As Super Bowl Sunday approaches, advertisers competing for attention during the game are not only betting on sports excitement but also on what the commercials themselves will reflect—AI advances, blockbuster celebrities and a heavy presence of health marketing. The Associated Press preview described how the contest for large audiences on NBC will play out across commercials that draw on pop culture familiarity and, in many cases, lighter themes.
NBC said it expects demand to stay elevated because major live sporting events are one of the few remaining platforms that can deliver a large audience in the fragmented media landscape. In 2025, the game drew a record 127.7 million U.S. viewers across television and streaming platforms, and NBC sold out of ad space for the Super Bowl portion of its sports portfolio in September, the preview said. Peter Lazarus, executive vice president for sports and Olympics advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, said the average price for a 30-second unit was about $8 million, while “a handful of spots sold for $10 million-plus,” calling February alongside the Super Bowl, Olympics and NBA All-Star Game “legendary February.”
Lazarus also said 40% of advertisers bought across NBCUniversal’s major sports properties, and 70% of Super Bowl advertisers also bought the Olympics. That overlap, combined with the concentration of viewers on a single broadcast day, helps explain why companies continue to treat Super Bowl ad spending as a brand-defining moment rather than routine promotion.
One of the clearest creative threads in the preview is the push to make artificial intelligence a headline. AI developer Anthropic is airing what the preview described as two commercials—one during the game and one pre-game—featuring a chatbot pitch in which the ad points to Claude not running ads. The preview said an in-game spot shows a person exercising who seeks chatbot help for a six-pack, but instead receives an ad, and the commercial does not name Anthropic. It also said that OpenAI’s Sam Altman responded in a social media post, saying he laughed at “funny” ads while blasting them as dishonest and implying that Anthropic’s smaller customer base is a factor in the competition, and that OpenAI will air an in-game ad that it is keeping under wraps.
Beyond the direct Anthropic–OpenAI contrast, the preview described additional AI-themed commercials from other companies. Amazon’s ad features Chris Hemsworth imagining ways the new Alexa+ chatbot can hurt him, Oakley Meta promotes AI-enabled glasses with action-filled spots featuring Spike Lee, Marshawn Lynch and others, and Google’s Super Bowl ad shows a mother and son imagining a new home with help from Google Photos and Google AI tools.
Celebrity appearances remain a core strategy, and the preview laid out a wide roster spanning sports, entertainment and high-recognition franchises. Fanatics Sportsbook plans to use Kendall Jenner, including a “Kardashian Kurse” concept in which bad things happen to basketball players she dates. The preview said Grubhub has an ad featuring George Clooney promoting an “Eat the Fees” deal on orders of $50 or more, while Sabrina Carpenter appears in a Pringles spot framed around trying to build the perfect man. Xfinity is reuniting Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum for a tongue-in-cheek “Jurassic Park” reimagining, and the preview said Uber Eats is returning for a second year with Matthew McConaughey featuring Bradley Cooper and Parker Posey in a conspiracy-themed pitch for ordering food.
Health and telehealth promotions also fill out the ad lineup, with the preview describing both pharmaceutical test campaigns and GLP-1 weight-loss messaging. Novartis is advertising a blood test for prostate cancer, and the preview said it uses the tagline “Relax your tight end,” built around football tight ends relaxing. Boehringer Ingelheim’s ad in the preview stars Octavia Spencer and Sofia Vergara and encourages people to screen for kidney disease. The preview also said Liquid I.V. has teased an ad about staying hydrated.
In telehealth and weight-loss marketing, the preview said Ro is using Serena Williams in ads for GLP-1 drugs, and Novo Nordisk will run a 90-second ad featuring Kenan Thompson and other stars showcasing the Wegovy weight-loss pill. It also said Hims & Hers advertises GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, with an approach that emphasizes access to healthcare that it says is usually reserved for wealthy people. Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University, said in the preview that the Super Bowl could be “the GLP-1 Super Bowl,” adding that pharmaceutical companies typically do not show up much on the event but that multiple are doing so this year.
The preview also said many advertisers are seeking an emotional counterweight in the tone of their commercials, with families, animals and wholesome storylines. Villanova’s Charles Taylor, a marketing professor, told the Associated Press that he expects brands to stick to a light and silly approach because of heavy recent news headlines, including conflicts abroad and an immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota. He said the “vast majority of brands will avoid any dark or divisive tone” and instead let consumers “escape from thinking about these troubled times,” and he later added that more ads this year openly focus on humanity and being humane to others than he has seen in prior Super Bowls.
Taylor pointed to a Ring ad as a good example, saying it brings attention to app users coming together as a community to help find lost dogs rather than focusing only on camera features. The preview also described heartwarming campaigns such as Budweiser’s 150th anniversary spot, which features a Clydesdale foal growing up with a bald eagle to “Free Bird,” and Lay’s ads that follow a father-daughter potato farming duo. It said Amazon’s Ring spot spotlights technology for locating missing dogs, Toyota’s ad shows a grandson and grandfather buckling up in different decades in a Toyota RAV4, and Dove presents girls celebrating body positivity.
While many Super Bowl advertisers release their commercials early to capture buzz, the preview also highlighted a few that held back until game day. Pepsi-owned soft drink Poppi teased a spot starring Charli XCX and Rachel Sennott, and Dunkin’ is returning Ben Affleck, with a teaser featuring 1990s sitcom legends Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc of “Friends,” and Jason Alexander from “Seinfeld.” The preview said fewer car advertisers are participating this year, but Cadillac is hinting it will show off its new Formula 1 car in an ad.