The Super Bowl ad market has gone nuclear: 30-second spots are now selling for eye-popping sums, and advertisers are responding with everything from absurd celebrity stunts to quiet, emotional work. This piece walks through the price surge and the big creative trends playing out in Super Bowl LX. Expect big names, bigger budgets and a strange mix of chaos and sincerity vying for attention.
Advertisers are reportedly paying up to $10 million for a 30-second Super Bowl slot, with average prices hovering near $8 million. That reality makes a single commercial more expensive than many entire marketing campaigns used to be. Buying a spot now is as much about claiming cultural space as it is about driving immediate sales.
The Super Bowl’s ad evolution tracks American TV history: humble, forgettable placements in 1967 have become must-see theatre. Commercials are appointment viewing rather than interruptions, and brands treat the Big Game as a stage to create moments people talk about. With audience numbers expected to stay high, the stakes for memorable creative are enormous.
Creatives this year are splitting into clear camps: self-aware comedy, over-the-top absurdity, emotional storytelling and wellness messaging. Some ads lean into celebrity chaos, others embrace simple sincerity, and a few try to fuse both. The result is a lineup that feels designed to spark conversation across social feeds and watercoolers alike.
Dunkin’ leans fully into meta absurdity with “Golden Cringe,” featuring Ben Affleck in a throwback VHS pitch and two mystery figures named “Jen and Matt.” The spot plays like an off-the-record brainstorming session gone public, with Affleck riffing on his long-running Dunkin’ obsession. He even jokes this could be the “pinnacle of all our careers.”
Bud Light’s “Keg” keeps the set piece simple and lets disaster fuel the laughs, opening with the question “Is there enough for everyone?” and a casual reply of “Oh, right there,” as a keg careens off into chaos. The scene swells with Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You and lands on the deadpan line “Heck of a wedding, huh?” before a sardonic “I give it a week.” That contrast—sentiment and slapstick—does the heavy lifting.
Kellogg’s leans nostalgic and silly with Will Shat, casting William Shatner as Raisin Bran’s improbable “bran ambassador.” He shows up to declare “It’s fiber time,” pops up in odd places and delivers bathroom-adjacent puns like “Is that dog a shih tzu?” The spot leans into Shatner’s deadpan to sell the everyday comfort of a breakfast staple, even as he mutters that he is “too old for this.”
Uber Eats takes a quieter, clever route in “Diner Menu,” where Parker Posey and Matthew McConaughey treat football jargon as breakfast items and accept that they’d eat some things “every morning and twice on Sunday.” The spot plays like a playful thought experiment, complete with a trivia gag that ends with the answer “Blueberry,” a self-aware “That was a bit of a reach,” and the zinger “Football is totally selling food.”
Rocket and Redfin opt for a softer tone with a black-and-white tease built around “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and Lady Gaga’s understated delivery. It trades spectacle for warmth and a familiar melody to underline themes of home and belonging. The subdued approach aims to make the Big Game feel like a moment to reflect, not just laugh.
Hellmann’s turns lunch into a musical in “Meal Diamond,” with Andy Samberg channeling a Neil Diamond parody and belting a mayo anthem titled “Sweet Sandwich Time.” He belts lines like “This is how I make friends” and even sings “I’ll squirt you while I am walking by” while Elle Fanning watches with a straight face. Their back-and-forth lands on the comic line “You are incredible,” answered with “Incredibly lonely,” which keeps the ad oddly charming and sticky.
Instacart goes retro with “Bananas,” pairing Ben Stiller and Benson Boone in ’80s Europop dueling to showcase a new Preference Picker feature. The spot, directed by Spike Jonze, turns grocery pickiness into theater and closes with the playful tagline “Bananas just how you like.” It’s a reminder that even small product upgrades can be sold with big showmanship.
Michelob ULTRA debuts “The ULTRA Instructor” with Kurt Russell and Lewis Pullman in a ski-coaching set piece that trades high-intensity training for beer-fueled camaraderie. Russell’s clipped “Again,” nods to sports-movie grit while the ad leans on Olympic and pro-sports cameos to tie beer to competition culture. It signals a blend of nostalgia and lifestyle positioning.
Ro brings healthcare to the Big Game with “Healthier on Ro,” featuring Serena Williams talking candidly about GLP-1 medications and saying, “I feel better now than I have in years.” The spot frames medication as part of broader health improvements rather than a quick fix, using a personal story to normalize treatment. That choice underlines how the Super Bowl is expanding beyond indulgence into wellness conversations.
Pepsi’s “The Choice,” directed by Taika Waititi, stages a blind taste test led by a cola-loving polar bear to dramatize the “Pepsi Paradox” and set the stage to declare “You deserve taste.” Set to “I Want to Break Free,” the ad turns cola rivalry into a whimsical identity moment and nudges viewers to rethink brand assumptions. It’s playful, musical and intentionally provocative.
The price tag for these spots is staggering, but the real gamble is creative: will any of these moments stick? With advertisers spending eight figures on attention, the Super Bowl has become a stage where risk and memory-making collide. Which ads feel worth the price will be decided by how often people still talk about them after the confetti clears.
