I appreciate that there is no celebrity in it because I feel that lately it seems like people are really leaning on celebrity talent as a concept. Pete Davidson is in an ad, Michael Cera is in an ad selling CereVe. Martin Scorsese is going to be doing an ad for Squarespace. And I think there’s a fear that things won’t break through unless you have star power, just because everyone else will be doing so. Famous ads done in years past, like Monster.com and the E-Trade baby campaign, were funny and iconic and didn’t lean on celebrity talent. 

On the flip side, I love this year’s Paramount spot, which has a bunch of celebrities. You have Sir Patrick Stewart vying to throw [the cartoon character] Arnold over a cliff, which is just insane. I think the line, “Throw the child,” will absolutely be one of the takeaways at the end of Super Bowl night. They’ve been building this “Paramount Mountain universe” for a little while, and this one is my favorite version by far. 

BU Today: What kind of tone do advertisers seem to be trying to strike this year?

We’re not that far removed from [the pandemic in] 2021. I think we have fully dived back into humor as the prevailing trend. That said, I would expect a couple of classic heartstring moments on the actual Super Bowl evening. 

I think the norm now is waiting for who’s going to do, for lack of a better word, the “stunt” of the night, similar to previous ads by Coinbase and Miller. I think that [the stunt ad] of this year won’t be teased or released early because it would take the wind out of [the brand’s] sails.

BU Today: How do brands decide whether to release their ad early or save it for Super Bowl night?

I think that is a huge part of the conversation, because it’s sort of pro-con. The Super Bowl is one night; it’s a captive audience. It’s truly the only unified experience that we [the country] still have, just because everything—like streaming TV, music, and social media algorithms—is so catered. We’re never all tuned into the same thing. So I think there is a power in that, which is why people spend so much money on it. 

But I think clients still fear that if you don’t release an ad ahead of time, people won’t be looking for it, or paying attention. I just think there’s something about seeing it on the night, which is why I usually abstain from watching them ahead of time. Maybe this is a pretentious analogy, but it is almost like seeing a movie in a theater versus in your own home when you’re just passively scrolling. 

But yes, there is usually a conversation because people spend so much money on these ads—the media buy, the talent, the production—that they want to get as much traction on it as possible. 

The Paramount ad is a good example. They released a two-minute cut online, and that’s been taking off already. Surely it will be a maximum 30- or 60-second ad when it runs on TV. There’s a case to be made about releasing your two-minute version first because the storytelling gets fragmented when you chop it down. 

BU Today: Taylor Swift is famously dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and a marketing firm recently estimated that she has single-handedly “generated” $330 million worth of media exposure for the Chiefs and the NFL. Do you think brands will try to capitalize on her popularity because more women might watch the game knowing she’ll be in the stands? 

So, I think this is an interesting question. Before I was in advertising, I was a sportswriter and worked for the Bleacher Report. I’m an enormous football fan. And I always remind people that 50 percent of the NFL’s fans are women. And I think there’s been this double-edged sword with the Taylor Swift narrative for women. At the same time, when we’re saying, “Let’s welcome female fans,” it’s ignoring the fact that there’s already been an enormous number of female fans in the building.

I definitely would not be surprised to see brands trying to get in on that action. But I would more expect to see it as part of their [social media strategy].

BU Today: It’s interesting that even brands that don’t have a televised Super Bowl ad plan their social media strategy during the game.

It’s very hard to steal attention from the game, but there are definitely people who try to do it. If I were a betting woman, I would expect to see people try to do second-screen activations regarding Taylor. So, for instance, she’s flying in from [Tokyo the day of the game]. Let’s keep our eyes on some airlines’ Twitter accounts because the audience on social will probably be the most receptive to it. The thing about doing anything [during the televised game] is that many of these people had to have had these scripts written, shot, tested, and solidified even before the Chiefs seemed like they would have a shot in the Super Bowl. 

But I’m sure people were very busy last weekend doing some very last-minute Taylor Swift social media management planning, for sure.

BU Today: Anything else worth noting?

People ask if Super Bowl commercials help sell a lot of that brand’s products. But I don’t think that most people go into making Super Bowl work thinking that it is going to be, by itself, driving sales. It’s just inserting itself into the cultural canon. You’re trying to curry favor with the American public and get people to remember you at the end of the night.