With Andy Cohen's Help, Svedka Invites the Public to Make Its Next Super Bowl Ad

Last year's AI-generated effort was bashed by critics

Svedka Vodka made its Super Bowl debut last year with an AI-generated commercial—the game’s first ever. Titled “Shake Your Bots Off,” the ad showed the brand’s Fembot character dancing with a new robot dubbed Brobot.

Critics hated the work. “As with most things AI, our spot last year got a lot of people talking. Some could say it was polarizing, but it also sold a lot of vodka,” says Sazerac CMO Sara Saunders, looking on the bright side. Indeed, sales rose nearly 23 percent during the first half of 2026.

Now, the brand will try a new approach for another product, Svedka Vodka Water, challenging its fans of legal drinking age to make a commercial for the Super Bowl in 2027.

“The winner will get $500,000, in addition to a chance to show their work to more than 100 million live viewers during the big game,” Saunders says.

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Aspiring admakers can upload entries via the Svedka Vodka Water Big Game Contest site where they will find a brand toolkit, digital assets and rules for submissions. “It is possible that we’ll do a little tweaking in post production, such as adding an end card, or that we’ll just run it exactly as submitted,” Saunders says.

Not to bring up a sore point, but what if an entrant submits… an AI-generated ad?

“While entrants are welcome to use AI in their submissions, it is not required,” Saunders replies. “Svedka is open to creativity in all forms. Fans just need to follow the submission parameters they’ll access on the microsite when they enter.”

The brand will review submissions on a rolling basis. In addition to helping get the word out about the contest, Bravo’s Andy Cohen, who is known to knock back a drink or two while hosting New Year’s Eve Live on CNN with Anderson Cooper, is part of the judging team.

“Andy is the unofficial arbiter of entertainment. There’s nobody better at navigating hot takes and entertaining moments quite like him, as all Bravo fans know,” Saunders says. “We’re excited to have him on board and to help us pick the winning ad.”

Asked what Svedka learned from the critical response to last year’s ad, Saunders says, “We knew going in that people have very strong opinions about AI, so that part didn’t surprise us. What did we learn? That Super Bowl audiences are extremely engaged and that it is an amazing platform to get your brand or product in front of people. Which is why we’re back.”

Related: Svedka Unleashes AI Party-Bots for the Super Bowl