Given all the economic, political and health questions of 2020, companies may have felt it was prudent to pull back – especially several months ago, when they would have had to start planning for such a high-profile night, said Kimberly Whitler, professor at UVA’s Darden School of Business "It's the biggest night of TV watching and so they have to plan it months in advance," she said. "There was so much uncertainty that to go and invest in a Super Bowl ad might have actually felt or seemed frivolous at the time."