The Safer Bowl: With tensions running high, Super Bowl advertisers avoid politics and play for laughs

• Many Super Bowl advertisers are blending comedy with celebrities this year.
• Advertisers want to play it safe in a charged political climate, industry experts said.
• The average price for 30 seconds of airtime during Super Bowl LX was $8 million.

In a charged political climate where even small missteps can spark a brand backlash, many of this year's Super Bowl advertisers are sticking with the safest bet in the playbook: comedy and celebrities.

Much like last year's Super Bowl, the vast majority of the big game ads released so far are playing it safe. Advertisers hope that A-list stars will be a shortcut to attention in the crowded field of commercials, and that humor will leave audiences feeling uplifted and warm toward their brand.

"In general, advertisers want to play it safe," said Peter Daboll, head of North America at the creative testing platform DAIVID. "There's a high anxiety level here in the US, and people are probably very afraid of triggering anything."

Viewers aren't in the mood to be preached to, he added, and even heartwarming ads that might have performed well in Super Bowls past could come across as too "syrupy" and fall flat.

There's one week to go until the Patriots-Seahawks showdown, but plenty of brands have already released their ads, or teasers, ahead of game day.

Of the 15 Super Bowl LX ad previews the TV measurement platform iSpot tested with a consumer panel so far, 12 triggered "funny" reactions from viewers. The highest "funny" score went to Instacart, whose vintage-style ad features actor Ben Stiller and singer Benson Boone in a high-energy— and ultimately calamitous — musical performance about choosing the perfect banana.

Other ads hoping to raise a chuckle:

• Andy Samberg stars as "Meal Diamond" for Hellmann's, performing a "Sweet Caroline" parody in a deli to customers, including Elle Fanning.
• Fanatics Sportsbook tapped a self-deprecating Kendall Jenner to mock the "Kardashian Curse," the internet conspiracy that dating members of the family ruins an athlete's game.
• Novartis is making itself the butt of Super Bowl joke ads, with NFL players telling viewers to "relax your tight end" and get a blood test for prostate cancer.
• Even the heartwarming story of a Budweiser Clydesdale horse helping a bald eagle learn how to fly ends with a joke about getting misty-eyed.

The cast of celebrities in the commercial breaks will range from Sabrina Carpenter for Pringles to Emma Stone for Squarespace and Guy Fieri for Bosch.

Mark Gross, cofounder of the ad agency Highdive, which has produced several Super Bowl campaigns over the years, said the Hollywood landscape had changed and that celebrities are now more open to appearing in commercials than in previous years.

"It's the job of us at ad agencies and marketers to tell great, original stories that stand out without just hiring the celebrity first and expecting that to do the work for you," he added.

Highdive worked on a Super Bowl commercial for Lay's this year.

Money talks

There's a lot at stake.

The Super Bowl remains one of the last mass-reach media advertising destinations. Last year's Super Bowl averaged a record-high US audience of 127.7 million viewers, per Nielsen, the TV ratings company.

The average price for 30 seconds of airtime during Super Bowl LX was $8 million, with some spots selling for more than $10 million, according to this year's big game broadcaster, NBCUniversal. Then there are the millions of dollars spent on talent fees, production, and media buys to amplify the ad after the game ends.

"CMOs are under so much pressure," said Kerry Benson, SVP of creative strategy at the data and analytics company Kantar.

"They have to prove ROI in these ads," she said, referring to return on investment.

The rewards can be handsome if brands play their Super Bowl strategies right.

In 2024, Kantar found that Super Bowl ads delivered an average return on investment of $8.60 for every $1 spent, making them 20 times more effective than regular TV ads. Benson said this reflects the size of the audience during the game and all the supporting activity and discussion around a Super Bowl campaign.

A different approach

Not every brand is adopting the comedy-and-celebrity playbook.

Toyota's "Superhero Belt" ad attempts to tug at the heartstrings, telling the story of a grandfather taking his grandson for a drive and showing their roles reversed decades later. Elsewhere, Hims & Hers' "Rich People Live Longer" spot strikes a provocative tone about US healthcare inequality, featuring a couple of characters that resemble Jeff Bezos and the biohacker Bryan Johnson.

"When you are challenging a system that has been broken for generations, the work cannot feel familiar or safe," said Hims & Hers chief design officer, Dan Kenger. "The creative has to feel disruptive because that's what is needed to change the status quo of healthcare."

Anselmo Ramos, creative chairman at the advertising agency GUT, is nostalgic for ads that didn't lean on celebrity as a shortcut to success — Apple's "1984," Budweiser's frogs, the Geico caveman, and the E-Trade baby. He's also hoping to see more bold, anthemic spots in the sea of comedic commercials.

"I'm missing executions with a brand purpose, with a clear point of view," Ramos said. "We need them more than ever."