Super Bowl Super Post: Everything is Content
America™
Every year, brands pour millions into securing a Super Bowl ad slot, hoping to capture our attention for 30 seconds and turn it into cultural currency. Some go for nostalgia bait, some bet on absurdity, and some just burn cash in ways that leave us questioning the state of capitalism. This year – it became pretty real how much the FYP is everything.
It was the Year of the Hater (hi, Kendrick!) and the Creator (hi, Alix Earle!). Brands leaned into self-awareness (breaking the fourth wall a little), humor got niche-r, and a few attempts at sincerity made it through. Below are my rapid-fire notes of what just happened on America’s most expensive commercial break.
(Please note I watched the game through the third quarter and then logged out.)
Ben Affleck x Dunkin’: It’s official. We are living in a simulation. Dunkin’ and Affleck are a single entity now. There’s a SEVEN MINUTE CUT OF THIS?
Orlando Bloom & Drew Barrymore on a cruise: Feels like casting straight out of 2005. Zero recollection of which cruise line this was for.
Little Caesars + Eugene Levy’s flying eyebrows: Instantly reminded me of the Anthony Davis meme. Uncanny.
Ray-Ban + Meta: ok.
Doritos UFO ad: Early 2000s fever dream. I’m just finding out this was a contest?
Michelob, Carl’s Jr., and bald eagle aesthetics: America™
Catherine O’Hara (Moira Rose) in a Michelob ad? Dan Levy in another? A strong night for Schitt’s Creek.
Ritz ad with Aubrey Plaza: Bad Bunny appearing out of nowhere? Chaotic good.
Barry Keoghan in a Squarespace ad: Fresh off his breakup and already back in the Shire.
Oikos ad: Juno Temple, you will always have my attention. Who did the color grading for this ad here…
Mountain Dew featuring Seal: What was the pitch for this? Genuinely curious. How did they email Seal. Hey Seal. What if you were…a seal?
Instacart’s mascot parade: Green Giant, Mr. Clean, Kool-Aid Man… Can I have a lil budget pls? Was this like a venmo situation – hey Green Giant slide me a million I’ll throw the mascot in our ad slot. Many questions.
Matthew McConaughey for Uber Eats: Every time he pops up in ads, I think about his Sex and the City episode. Greta Gerwig, Martha Stewart, Charli xcx also in this one—again, budget is budgeting. Also Matthew for Salesforce.
Issa Rae for QuickBooks: Tax season propaganda.
Nike’s return to the Super Bowl: Finally. Women’s sports are front and center. More of this, please. Nike call me!
Hexclad marketing spend: Someone explain this to me.
Coffee Mate ad: The tongue imagery was haunting. I screamed.
ChatGPT’s Super Bowl debut: Fresh off the heels of a nice rebrand…
Hellmann’s Mayo + When Harry Met Sally: Sydney Sweeney popping up out of nowhere. She will get a brand deal. Clever! (s/o friend of the ‘stack
)Pringles & Little Caesars using the same gimmick: I need to know who found out first and how mad they were. Pringles mighta did it better.
Him&Hers: This being set to “This is America” is really something. We’ve talked about this before.
Poppi: I need to understand this marketing budget badly. They sent $25K vending machines to influencers?!
The Super Bowl reinforced how live sports remain one of the last true monoculture events. In an era of fragmented media, brands are looking at TikTok creators and internet-native formats to generate cultural relevance beyond these big moments. Nostalgia was a heavy theme—brands betting on familiar faces, cultural callbacks, and Y2K aesthetics to cash in on millennial and Gen Z attention. The question now is, how long can that last before it starts feeling stale? If this year’s ads tell us anything, it’s that brands are still figuring that out in real-time.
And it’s not just about the ads themselves anymore—the rollout of these commercials has become a marketing event in its own right. From teaser campaigns to influencer partnerships to entire social media strategies designed to make a 30-second spot trend before it even airs, brands are leveraging every tool in the playbook to make sure their Super Bowl moment extends far beyond game night. It feels like last year’s CeraVe blitz changed the tone. The ad isn’t just a commercial—it’s a launch, a cultural conversation starter, and sometimes even a standalone piece of content with its own multi-platform distribution strategy.
Which ad won for you? Nike won for me. It felt big, anthemic, and emotional.
Everything is content.™
There's been a mixed reaction to the ChatGPT ad which I think comes down to how you interpret the "All progress has a starting point" line. If you hold that line up against how much money Open AI is burning to build its products, it feels pretty defensive. Also reminded me of crypto ads from a few years ago that nodded to how change happens slowly. Why use the biggest TV moment of the year to defend yourself instead of changing the conversation?
Nike was great. I loved Seal for Mountain Dew - unhinged and memorable.