is no longer here.”

“Lives are being lost every day. It is a national crisis,” she adds. Text on the screen reads: “2,900 children die from gun violence every year.”

The powerful ad will air after Jennifer Lopez and Shakira perform the half-time show at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens to a TV audience predicted to be approximately 100 million people.

The placement and subject matter of the ad will stand in sharp contrast to much of what viewers will otherwise see on their screens that day — the intention being to grab people’s attention.

“I chose to devote the entire 60-second ad to gun safety because it matters to communities across the country and it will be a top priority for me as president,” says Mr Bloomberg.

“Calandrian’s story is a powerful reminder of the urgency of this issue and the failure of Washington to address it. People will be rooting for different teams in the Super Bowl, but virtually all Americans — including people in both parties and a majority of gun owners — support universal background checks and other common sense gun laws.”

The ad rounds out with Ms Kemp praising Mr Bloomberg’s record on gun control.

“I know Mike is not afraid of the gun lobby. They’re scared of him,” she says. “And they should be.”

Ms Kemp, who lives near Houston, Texas, is an active volunteer with Moms Demand Action, part of the Everytown for Gun Safety group, the largest gun violence prevention organisation in the country, funded by Mr Bloomberg. She first met the former New York mayor at an event in Austin in January 2019.

At a cost of $11 million, the ad reflects the spending power of Mr Bloomberg’s self-financed campaign. To date the campaign is estimated to have spent $275 million on TV, radio and digital advertising.

President Trump’s re-election campaign has also bought a 60 second slot. A 30-second sequence, released ahead of the game, stresses the president's self-declared accomplishments on the economy and building up the armed forces.

AdAge reports that Fox, this year’s Super Bowl broadcaster, has insulated both political ads from other advertisers by scheduling them in the same breaks as non-paid advertising and promos for its own shows.

Political advertising is not a new occurrence in the Super Bowl broadcast, but previous campaign ads have not had the national reach that the Bloomberg and Trump ads will.

Probably the closest comparison was 2008, when Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s campaign aired an ad shown in 24 states, according to Quartz. His campaign also bought $5 million worth of ads during the broadcast of the Beijing Olympics that same year.

In 2016, Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio all bought ads during the Super Bowl, but only in early primary states.