This raised several questions. Such as: Really, is that a good use of airtime? Couldn’t you make much more money airing ads from other companies? If your audience is currently watching the Super Bowl, do you have to promote the magic of the Super Bowl to them, rather than assuming they’re already invested? But also: Does this concept of Super Bowl babies really exist? Meaning, when a county’s NFL team wins the big game, does the birth rate spike nine months later from all the celebratory sex?
The University of North Carolina sought to answer this question through analyzing birth records. Much like the 2016 Super Bowl (Denver Broncos 24, Carolina Panthers 10), the results were anticlimactic. After spending many words on why couples might have more sex right after a big win, and laying out all the relevant data they could find, they concluded that, no, they couldn’t find any link between the two variables.
Which doesn’t exactly disprove the claim that birth rates rise after a win, they noted. Maybe the NFL, who put forward that claim, used other data or other kinds of analysis. We trust several dozen follow-up studies will investigate this matter further.