Super Bowl LIX advertising had a blend of common themes like comedy, nostalgia, women’s empowerment and the power of technology, but it was arguably the use — or, according to some marketing experts, overuse — of celebrities that caught viewers’ attention during the big game.
“What stood out was the overabundance of celebrities, most not doing much to advance the brand other than to appeal to a particular demographic,” said Bob Dorfman, a San Francisco-based veteran sports marketing expert.
Rich Campbell, a marketing professor at Sonoma State University and adjunct professor with the University of San Francisco’s sport management program, believed marketers relied too heavily on the same small group of celebrities, including several Schitt’s Creek stars like Eugene, Dan and Sarah Levy as well as Catherine O’Hara.
“Sure, the celebrities get viewers’ attention, but are the ads benefitting the brands or the celebrities?” Campbell added.
“Matthew McConaughey’s ‘McConaissance’ seems to have entered its third decade,” remarked Creative Derek Barnes of Arts & Letters Creative Co. about the 55-year-old who starred in spots for Uber Eats and Salesforce.
Kerry Benson, senior vice president of creative strategy at Kantar, said company data supports the fact that a celebrity generates attention and builds engagement for an advertisement. Still, that doesn’t necessarily translate to sales or long-term brand equity, she said, “the most important measures of an ad’s performance.”
She added that multiple ad appearances by celebrities such as Fox NFL analyst Tom Brady, Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid and rapper Snoop Dogg, among other personalities, “start to blur together to the consumer.”
Still, despite the heavy dose of creative featuring celebrities, a majority of the marketing experts and creatives interviewed for this story viewed this year’s Super Bowl advertising in a favorable light.
Arts & Letters’ Barnes cited multiple winning advertisements, including Bud Light’s “Big Men on Cul-De-Sac” party, which included singer Post Malone, comedian Shane Gillis and NFL legend Peyton Manning. According to Barnes, the brand “made solid use of all the celebrity talent, fanny packs and dad-core humor that should play with their base and new, younger drinkers.”
He believed Super Bowl LIX was a better year for advertising than many in recent memory. “In general, the ads were entertaining and served up the Super Bowl formula of celebs, CGI, sight gags, nostalgia, animals, aliens, volcanoes, classic rock and tugged heart-strings we’ve come to expect,” he said.
“I’m personally a huge fan of brands that identify clever storylines that are relevant to their personality,” said Dave Robertson, senior vice president, group account lead, client solutions at CAA Brand Consulting, a division of Creative Artists Agency. “Uber Eats is one that jumps out to me. Their recent creative has been strong and that continued in the Super Bowl with their play on the origin stories of football. We crave football and we crave food while we watch football.”
Robertson and other marketers shared their praise of Hellman’s mayonnaise and the brand uniting Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan from an iconic scene in the 1989 romantic comedy film “When Harry Met Sally.” He said the idea of nostalgia appeared frequently throughout the Super Bowl, a theme that continues to resonate with Gen Z and millennial audiences. Google, Meta and OpenAI, among others, also illustrated the power of technology and artificial intelligence through their spots, he said.
Of course, there were also multiple outliers who didn’t particularly enjoy the creative. “The Super Bowl ads for the spending are, for the most part, atrocious,” said sports business reporter Darren Rovell. Rovell, though, did refer to the Uber Eats advertisement as the “most thoughtful” Super Bowl advertisement last Sunday.
Meanwhile, Dorfman, the San Francisco-based marketing expert, noted that, generally speaking, “the strategies were largely questionable” during the big game, which averaged a combined 127.7 million viewers across all platforms.
“I’d give the ads an overall grade of C-minus — a handful of very good ones, a bunch very bad and most very average,” added Dorfman, but he said winning advertisements included Nike, Uber Eats, Dove and Mountain Dew, which featured the singer Seal as a literal seal singing an altered version of “Kiss from a Rose.”
Dorfman noted “there were a number of creepy ads that missed the mark,” including Coffee Mate’s “painful” cold foam dancing tongue commercial. He called Fox-owned streamer Tubi’s spot, which incorporated fleshy cowboy hats, “a sci-fi nightmare.”
“The common ground for all the losers were a tenuous link between product and ad execution, frenetic over-production and a general feeling of trying too hard to stand out,” he said.
In terms of what did not appear during the Super Bowl, this year’s advertising didn’t include traditional car or insurance commercials, experts said. Kantar’s Benson also highlighted that “big, bold messages or provocative storylines were missing.”
Several experts said Nike’s new brand anthem “So Win” cut through the clutter of Super Bowl creative with a compelling advertisement, which included Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, American track and field sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson and U.S. Olympic gold medalist and gymnast Jordan Chiles, among others, responding to criticisms of women’s sports.
“No brand sparks cultural conversation quite like Nike,” said Arts & Letters’ Barnes, adding that Nike’s Super Bowl spot, its first since 1998, was the brand “at its best — confident, motivating and inspiring.”
.
When asked if a big game advertisement is still worth the financial commitment — a number that could reach mid eight-figures across media, talent, production, events and other activation costs, the overall consensus still remained ‘yes.’
“The power of the NFL and the convergence of sports and entertainment are always at play with the Super Bowl,” explained CAA’s Robertson. “On one hand, you see the price tag and you think about how you can spread that sort of spend across a variety of activities. On the other hand, it’s not a one-size-fits-all for every brand. If you’re a brand that is seeking mass exposure and cultural relevance, it makes sense.
According to Kantar’s Super Bowl LVIII advertising effectiveness study from 2024, a Super Bowl spot is, on average, 25% more effective than a regular TV advertisement at driving brand perceptions.
“It’s always worth it if you have the right strategic message and a truly great creative expression you want to hit your audience with the most impact possible,” said Arts & Letters’ Barnes. “It’s likely a huge waste of money if either of those two pieces are off. But given the fragmentation of our shared national attention and the uniquely unifying experience of the Super Bowl, it’s totally worth it if you’ve got a great idea.”
Dorfman, a particularly harsh critic of this year’s big game spots, believed an investment is still worthwhile “just so long as you have a strong idea that’s entertaining and cuts through the clutter while still enhancing your brand’s values in a coherent, sensible way.”
Ultimately, Martin Blich, executive director, sports and live investment, at media group GroupM US, believes the Super Bowl isn’t about a single spot on television. “It’s a cultural event that gives brands a rare chance to create iconic moments that stick with audiences,” he said, adding that a 30-second spot can be “a launchpad for storytelling, engagement and brand amplification across social, streaming and beyond.”
The Super Bowl has transitioned from “a one-day spectacle into a full-scale, multi-channel marketing moment,” complete with marketing and creative strategies that now encompass social and digital media, streaming and out-of-home before and after the big game.
Blich concluded, “For brands looking to make a splash, spark conversations, and stay culturally relevant, the Super Bowl remains one of the most powerful marketing platforms out there.”
