Why Super Bowl Ads Are Acts of Rebellion

The Big Game shines as macro culture's last gem

First, a caveat: I don’t have a spot in the Big Game this year. So, I write this from the perspective of someone who simply spends a disproportionate amount of time obsessing over two things:

• Professional Football (my 4-13 Patriots have seen better days)
• Advertising

When I watch the Super Bowl in a group, I’m usually deputized the “ad guy” on-hand to provide some POV between mouthfuls of nachos. Fun to do that here, at scale.

I feel it’s expected, on a platform like this, to applaud the creativity that goes into the commercials. But to me, what’s more impressive is the ambition and resolve on the part of the clients.

It’s always been a big, honking deal to do a Super Bowl ad. But these days, it’s staggering. If only because it’s never been easier for clients to take a safer, more practical route.

The barriers to doing a brand TV commercial are historically low. You can shoot it digitally, do post-production in-house (heck, while we’re at it, let’s throw in an AI voiceover), fashion a laser-targeted media buy, and…boom. You’re on television, reaching your intended audience, with minimal bloat on the production or media sides. It’s a prudent, measured approach. Nearly impossible to argue.

Which makes doing mass-market, brand-level Super Bowl advertising feel like such an exciting act of rebellion.

LOGICAL BRAND APPROACH: Everything in marketing is trending toward hyper-targeting.

SUPER BOWL LOGIC: Let’s just talk to everyone, all at once. While they’re likely drinking. In a loud room.

LOGICAL BRAND APPROACH: Production budgets are tightening and CMOs are being asked to “do more with less.”

SUPER BOWL LOGIC: A friend of mine did a much-admired Super Bowl spot last year. The celebrity-driven campaign had a $7 million production budget. This year, the front runner for the Best Picture Oscar is an excellent film called Anora (with a running time of 2 hours and 19 minute— the length of 278 thirty-second commercials). Its budget was $6 million.

LOGICAL BRAND APPROACH: Let’s create a one-on-one customer relationship via performance media and have the immediate analytics to justify our marketing spend.

SUPER BOWL LOGIC: Let’s hope for “brand lift” or a respectable finish in one of the well-known Ad-Meters. We can post it on LinkedIn.

So, why does pervasive marketing logic seemingly fly out the window when the Super Bowl is involved? Because it’s Macroculture’s last stand.

Thirtty years ago—with top 40 radio, celebrity magazines and network TV—there were tons of things that tons of people liked. The Super Bowl was just one of them. There was commonality and “water cooler talk.” Culture was macro.

But now, culture is micro. We are all a specific algorithm. We can consume EXACTLY what we want, all the time.

Which is exciting and gratifying but also alienating. (I like rock music. But I’m currently realllly into melodic guitar bands from Australia with loud-soft dynamics like the Dune Rats, Tired Lion, Beddy Rays, Gang of Youths and Smith Street Band. Anyone but me heard of these bands? Anyone? Bueller?)

The NFL is a glaring exception to this trend, with 72 of the top 100 rated TV broadcasts in 2024—the Super Bowl ranked first by a large margin. In a world of personalized feedback loops, the game is a brand’s one remaining opportunity to go staggeringly macro. And say, “Hey everyone—brand aficionados, the uninitiated, the haters—this is what we’re about. Shoulder-to-shoulder with the biggest, loudest, most aggressive brands on the planet.” No preaching to an algorithmically pre-screened target audience. Just rollicking, unabashed, big-ticket mass marketing.

Given the pervasiveness of judicious, low stakes approaches available to advertisers these days, it takes more guts than ever to make that call. The marketing equivalent of the Saint’s onside kick to start the second half of Super Bowl XLIV.

Macro confidence. Macro swagger. Who doesn’t love a brand like that?