At a troublesome time for America, Super Bowl advertisers ask viewers to take care of themselves and others — and possibly even crack a smile.
Ring exhibits how neighbors can use their doorbell cameras to seek out misplaced pets. A Budweiser Clydesdale protects a bald eagle chick from the rain. Novartis touts a blood check that may detect prostate most cancers. Toyota reminds viewers to put on their seatbelts.
Mister Rogers is invoked twice: Woman Gaga sings his traditional “Received’t You Be My Neighbor?” in a tearjerker for Rocket Firms whereas the Nationwide Soccer League makes use of “You Are Particular” to advertise its work with youth sports activities organizations.
America is uneasy. U.S. shopper confidence fell to its lowest stage since 2014 in January. The killings of two protesters by federal officers in Minneapolis final month led to widespread outrage. And winter climate has been brutal throughout a lot of the nation.
“There is a collective trauma. Everyone is stressed out. It doesn’t matter who you’re, it’s one thing that’s impacting everybody,” mentioned Vann Graves, the chief director of the Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth College.
Super Bowl ads, he mentioned, give individuals a much-needed respite and a uncommon shared second.
“It’s been a bit of time that we are able to simply be human and be foolish and take pleasure in ourselves,” he mentioned.
Enjoying for laughs
There is loads of silliness on this yr’s commercials. Sabrina Carpenter tries to construct the proper man out of Pringles. Benson Boone and Ben Stiller play a disco duo doing flips over Instacart. Andy Samberg, taking part in “Meal Diamond,” squirts Hellmann’s mayonnaise on the sandwiches of Elle Fanning and different deli prospects.
Polar bears — Coca-Cola’s conventional mascots — share a Pepsi in an advert that spoofs final yr’s viral kiss cam. Adrien Brody can’t cease overacting in a industrial for TurboTax.
Supply companies attempt to outdo one another. George Clooney seems in a Grubhub advert to advertise free supply on orders of $50 or extra. Uber Eats enlists Matthew McConaughey to persuade Bradley Cooper and Parker Posey that soccer is a conspiracy to make individuals hungry. And Rapper 50 Cent trolls Sean “Diddy” Combs in an advert for DoorDash.
AI Bowl
Synthetic intelligence is everywhere in the Super Bowl airwaves.
Oakley Meta touts its AI-enabled glasses in two action-packed spots exhibiting Spike Lee, Marshawn Lynch and others utilizing the glasses to movie video and reply questions. Wix debuts an advert for Wix Concord, which makes use of AI instruments for web site design.
Svedka Vodka enlisted Silverside AI, an AI studio, to assist create its advert, which options its robotic mascot FemBot dancing alongside her male counterpart, BroBot.
Like AI itself, AI ads aren’t with out controversy. AI developer Anthropicis airing a pair of commercials mentioning that Claude, its chatbot, doesn’t have ads. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took situation with that in a recent social media publish; OpenAI mentioned final month it can begin testing ads as a strategy to preserve ChatGPT free.
Amazon additionally strikes a nerve with an advert starring Chris Hemsworth that pokes enjoyable of individuals’s fears of AI. The advert is operating simply days after Amazon laid off 16,000 company employees, some of whom could also be changed with AI.
“I believe this is meant to be humorous, however it would possibly reinforce some individuals’s very actual issues about AI,” mentioned Tim Calkins, a scientific professor of advertising at Northwestern College.
Well being Frenzy
Super Bowl ads nonetheless have fun snacks. Bowen Yang, Scarlett Johansson and Jon Hamm staff as much as pitch Ritz crackers. A retiring potato farmer passes the farm alongside to his daughter in a heartfelt advert for Lay’s.
However there’s additionally a concentrate on well being. Octavia Spencer and Sofia Vergara urge individuals to check for kidney illness in an advert for Boehringer Ingelheim.
Mike Tyson talks about his sister’s loss of life from weight problems in an advert urging individuals to eat actual, unprocessed meals. The advert was paid for by MAHA Middle Inc., a nonprofit led by Tony Lyons, a writer and key ally of U.S. Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
GLP-1 weight reduction medicine are additionally crashing the get together. Novo Nordisktrumpets its new Wegovy drugs in an advert that includes Kenan Thompson, DJ Khaled, Danielle Brooks, Ana Gasteyer, John C. Reilly and Danny Trejo. Telehealth agency Ro pitches its GLP-1s in an advert starring Serena Williams.
Hims & Hers, which not too long ago launched its personal GLP-1 tablet, says it offers everybody entry to higher well being care, not simply the rich.
Nostalgia
One strategy to get Americans feeling higher? Evoke heat recollections of the previous.
T-Cell options the Backstreet Boys singing a model of their 1999 hit “I Need It That Method.” Volkswagen goes all the best way again to 1992 with a industrial set to Home of Ache’s “Leap Round.”
And Xfinity reunites Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in a tongue-in-cheek reimagining of 1993’s “Jurassic Park” that exhibits Xfinity restoring energy to the island so nothing goes awry.
File-breaking costs
Advertisers flock to the Super Bowl annually as a result of so many individuals watch the massive sport. In 2025, a document 127.7 million U.S. viewers watched the sport throughout tv and streaming platforms.
Jura Liaukonyte, a professor of advertising in Cornell College’s SC Johnson Faculty of Enterprise, mentioned firms that usually must parse out advert {dollars} throughout broadcast and streaming platforms pay a premium for Super Bowl spots to achieve a unified viewers.
This yr’s Super Bowl ads price a median of $8 million per 30-second unit, however a handful of spots bought for $10 million-plus, a document, mentioned Peter Lazarus, who leads promoting and partnerships for NBC Sports activities. He mentioned he was calling February, with the Super Bowl, Olympics and the NBA All-Star Sport, “legendary February.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
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