President Trump’s Secret Service Director paid Hollywood Director Michael Bay $2 million to create a new recruitment ad that is airing at the Super Bowl inside the stadium.
Watch the ad below via the Secret Service:
If you weren’t able to attend tonight’s big game, you missed a jumbotron highlight!
For 160 years, our agency has been a witness to history; and since 1901 we’ve protected the most important people and events, including #SuperBowlLIX.
Here’s more on how the ad came about via CNN:
The United States Secret Service tapped blockbuster movie director Michael Bay to create a recruiting advertisement that is expected to be unveiled in the stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, according to multiple NFL and Secret Service sources.
The ad cost an estimated $2 million for the Secret Service to produce, according to two sources familiar with the project — a hefty price tag that comes amid massive budget cuts and layoffs at other government agencies.
One source told CNN the estimated $2 million budget is about double what was spent on previous Secret Service recruiting ads.
The ad is expected to air during the pregame show on a jumbotron inside New Orleans’ Superdome stadium, according to a source close to the NFL. The ad time is being donated, so the Secret Service will not have to pay an additional fee. Ad buys during Super Bowl Sunday typically cost millions of dollars, with a 30-second ad airing on television costing up to $8 million this year.
Through a spokesperson, Secret Service Director Sean Curran told CNN that he “empowered the team to identify a novel and expedient approach that leveraged one of the most recognizable Directors to produce a representation of the men and women behind the Secret Service within nine days while ensuring compliance with requisite rules.”
“As Director, my focus will always be to lean forward to meet the needs of our workforce,” Curran said through the spokesperson.
The ad’s debut comes days after Bay — the Hollywood action director behind the “Transformers” movies and “Pearl Harbor” — was seen in White House pool footage shaking hands with Trump as the president boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews last week. Sources familiar with the project say Bay was shooting the recruiting ad on-site.
“I came up with the concept for the PSA that America was founded on the idea of freedom,” Bay told CNN in a statement. “Throughout our short but powerful history as Americans, we have always stepped forward in time of need. This was a spot to honor the true silent heroes who protect the leaders of our democracy.”
Trump will be at the game, and possibly on site when the ad airs in the stadium. Earlier this week, a White House official told CNN the president is expected to attend the game, which would make him the first sitting US president to attend a Super Bowl.
The Secret Service ad airing on Super Bowl Sunday comes after days of back-and-forth negotiations between the agency, Bay and the NFL.
CNN first learned last week that the ad would air on a jumbotron inside the stadium during the game. But by Friday afternoon — just two days before the game — a source close to the league told CNN the ad would not be airing. The source said the Secret Service submitted its request too late and programming on the jumbotron had already been locked.
Less than 24 hours later, CNN learned the NFL had found space to air the ad during the pregame. The NFL declined to comment.
There were also conversations regarding a possible televised commercial on Fox, two sources said, adding that the ad space would have been donated to the Secret Service.
The Secret Service will own the ad for five years and plans to use it on social media to drive future recruitment for years to come.
The spot came together in less than two weeks — a rapid timeline for a busy Hollywood hitter like Bay and typically slow-moving government agencies — indicating the importance of the ad to the Secret Service.