A one-minute video aired during the Super Bowl was filmed by Hollywood director Michael Bay
The US Secret Service has released a new recruitment ad that cost the agency $2 million, double what it usually spends on advertisements, CNN reported on Sunday, citing sources. The ad was first aired during Sunday’s Super Bowl, the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL).
According to the report, the one-minute ad was filmed by Hollywood movie director Michael Bay, who is known for such blockbuster hits as ‘Armageddon,’ ‘Transformers’ and ‘Pearl Harbor’. Sources claimed that the clip was put together in just two weeks’ time. CNN said it has filed a Freedom of Information Act records request to determine the true cost and budget for the ad.
The ad was aired during the pregame show inside the Superdome in New Orleans. According to a source close to the NFL, the ad time, which was reportedly secured at the last minute, was donated, which means the Secret Service did not have to pay an additional fee for its airing.
Ads that air during the Super Bowl, which is the most watched event in the US, can cost in the millions of dollars. Reports claim that the cost of a 30-second ad airing on TV during this year’s game topped $8 million.
The Secret Service later posted the clip on its official X account. The ad portrays the US as a great power that needs equally great servicemen to protect its leaders. It featured footage of agents working at various official events attended by US leaders over the years. The voiceover notes that its agents were securing this year’s Super Bowl game attended by President Donald Trump, the first ever sitting US president to attend the event.
If you weren’t able to attend tonight’s big game, you missed a jumbotron highlight!
The video also shows footage that can be seen as alluding to the Secret Service’s most notable failures, including a speech by President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, and images from the July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump, and footage of President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded in 1981.
The agency did not comment on the ad’s hefty price tag, but the agency’s newly appointed director, Sean Curran, told CNN that he had “empowered the team to identify a novel and expedient approach… to produce a representation of the men and women behind the Secret Service.” Prior to his appointment, Curran led Trump’s bodyguard detail during the latter’s White House campaign, and was among those who rushed to shield the then-candidate during the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Social media users were quick to comment on the ad. While many praised the agency for its record of service, some pointed out its failures, and questioned whether reminders of them should have been included in the ad. Some raised conspiracy theories claiming the agency had a hand in several assassination attempts on US leaders, while others wondered just how much taxpayer money had gone into filming the ad.
