Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl ad is visually striking, although its message is the same as last year’s Wonder of Us spot – there’s a Coke for everyone and difference is great. But this year’s Coca-Cola Super Bowl isn’t running during the Super Bowl. That’s a first – a first since 2006.

The 60-second spot, A Coke is a Coke, will run immediately before the National Anthem during the pre-game broadcast. It’s a tactical decision, no doubt. Kaepernick put the focus on the national anthem in 2016, and the Coke ad with its tagline, Together is beautiful, is asking for unity. The animated commercial was created by Wieden & Kennedy Portland, which also created the Kaepernick Nike campaign in September that dominated conversations, for and against, for weeks.

The poem in A Coke is a Coke was inspired by quotes from Andy Warhol’s 1975 book, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, in which the artist states that “a Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking”. Last year’s ad was underpinned by a poem written by Wieden & Kennedy copywriter, Becca Wadlinger. She also wrote the script for this year’s spot.

The Coca-Cola Foundation will also be making a $1 million donation to The National Center for Civil and Human Rights so that all of the football fans coming to Atlanta for the game as well as those visiting Atlanta in the next few weeks, can have free admission to the center. The foundation will also award three $100,000 grants to Atlanta organisations that have been working to keep the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. alive.

“We will have so many visitors in Atlanta and we wanted to make sure that they have an opportunity to really understand some of the guiding principles that come from our hometown of Atlanta,” stated Helen Price, vice president, global community affairs and president of The Coca-Cola Foundation, The Coca-Cola Company.

Here is last year’s Super Bowl ad: