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Every Super Bowl season feels like a referendum on American culture, and this year’s Big Game lineup of ads makes that clearer than ever as brands spend millions to shape what passes for mainstream taste. Networks and advertisers have staged an elaborate show of star power, nostalgia, and controversy timed for Super Bowl LX on February 8, 2026, when hundreds of millions will watch and judge whether Madison Avenue still gets it right.
Pepsi’s polar-bear spot directed by Taika Waititi is the kind of calculated, headline-grabbing stunt that proves advertisers know how to provoke conversation — by taking a swipe at Coca-Cola’s mascot and framing a blind taste test as a moment of identity. It’s clever marketing, and Americans should expect the cola wars to be fought on theater-level production values rather than on honest competition at the grocery store. Watching a corporation weaponize sentiment to manufacture cultural flashpoints is entertaining, but it’s also a reminder that brands choose the culture they serve.
Nostalgia sells, and Comcast Xfinity’s Jurassic Park reunion spot leverages that sentiment with Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum to sell broadband — a reminder that big business still banks on classic American entertainment to move product. The ad marries high-end filmmaking with safe, comforting callbacks to a time when Hollywood made spectacle rather than sermonizing, and audiences respond to that. There’s something wholesome about selling service through shared pop-culture memories rather than through political signaling.
Other ads lean into surreal, high-concept artistry — Ben Stiller in an Instacart spot directed by Spike Jonze is the kind of weird, witty commercial that proves creativity still has a role outside woke messaging. A number of critics and outlets have already lauded these pieces for their sheer craft; it’s clear some brands are spending on art to earn attention rather than on virtue to buy it. That contrast matters: consumers can smell contrived messaging, and creative storytelling still wins hearts and wallets.
Not every big-budget ad is harmless fun. Novo Nordisk’s star-studded spot promoting a Wegovy pill raises real questions about pharmaceutical marketing on the biggest stage in American television, and whether normalizing drug-based weight loss as entertainment crosses a line. Putting celebrities and jokes around prescription medications risks trivializing medical decisions while normalizing corporate narratives about health that may not reflect individual nuance. Americans deserve clear-eyed marketing — not glossy mass persuasion that reframes medicine as lifestyle convenience.
Meanwhile, smaller brands and cheeky campaigns — from Kinder Bueno’s out-there sci-fi spot to Dairy Queen’s playful “Taylor and Swift” stunt and Budweiser’s patriotic nods — show the spectrum of what advertisers think will land with viewers. Some of these play to nostalgia and humor, which should win broad appeal, while others trade on gimmicks. The marketplace of ideas in advertising is alive: brands that stick to entertaining viewers rather than lecturing them do better creatively and commercially.
The broader takeaway for citizens watching the Big Game is this: we should reward companies that respect common-sense values and genuine storytelling, and call out those that prefer culture-wrecking stunts or medical marketing masquerading as public service. Advertisers have enormous power to influence taste and thought; when they spend that power on profit-driven spectacle rather than honest entertainment, the cultural cost is real. Let the chips fall where they may: the American consumer still decides which messages survive the halftime show and which ones get booed off the field.
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