The Superbowl: 1) From Trump to Taylor: Six Super Bowl storylines Canadian marketers will be watching; 2) Aliens, sloths and silliness: Super Bowl ads offer laughs, celebs and surprises to win over viewers
1) From Trump to Taylor: Six Super Bowl storylines Canadian marketers will be watching
Mae Anderson
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
The Associated Press, by Canadian Press, Feb. 10, 2025
NEW YORK (AP) — Eugene Levy’s trademark eyebrows fly off for Little Caesars. A tongue dances to Shania Twain to promote Nestle’s Coffee Mate Cold Foam. And Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reunite at Katz’s Deli in an ad for Hellmann’s.
A frenzied mix of silliness and celebrities is hitting the airwaves and the internet, and that means one thing: it is Super Bowl ad time again.
Veteran advertisers are using tried-and-true tactics like celebrity cameos, humor and cute animals to win over watchers. Meanwhile, first-time and newer advertisers are courting outrageousness and using stunts to try to stand out in the battle to capture the attention of the more than 120 million viewers expected to tune into Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs on Fox.
Super Bowl viewers are a unique audience because they’re as primed to watch the ads as they are the game.
“This is a societal moment where we come together as a country,” said Kimberly Whitler, marketing professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. “We may be on different sides, you know, of the gridiron or the field. But we come together.”
With 80-plus ad spots divvied up among the 50-something advertisers during the game, it’s tough to make sure viewers remember your brand message. And with a few ad spots going for a record $8 million for 30 seconds this year, the stakes have never been higher.
But the price tag is worth it, advertisers say. Rachel Jaiven, head of Häagen-Dazs marketing, said the brand decided to make its first-ever appearance in the game due to the size of the viewership and its association with snacking.
“We know at the Super Bowl these days that everyone watches, it’s a wide audience,” Jaiven said. The brand’s ad shows stars from the “Fast & Furious” franchise enjoying an ice cream bar. “We thought it was time for us to tell our story, remind people what they love about Häagen-Dazs and of course, have them stock up on Häagen-Dazs in their freezer.”
In order to garner more publicity, many advertisers release their ads ahead of the game. Of the ads that have already been released, here’s a sampling of the approaches advertisers are taking during the big game this year.
CELEBRITY-PALOOZA
Hellmann’s ad made a splash ahead of the game by reuniting Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal’s “When Harry Met Sally” characters at Katz’s Deli enjoying a sandwich with Hellmann’s. Sydney Sweeney joins to utter the famous line “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth wear Ray-Ban Meta AI-powered glasses while looking at art. Hemsworth accidently eats a banana in an art piece worth $6.2 million, and Kris Jenner appears to scold them.
Actors Catherine O’Hara and Willem Dafoe star as pickleball players hustling younger players to win Michelob Ultras.
Soccer star David Beckham learns he has a twin named Dave Beckham who turns out to be Matt Damon. They don’t have much in common but both drink Stella Artois.
Matthew McConaughey explains a conspiracy theory that football was invented to sell food, with cameos by Martha Stewart, Greta Gerwig, Charli XCX, Kevin Bacon and YouTuber Sean Evans.
SILLY HUMOR
Adorable sloths undergo mishaps because they’re slow, like a kitchen fire and running into a glass door; they have a “Case of the Mondays,” like many people sluggish at work the day after the Super Bowl.
Actor Eugene Levy’s eyebrows fly off and fly around after he tries the pizza chain’s Crazy Puffs in what is strangely not the only ad with flying facial hair in it (see Pringles).
The first-time advertiser goes for silly humor in an ad that shows a man’s tongue dancing, and even doing a flip, to a song sung by Shania Twain to represent how good Nestle Coffee Mate Cold Foam tastes.
Actor Nick Offerman, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and L.A. Clippers’ James Harden watch their famous mustaches fly away to help deliver Pringles.
SERIOUS MESSAGES
Dove highlights the problem of low body confidence in young girls and depicts a young girl running down the sidewalk to H.E.R.’s version of “Born to Run.”
Foundation to Combat Antisemitism
Patriot owner Robert Kraft has an ad in the game for the second year in a row. Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady voice reasons why people hate each other in an effort to combat hate speech.
First-time advertiser Telehealth company Hims & Hers highlights the obesity epidemic and says weight loss drugs should be more affordable.
First-time advertiser Novartis is focusing on breast cancer awareness in its ad featuring Wanda Sykes and Hailee Steinfeld.
FIRST-TIME ADVERTISERS
The ice-cream brand reunites “Fast & Furious” stars Michelle Rodriguez, Vin Diesel and Ludacris, except this time, they’re going slow. They cruise down the Pacific Coast Highway in a Chevrolet Chevelle slowly so they can enjoy eating an ice cream bar.
First-timer Instacart joins DoorDash and Uber Eats and a battle between food delivery services during the game. Instacart loads up its ad with tons of brand characters it hopes viewers recognize: from Mountain Dew’s “PuppyMonkeyBaby” character from a 2016 Super Bowl ad to the Jolly Green Giant and the Pillsbury Doughboy. The characters represent all the things you can get delivered from the food delivery service.
In one of several ads featuring aliens, comedian Tim Robinson and actor Sam Richardson say goodbye to an alien who was living in their neighborhood. Cookware brand Hexclad and Doritos ads also feature aliens.
SURPRISES
Not all advertisers release their ads early, so there are always plenty of surprises on game day. Only two auto brands, Stellantis’ Jeep and Ram, have announced Super Bowl ad plans, but they haven’t given any details on the ads.
Dunkin’ has secured the first ad spot after kickoff but is staying mum on details other than teasing that it will star Ben and Casey Affleck and Jeremy Strong. Canned water company Liquid Death will advertise for the first time with an ad created in-house. Duracell has teased that its ad will feature a “Duracell Scientist” but hasn’t given any other details.
Ad experts think it is unlikely that an A.I.-generated ad will debut during advertising’s biggest night after Coca-Cola’s holiday ad created with the help of A.I. technology drew some backlash. But if one did debut, it would be sure to make a splash.
Feature image : Pringles 2025 Super Bowl NFL football spot. (Pringles via AP)
2) From Trump to Taylor: Six Super Bowl storylines Canadian marketers will be watching
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press
By Tara Deschamps, Feb. 8, 2025.
New England Patriots fans react while watching the first half of the NFL Super Bowl 53 football game at a bar in Boston, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Steven Senne
When Canadians tune into the Super Bowl on Sunday, there will be plenty of action on and off the field that marketers will have their eye on.
This year’s face-off between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has torn up the traditional political playbook.
Among other things, he’s used his first weeks in office to threaten tariffs against Canada and Mexico and attack diversity initiatives.
Marketing experts say nods to both could crop up in the onslaught of ads scheduled around the big game, pre- and after-shows and the Kendrick Lamar halftime performance.
Here’s what they’ll be watching for.
Buy Canadian
With Trump promising 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods in roughly a month’s time, Canada has been whipped into a frenzy. Shoppers are now frantically checking labels at grocery stores and other retailers, searching for ways to support homegrown brands.
Concordia University sports economist Moshe Lander expects hints of the tariff feud to spill over to the Super Bowl — if brands had enough time to tweak their ads, which are often completed months in advance.
“It might be just a line, it might be a voiceover or it might be just a subtle twist … to maybe capture the current sentiment,” he said.
“For anybody who could see that far out, they might even have been able to incorporate it without having to do any major reimagining of what they plan on running on Sunday.”
Among the ads that could be seen as a playful jab at the U.S. is one from Tim Hortons. The café chain teamed up with the family of the late Stompin’ Tom Connors to reimagine his beloved “the Hockey Song.”
The ad changes Connors’s lyrics to call football “the second-best game you can name.” The spot ends with the message, “Sorry, not sorry. We’re proudly Canadian.”
Hollywood meets home
Though U.S. ads are unlikely to make light of or even acknowledge the trade situation, Canadian stars will pop up in several of the spots.
An ad from pizza brand Little Caesars will see Eugene Levy’s bushy eyebrows fly off his face.
Canadian actress Catherine O’Hara will team up with Willem Dafoe to hustle younger players on a pickleball court for Michelob Ultras.
Even songstress Shania Twain will get in on the action, voicing a dancing tongue in an ad for Nestlé’s Coffee Mate Cold Foam.
Moshe sees such ads as an unintentional way to highlight how much value the U.S. derives from Canada.
Presidential presence
Trump is reportedly due to attend the game, making him the first sitting president to head for the Super Bowl stands.
His every move will be watched closely because what he does at the game and who he appears with will offer insight into what and who he values, said Cheri Bradish, a sports marketing professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“Who is he sitting with? And who wasn’t he sitting with?” she questioned. “Do they own a brand and what does that mean about those brand values?”
The scrutiny paid to him will also apply to a pre-taped interview airing during Fox’s Super Bowl pre-show, which Canadians are expected to listen to closely for any mention of tariffs or the country.
“I’d be disappointed if we weren’t watching it,” Lander said. “What do we accomplish by not informing ourselves of what our adversary has planned for us?”
Swiftonomics
Taylor Swift was in the stands last year to cheer on her boyfriend Travis Kelce, a Chiefs tight end.
With the team back at the big game, many predict the popstar will return as well, but will the bevy of fans who started following football because of the star also tune in? And will brands cater to them?
It’s a toss-up, said Lander, because some newer fans will be drawn in more by seeing her, but hardcore fans may be getting fed up.
The Swift narrative may also come across as tired.
“It’s not as fresh and new and the story is not as relevant in the marketplace to many people, but she undoubtedly has driven interest to the game, so it’ll be interesting,” Bradish said.
The end of ‘End Racism’
The Super Bowl end zones have been emblazoned with the “End Racism” slogan for the last several years, but this year they’ll carry a new message: “Choose Love.”
The switch comes as Trump has scraped all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the U.S. government.
While Super Bowl advertisers are no stranger to using social messages to sell products, Bradish has doubts about whether other companies will adopt the “End Racism” message in the NFL’s absence.
“I don’t know if a brand (will be) brave and big in that way,” she said.
AI vs. sports betting
Meta will use Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth to advertise AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses, while Salesforce will lean on Matthew McConaughey to highlight its AI agent, Agentforce.
Google, meanwhile, will have a spot with a guy using its AI tool Gemini to learn about football so he can impress his girlfriend’s family.
While the focus on AI will be obvious in the U.S. telecast, Lander said, “I don’t think that’s going to be part of what we’re trying to advertise.”
He expects gambling to be the bigger focus in Canada, where sports betting platform FanDuel is sponsoring Bell’s telecast.
Patricia is the Business Mentor and owner of Grow Vantage and a Past President of the Barrie Chamber of Commerce. She applies over 30 years of business experience (from start-up to corporate) to mentor entrepreneurs. Since 2011, she has held over 6,500 coaching and training sessions in-person and online. Through Ask For Directions Training, her entrepreneurial training program (and parent company Grow Vantage), and as a business coach, she works with start-ups who are new (or who have lost traction) to design, launch and grow their businesses. Along with 20 other expert instructors she teaches strategies in marketing, sales, communications, and finance, as well as practical techniques to increase productivity, and manage their businesses. In other words, everything entrepreneurs need to learn to grow and run their businesses successfully, and avoid the costly mistakes they can't even see coming - that lead to delays in growth and getting stuck.