Super Bowl LXI and the State of Advertising

I couldn’t help but notice the Super Bowl ads just felt empty. About 90% of the commercials had no real message, no creativity, and no connection to what people actually care about. Instead, ad agencies leaned hard on the easiest trick in the book: celebrities. And not just one or two—cameo after cameo after cameo. It was exhausting. And believe it or not there was a decrease in the reliance on celebrity appearances, dropping to 54% from 77% in 2023.

Here’s the problem: advertisers are making ads for other advertisers, not for regular people. They’re stuck in their own little world, trying to impress their industry peers instead of creating something that actually resonates with the average American. The culture has shifted—people don’t care about celebrities the way they used to. The ad world hasn’t caught up.

If you work in advertising, you have to have your finger on the pulse of real culture. Not just the culture of Hollywood. Not what’s trending in agency boardrooms. Real, everyday people. The ads that stood out to me this year were the ones that actually made me feel something…anything really:

Jeep hit the patriotic nerve and at least the celebrity appearance had a concept behind it.
Totino’s actually made me laugh.
Rocket.com made me care.

The takeaway? It’s time for the industry to step out of its bubble and start paying attention to what actually matters culturally.