After making their debut in a 2023 Super Bowl commercial, the online shopping platform Temu tripled its efforts and appeared three times during the Big Game this year on Feb. 11, 2024. The E-commerce app and website offers products for extremely low prices, and offered over $15 million dollars in coupons and deals during their commercials this year. But even bigger than the brand or the deals themselves, during the commericals, people realized how to pronounce Temu, and everyone collectively lost their minds.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been calling the brand “tee-moo” over the months that I’ve been hearing about it. But according to the Super Bowl commercials, it’s pronounced “teh-moo.” I was today year’s old when I found out I’ve been pronouncing it wrong every time the app is brought up. Thanks to the Super Bowl, we learned one takeaway from the game — besides how much Taylor Swift’s pants cost.
Temu gained its popularity in 2023, when videos of hauls started becoming popular on TikTok. The company is owned by the parent of Chinese E-commerce company Pinduoduo. Customers often buy products from the platform due to their immense amount of items being sold for low prices — some starting from as low as $0.99. The platform first became available to the U.S. market in 2022 and has become one of the most-downloaded free apps on Apple devices.
The reason Temu is so cheap is due to their supply chain, which is streamlined and cuts out all the middlemen, offering wholesale prices, according to Temu. What’s not cheap, though, is the price of purchasing a spot for commercials during the Super Bowl. For a 30-second ad during the 2024 Super Bowl, it cost brands $7 million. Times that by three, and Temu spent about $21 million on commercials. Many were shocked to see that many commercials from the company and were not shy to share their opinions on social media.
Whether you pronounce Temu “tee-moo” or “teh-moo,” there’s no denying that the brand made a big impact on viewers of the Super Bowl this year.