IT WAS MEANT TO BE A SHOWCASE OF TECHNOLOGY, BUT NOSTALGIA STOLE THE SHOW: WHAT DOES SUPER BOWL LX REVEAL ABOUT THE STATE OF MARKETING?

8. 2. 2026 Super Bowl LX is behind us. The evening at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara was once again more than just a sporting event—it turned into a media platform watched by over 124.9 million viewers in the U.S., peaking at 137.8 million during the second quarter, making it the second most-watched broadcast in American television history. This level of concentrated attention also underpins an astronomical advertising business. A 30-second slot cost around $8 million on average, with some premium placements exceeding $10 million, while total investment per commercial often ranged between $15 and $25 million. This year’s edition delivered the expected dominance of artificial intelligence and tech brands, but also a surprisingly strong return to emotion, nostalgia, and clearly defined values. What truly resonated in these ads—and what inspiration can be drawn from them—is illustrated in the following examples. Lay’s: Last Harvest One of this year’s most remarkable commercials felt, dramaturgically speaking, almost out of place at the Super Bowl. The chip brand Lay’s presented a short indie-style film about an aging farmer facing his final harvest. His daughter is taking over the farm, making it a story of generational transition. Even if it may not seem so at first glance, this was a very bold spot. Snack brands at the Super Bowl typically opt for humorous, celebrity-driven presentations. Here, however, we see an authentic story centred on emotion and a narrative of “real ingredients for real people.” Especially in a year dominated by highly hyped tech showcases, Lay’s offered a moment for genuine reflection and introspection. From the perspective of the evening’s overall structure, it was something of an anomaly—one that, nevertheless, received very positive reviews.

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS, RANKED BY VIEWERS

4. 2. 2026 The top 10 Super Bowl ads of the past five years and why they work, according to System1. Every year, about 60 brands spend millions—in 2026, up to $10 million— to advertise in the Super Bowl. They try to shock, delight, surprise, confuse, and inspire the upwards of 127 million-strong audience in the hopes that they’ll be remembered long after the Big Game ends.

STUDY: MANY NEW STREAMING SUBS DROP THE SERVICE AFTER NFL ENDS

15. 10. 2025 A new report from Samsung Ads provides some disturbing data for streaming services that have been spending massive amounts of money on their NFL and sports rights. The Samsung Ads’ Quarterly State of CTV Report found that while the number of new users to three apps that streamed live NFL football games grew by 28% over the 2024 regular season, 65% of those new users had churned out by March 2025, the month after the Super Bowl.

TV’S AD REACH CONSOLIDATES, AS SPEND AND AD MINUTES GROW

8. 10. 2025 Initial Q3 TV advertising data from iSpot reveals a landscape that’s steadying while consolidating itself around top networks and programming.

REPORT: THE ONLY THING BIGGER THAN NFL TV ADS ARE NFL STREAMING ADS

22. 8. 2025 New data from EDO finds that ads during football games on Peacock, Netflix, and Amazon last year were more effective than in-game linear.