Digital Agency Blog
Beyond the Game: The Advertising Trends That Won Super Bowl LX
The Super Bowl has always been more than just a football game. It’s one of the few moments each year when advertising becomes a shared cultural experience, where brands aren’t just selling products but competing for attention, emotion, and conversation as viewer habits continue to evolve. This year’s commercials reflected that shift by blending classic storytelling with modern technology, humor, and interactive engagement.
From heartfelt narratives to celebrity-driven pop culture moments and AI-powered innovation, here’s a look at the themes that defined the night.
What defined Super Bowl LX ads
Emotional storytelling
Pop-culture humor
Celebrity as catalyst
Approachable AI
Interactive engagement
Emotional storytelling stole the show
Some of the most impactful Super Bowl LX ads leaned into storytelling that felt deeply human, cutting through the noise with emotion and authenticity.
Lay’s told a multigenerational story about a father and daughter running a potato farm, switching between childhood memories and the present as she takes over the family business. The ad wasn’t selling chips so much as it was selling legacy and authenticity, reinforcing Lay’s as a brand rooted in real people and real places. It’s the kind of storytelling that builds long-term brand equity, not just short-term buzz.
Budweiser stayed true to its Super Bowl identity with a Clydesdales spot featuring a young colt and a baby eagle. The story leaned into Americana and heritage, culminating in a powerful moment of friendship, freedom, and flight. With familiar imagery and a cinematic tone, the brand wasn’t trying to reinvent itself. It was reinforcing consistency and trust, reminding audiences why Budweiser remains a cultural staple.
The NFL’s very own “Champion” ad hit emotionally with a side-by-side pep talk between a coach and his team and a child with his toys. The message went beyond football, positioning sports as a source of confidence, community, and aspiration. It reinforced the NFL’s role as more than entertainment, and it strengthened the league’s broader narrative that being a champion is about character, not just winning.
This year’s emotional ads leaned into legacy, connection, and what the brand represents beyond the product. Together, these ads showed that emotional storytelling remains one of the most powerful ways to create lasting brand impressions.
Comedy tapped into the moment
Humor will never be absent from Super Bowl ads, but how it shows up depends on the pop culture moments of the year. Brands leaned into jokes that felt instantly familiar, creating conversations that continued long after the Seahawks were celebrating their win.
Pepsi leaned into a “betrayal” theme by featuring a blind taste test with Coke’s iconic polar bear mascot, who ultimately choose Pepsi Zero Sugar. The ad continued with the theme by referencing a pop culture moment from 2025: the viral Coldplay kiss cam. Instead of embarrassment, the bears owned the moment while drinking Pepsi, turning a familiar meme into a light-hearted, shareable moment.
State Farm continued to hit the mark with humor in its “Halfway There” insurance campaign, starring Danny McBride, Keegan-Michael Key, and Hailee Steinfeld. Using “Livin’ on a Prayer” as a comedic anchor, the ad delivered a catchy, music-driven concept that stayed true to the brand’s voice and tone. It’s the kind of humor that doesn’t just land in the moment but reinforces what the brand stands for.
Dunkin’ leaned fully into cultural familiarity with its sitcom-inspired spot, blending celebrity appearances with a throwback tone that felt intentionally over-the-top. The ad played on audience recognition, making it instantly meme-able and highly shareable. Blending nostalgic vibes with modern coffee culture, the star-studded cast and quirky storytelling gave viewers something fun to talk and laugh about long after the game.
Humor is a Super Bowl staple, but the way it lands shifts with the pop culture moments that define the year. These ads didn’t just aim for laughs during the broadcast; they were built to live on through replays, memes, and post-game chatter.
Celebrities as brand catalysts
Celebrities were everywhere this year, and while some cameos felt ornamental, the brands that stood out used star power to lean into iconic personas and amplify the humor.
Bosch turned celebrity casting into a clever brand mechanic by using Guy Fieri as a living, breathing “upgrade”. The ad starts with a regular guy doing everyday things, but once Bosch products enter the scene, he transforms into “Guy”—an epic version of himself. It uses Fieri’s iconic persona as a visual shorthand for “cool”, turning the product into the catalyst for the transformation. In other words, Bosch isn’t just borrowing star power, but using it to reinforce the idea that its tools make the ordinary extraordinary.
Fanatics Sportsbook leaned into the “Kardashian curse” with a wink and a smile, turning a familiar celebrity rumor into the punchline. By placing Kendall at the center of a sports-betting ad, Fanatics is intentionally playing on the joke and inviting the audience to join in and bet with her. The result is a self-aware spot that uses cultural commentary to create instant recognition while also making the brand feel confident enough to poke fun at the phenomenon.
Bud Light used celebrity energy to fuel chaos and comedy in a wedding keg chase, with familiar faces like Shane Gillis and Post Malone heightening the absurdity. The spot wasn’t about star power alone; it used recognizable personalities to create a shared entertainment moment that felt more like a sketch than a commercial.
Some brands leaned into nostalgia, pairing familiar faces with throwback themes that resonated across generations. Instacart blended retro style with modern relevance by pairing Ben Stiller with rising star Benson Boone in a concert-style performance. Boone’s signature flips set the stage, and Stiller’s competitive response to outdo him drove the “bananas” message home. The ad used celebrity pairing as a strategy to reach multiple audiences at once while keeping the comedy front and center.
Across the board, these ads showed how celebrities can amplify humor and pop culture moments by leaning into their iconic personalities and backgrounds.
Approachable AI
Artificial intelligence was one of the most prominent themes of this year’s Super Bowl advertising, signaling how central the technology has become across industries. Instead of selling futuristic hype, brands focused on making AI feel approachable, useful, and human.
The Alexa+ ad featuring Chris Hemsworth played with the cultural anxiety around AI by exaggerating the idea of a takeover and turning it into comedic scenarios. The humor made the concept feel less threatening, and the ending positioned Alexa+ as helpful and approachable rather than intimidating. The ad addressed a real consumer fear and flipped it into a friendly, human moment.
Gemini took a practical, human-first approach by showing AI in a real-life context: home buying and visualization. The ad demonstrated how AI can help people make decisions, plan spaces, and see possibilities before they happen. Rather than selling futuristic tech, it positioned AI as a useful tool that simplifies a real-world process, using emotional storytelling and human connection to make the concept feel grounded and relatable.
Together, these ads reflected a broader shift in how brands talk about AI—not as a distant future—but as a present-day tool integrated into everyday life.
Interactive ads beyond the screen
One of the most interesting evolutions this year was the rise of interactive Super Bowl advertising. These campaigns were designed to continue well beyond the 30-second spot. Brands used the broadcast as a launchpad, turning viewers into participants.
Salesforce stood out with MrBeast’s game-show style challenge, offering viewers $1 million if they could find the hidden message in the ad and scan the QR code at the end. The spot didn’t just ask for attention—it rewarded engagement, turning a commercial into a real-time event and extending the brand’s reach far beyond the broadcast.
Coinbase took a simpler approach and stood out from other Super Bowls ads with a karaoke-style spot that invited viewers to sing along. The interactive element was less about a contest and more about participation, making the ad feel like a shared moment rather than a one-way message.
These interactive efforts highlighted how brands are rethinking what a Super Bowl ad can be—not just a moment, but an experience.
The trends we’re taking with us
This year’s Super Bowl ads showed that while tactics continue to evolve, the fundamentals remain strong. Emotional storytelling created connection, humor and pop culture fueled conversation, celebrities amplified impact, AI showcased innovation, and interactive campaigns invited audiences to engage on a deeper level.
At FabCom, we’re watching these trends closely because they’re not just Super Bowl commercials, but clues about where advertising is headed. As a leading Scottsdale advertising agency, we’re always thinking about how to turn big ideas into campaigns that connect, engage, and stick.
The brands that stood out this year struck a balance between familiarity and experimentation, creating moments people wanted to share and talk about long after the game ended. That’s the kind of work we strive for every day and the kind of results we help our clients achieve: brands that aren’t just seen, but remembered.