Join us Sept. 14-16 in Miami to connect with top publishing leaders
Star power, AI jabs and Free Bird: Digiday’s guide to what was in and out at the Super Bowl
This story is part of Digiday’s annual coverage of the Super Bowl. More from the series →
Now that the washing up’s done and the snacking detritus has been swept off the floor, it’s time to consider the real winners and losers of this year’s Super Bowl – the brands. (The Seattle Seahawks may have won the actual game, but it was far from an offensive juggernaut – you have to really like punts to have gotten something out of it.)
The creative strategies employed by advertisers, as well as the media plans they relied upon to multiply the effect of their $8 million dollar spots, offer hints about how advertisers aim to reach audiences throughout the rest of the year.
With mutli-million dollar price tags and a highly polarized cultural climate, brands found themselves walking a tight rope at this year’s Big Game. To avoid alienating consumers, brands intentionally avoided saying anything that might sound remotely political, preferring to stay in the safety zone.
This year’s Big Game saw established brands lean heavily on star power, patriotic iconography and the occasional needle drop (Lynyrd Skynyrd through Neil Diamond and, unexpectedly, Young Fathers), while tech powerhouses opted for inspiration or humor as they vied for the attention of the viewing public.
Here’s Digiday’s review of what was in and out at Super Bowl LX.
In
Karaoke lyrics
Out
QR codes
In
De-aging in ads
Out
Explicit use of AI in ads
In
K-pop stars
Out
Rap rock stars
In
Kenan Thompson, Adrian Brody, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone
Out
David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, Barry Keoghan
In
Animal stars
Out
Animated mascots
In
Millennial nostalgia
Out
Generation X nostalgia
In
Ads pushing unity
Out
Ads using humor
In
Creator activity around TV ads
Out
Creators in ads
In
Winter Olympics
Out
Kid Rock’s halftime show
In
Meta spending
Out
TikTok spending
In
B2B brands
Out
Booze brands
In
Pharma and healthcare advertisers
Out
Automotive advertisers
In
Attack ads
Out
Ads about ads
In
AI products
Out
AI promises
In
Sportsbook brands
Out
Prediction markets
In
Tech brands
Out
Consumer brands
– Kimeko McCoy contributed reporting to this article
More in Marketing
‘Inside, most of them are dumpster fires’: Confessions of a frustrated indie agency ad exec
From surprise corporate card cancellations to phantom return-to-office mandates, one former indie agency exec talks about the chaos behind the scenes.
The case for and against the ‘programmatic-ification’ of the creator economy
Creator marketing is racing toward AI ad-stack automation, but risks turning trust into inventory.
Digiday+ Research: The marketers’ 2026 guide to retail media marketing, including The Home Depot, Milani Cosmetics and Tinuiti
As the retail media landscape continues to evolve, marketers are rethinking where they invest, how they measure success and which retail media networks deserve a larger share of budget.