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As Super Bowl Sunday approaches, the battle off the field for advertisers to win over 120 million-plus viewers will be just as heated as the rivalry between\u00a0the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n
Dozens of advertisers are pulling out all the stops for\u00a0Super Bowl 60, airing Sunday on NBC. They\u2019re hoping that audiences tuning in will remember their brand names as they stuff their ads with celebrities ranging from Kendall Jenner (Fanatics Sportsbook) to George Clooney (Grubhub), tried-and-true ad icons like the Budweiser Clydesdales, and nostalgia for well-known movie properties such as \u201cJurassic Park\u201d (Comcast Xfinity).<\/p>\n
Each year Super Bowl ads offer a snapshot of the American mood \u2014 as well as which industries are flush with cash that particular year: from the \u201cDot-Com Bowl\u201d of 2000 to\u00a0the \u201cCrypto Bowl\u201d of 2022.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s trends include AI and tech companies showing off the new technology, health and telehealth companies advertising\u00a0weight loss drugs\u00a0and medical tests, and well-known brands tugging at the heartstrings.<\/p>\n
Villanova University marketing professor Charles Taylor said because of the heavy headlines in the news lately \u2014 from the\u00a0immigration enforcement surge\u00a0in Minnesota to\u00a0conflicts abroad\u00a0\u2014 he expects advertisers to stick to a light and silly tone.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the Super Bowl\u2019s status as a pop culture event with a fun party atmosphere, the vast majority of brands will avoid any dark or divisive tone and instead allow consumers to escape from thinking about these troubled times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Advertisers flock to the Super Bowl each year because so many people watch the big game.\u00a0In 2025, a record 127.7 million U.S. viewers watched the game\u00a0across television and streaming platforms.<\/p>\n
Demand is higher than ever, since live sporting events are one of the few remaining places in the fractured media landscape where advertisers can reach a large audience. NBC sold out of ad space in September.<\/p>\n
Space sold for an average of $8 million per 30-second unit, but a handful of spots sold for $10 million-plus, a record, said Peter Lazarus, executive vice president, sports & Olympics, advertising and partnerships for NBCUniversal. He said he was calling February, with the Super Bowl, Olympics and the NBA All-Star Game, \u201clegendary February.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lazarus said 40% of advertisers bought across all of NBC\u2019s major sports properties, and 70% of Super Bowl advertisers bought the Olympics as well.<\/p>\n
Artificial intelligence startups and bigger companies are\u00a0using advertising\u2019s biggest night to make a name for themselves.<\/p>\n
AI developer Anthropic is airing a pair of TV commercials, one during the game and one pre-game, that points out Claude, its chatbot, doesn\u2019t have ads.<\/p>\n
The in-game ad shows a man exercising asking a person representing a chatbot for help getting a six-pack, but he\u2019s fed an ad instead. Although Anthropic doesn\u2019t name the company, OpenAI has said it will place ads on free and cheaper versions of its chatbot ChatGPT.<\/p>\n
In a sign that\u00a0Anthropic struck a nerve, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a social media post that he laughed at the \u201cfunny\u201d ads but blasted them as dishonest and threw shade at his competitor\u2019s smaller customer base. OpenAI will air its own ad during the game that it is keeping under wraps.<\/p>\n
Other AI ads include Amazon showing Chris Hemsworth humorously imagining ways the new Alexa+ chatbot can hurt him. Oakley Meta touts their AI-enabled glasses in two action-packed spots showing Spike Lee, Marshawn Lynch and others using the glasses to film video and answer questions. And Google\u2019s Super Bowl ad shows a mother and son imagining their new house with the help of Google photos and Google AI tools.<\/p>\n
Featuring celebrities is a tried-and-true way advertisers can get goodwill from viewers. This year, Fanatics Sportsbook enlists Kendall Jenner to talk about the \u201cKardashian Kurse,\u201d in which bad things happen to basketball players she dates.<\/p>\n
George Clooney appears in a Grubhub add to promote a deal that the delivery app offers to \u201cEat the Fees\u201d on orders of $50 or more.<\/p>\n
Sabrina Carpenter tries to build the perfect man out of Pringles, but he keeps falling apart in Pringles\u2019 ad.<\/p>\n
Several ads feature more than one celebrity or sports star. Michelob Ultra shows Kurt Russell training actor Lewis Pullman, as Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim and hockey player T.J. Oshie watch on a ski slope.<\/p>\n
Xfinity reunites Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in a tongue-in-cheek reimagining of \u201cJurassic Park\u201d that shows an Xfinity tech bringing power back to the island so nothing goes awry.<\/p>\n
And Uber Eats enlists Matthew McConaughey for the second year in a row to convince celebrities \u2014 this year it is Bradley Cooper and Parker Posey \u2014 that football is a conspiracy to make people hungry so they order food.<\/p>\n
Health and telehealth providers are everywhere during Super Bowl 60. Two pharma companies are advertising tests: Novartis touts a blood test to screen for prostate cancer with the tagline \u201cRelax your tight end,\u201d featuring football tight ends relaxing. Boehringer Ingelheim\u2019s ad stars Octavia Spencer and Sofia Vergara, who encourage people to screen for kidney disease.<\/p>\n
Liquid I.V., which makes an electrolyte drink mix, has teased an ad about staying hydrated.<\/p>\n
Telehealth firm Ro is using Serena Williams in their ad for GLP-1 weigh loss drugs. Novo Nordisk will run a 90-second ad with Kenan Thompson and other stars showcasing the Wegovy weight-loss pill.<\/p>\n
Hims & Hers \u2014 another company that offers GLP-1 weight loss drugs \u2014 has an ad that says the company gives people better access to health care that usually only rich people get.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could call this the GLP-1 Super Bowl,\u201d said Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University. \u201cOften you don\u2019t see a lot from pharmaceutical companies on the Super Bowl, but this year we\u2019re going to see quite a few showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, many advertisers elected to pull at the heartstrings with ads featuring families and animals.<\/p>\n
Budweiser\u2019s heartwarming ad shows a Clydesdale foal growing up with a bald eagle to the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd\u2019s \u201cFree Bird.\u201d The ad celebrates Budweiser\u2019s 150th anniversary.<\/p>\n
Lay\u2019s follows a father-daughter potato farming duo as the father retires and the daughter takes over, overlaid with a cover of Keane\u2019s \u201cSomewhere Only We Know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s Ring ad shows off technology that can help find missing dogs. Toyota shows a grandson and grandfather buckling up in different decades in a Toyota Rav4. And Dove showcases girls celebrating body positivity.<\/p>\n
The heartfelt ads are \u201ca response to politically divided times and lots of negative events being top of mind in the news,\u201d Villanova\u2019s Taylor said. \u201cMore of this year\u2019s ads openly focus on humanity and being humane to others than I\u2019ve ever seen in a Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Ring ad was a good example.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than focusing on the camera and its features, it brings attention to app users coming together as a community to help find lost dogs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While the majority of Super Bowl advertisers release their ad early to try to capitalize on buzz, some hold back until game day to reveal their ad.<\/p>\n
Pepsi-owned soft drink Poppi teased that pop star Charli XCX and actress Rachel Sennott will star in their ad.<\/p>\n
Ben Affleck is back in an ad for Dunkin\u2019 Donuts. A teaser spot showed him with \u201990s sitcom legends Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc of \u201cFriends\u201d and Jason Alexander from \u201cSeinfeld.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there are fewer car advertisers this year, but Cadillac is hinting that it will show off its new Formula 1 car in an ad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Super #Bowl #ads #share #common #theme #revealing #truth #Americas #current #mindset<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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