Advertisers pay up to $8 million for a 30-second Super Bowl area

American brands return to tradition, star and cheer

OpenAI and Perplexity profit from the Super Bowl to promote AI

By Dawn Chmielewski

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch InBev is bringing back its renowned workhorse Clydesdales for a Super Bowl advertisement that the developing company says celebrates the “grit and decision” of the American spirit.

The Budweiser business marks a return to custom, after a dreadful social media promo for its Bud Light brand morphomics.science name in 2023 including transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, stimulated require a boycott.

“We ´ re certainly seeing Budweiser play it safe this year,” said Charles R. Taylor, a marketing teacher at Villanova ´ s School of Business and author of a book about Super Bowl ads. “Everybody loves the Clydesdales.”

The return to safe, familiar and sentimental ground represents a pattern among some marketers for this year ´ s Super Bowl LIX, a rematch between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans. Brands are anticipated to lean on humor, celeb and warm references to America ´ s heartland, of the cultural zeitgeist.

For the very first time, OpenAI and Perplexity will seek to take advantage of the most significant televised occasion of the year, bringing artificial intelligence into the homes of millions of Americans.

“We ´ re all in this excellent, happy location, and wish to be entertained,” said Gartner expert Nicole Denman Greene. “So, to insert your brand name because minute of fandom … you need to provide imaginative that is resonant with that audience.”

Super Bowl advertisers are flashing serious star power, with an estimated two-thirds of the commercials including celebs.

Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reenact their popular deli scene from the 1989 romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally,” in a business for Hellmann ´ s mayonnaise that likewise consists of a quick appearance from “Euphoria ´ s “Sydney Sweeney. Willem Dafoe and Catherine O ´ Hara double-up on the pickleball court to hustle opponents out of their Michelob Ultra beers. Eugene Levy, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Post Malone, Vin Diesel and Kermit the Frog also appear in the 30-second areas.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is expected to air its very first commercial during the Super Bowl, bringing the race for expert system supremacy to America ´ s bars and living rooms. Meanwhile Perplexity AI is hosting a Super Bowl sweepstakes that offers a $1 million prize for asking concerns during the game.

Greene said AI companies are seizing on the Super Bowl ´ s reach to deal with consumer stress and anxiety about the fast-evolving innovation.

“All of the ads I have actually seen-- and I can’t wait to see all of the imaginative-- it’s more about making people see how they can be more efficient, and how their lives might be much better,” said Greene. “I don’t understand if that’s going to get rid of the worry, because, as people find out more about the capabilities, we’re seeing in the information, that they get less certain.”

This year ´ s video game will have less car commercials than in previous years. Stellantis is the only car manufacturer to reveal a Super Bowl advertisement, in which star Glen Powell delivers a humorously macho twist on the familiar “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” fairy tale.

Ads hawking beers and snacks return. They will share screen time with newbie venture capital-backed Liquid Death, the canned water brand that purchased its very first Big Game ad to promote its Killer Cola and Cherry Obituary.

So far, the most popular Super Bowl advertisement is the winner of Doritos ´ “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, depicting an alien kidnapping.

“It ´ s off the scale on amusing, on interest,” said Sean Muller, founder and chief executive of TV marketing measurement firm iSpot.TV. “People enjoy the advertisement.” (Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles