Beyond the Super Bowl game and the halftime show, America stays seated for the Super Bowl advertisements shown during the game. These commercials by major companies often feature cameos by big celebrities and are typically more unique and high-quality. With millions of viewers watching the Super Bowl, these commercials become beneficial for companies that want to promote their products or spread a message. 

“Super Bowl advertising transcends viral, short-term social media engagement by providing mass audience visibility beyond a brand’s target market,” said Ashley Kosonen, a senior majoring in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. “With over 100 million viewers, a successful ad offers an unparalleled reach that helps sustain brand equity and deliver the company’s purpose to viewers.”

The 2026 Super Bowl commercials featured celebrities like Jennifer Aniston for Dunkin', Sabrina Carpenter for Pringles, Adrien Brody for TurboTax, Emma Stone for SquareSpace, and Bradley Cooper and Matthew McConaughey for Uber Eats. 

Carolyn Shiery, Professor of Marketing, shared her insights into whether these advertisements are effective. “It has been researched by Stanford Research (2015) that companies actually receive a sales bump (Budweiser, for example) over a period of time. However, if you have competing brands (Coke and Pepsi), those ads virtually nullify any gains.”

Pepsi’s commercial, titled “The Choice,” went viral this year as it depicted Coca-Cola’s mascot, the polar bear, doing a blind taste test and choosing Pepsi as the better soda than Coca-Cola. The ad continued the ongoing rivalry between the two companies.

“I believe Super Bowl ads are more about brand impressions and brand favorability, rather than absolute sales,” added Shiery. “Will they get their investment back? Maybe, over a period of time.”

Kosonen shared that cameos from big celebrities were not the only driving factors for advertisements’ success. “Ads that are purpose-driven and emotionally resonant tend to perform better and provide higher brand recall and recognition. My favorite ads from this year that truly captured this emotional essence were Budweiser, Google Gemini, and Lays.”

Budweiser featured a connection between a Clydesdale horse and a bald eagle, celebrating the 150th birthday of Budweiser and the 250th birthday of America. Google Gemini promoted its company through a conversation between a mother and son about designing their new home. It showed heartwarming clips of the young boy growing up that they found using Google Gemini. 

Lays’ commercial, “The Last Harvest,” was an emotional commercial that celebrated the retirement of a farmer, and his last time working the field with his daughter, as memories of when they used to work together when the girl was younger were shown. 

“[The ads] successfully highlighted product effectiveness along with an emotional storyline over the usage of celebrity cameos. They connected with audiences through shared values of heritage, family and nostalgia,” said Kosonen. 

While Super Bowl ads remain popular, Shiery commented that much has changed in their production and release. “It used to be that Super Bowl ads were of a higher quality, using interesting humor and special effects. Now, many Super Bowl commercials are ‘pre-released,’ taking away any element of surprise. There is a lot of pressure on companies that do advertise to produce ‘the next big ad,’ but any creative endeavor can produce a hit or a miss–this really depends on how the ad is received by the target audience,” said Shiery.

Another noticeable shift in this year’s Super Bowl ads was the use of AI and its promotion. In addition to Google Gemini, companies like Artlist, Meta, Amazon, Anthropic and Ring promoted and used AI in their advertising campaigns. 

 

“AI has been in the marketing space for a very long time, which has been predictive. The ‘new’ AI is generative, and right now it is the Wild, Wild West – no rules, no curbs, no regulations,” said Shiery.

 

While AI use is debated, Shiery explained how Concordia students are learning how to use it properly when creating their ads.

“In our Ad Agency class, students are learning how to make their ideas come alive with the use of AI, but they have done all the creative work, and it is based on their ideas (not something generated by AI),” said Shiery. “There is so much pre-work that has to be done before you even think about producing an ad, and I don't believe this can be done by AI solely. AI certainly can help in production, especially doing mockups, but not so great for the final product.”

Tags: business

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