In a world of fractured audiences, the Super Bowl is still the one moment advertising truly owns the culture. It’s not about the media buy, it’s about mass attention, shared impact, and brand fame you can’t manufacture anywhere else, writes Fractional CMO and former Brand Director for Molson Coors, Lee Willett.

In his 2026 book Football, author and pop-culture essayist Chuck Klosterman argues that American football is not merely a sport, but the most dominant television show of all time. He highlights that in 2023, 93 of the top 100 most-watched television broadcasts in the United States were NFL games.

That single fact explains why the Super Bowl remains culturally unmatched.

In an era of infinite content, fragmented audiences and skip buttons baked into everything, the Super Bowl is the last genuinely mass cultural moment in America. One game. One night. One shared experience.

There is no real European equivalent. Even the World Cup, the closest comparison, only reaches that scale when the home nation is playing and is every 4 years. The Super Bowl does it every year, regardless of teams, because it has become something larger than sport.

I’ve been watching Super Bowls since 1984 - the year a single advert changed the rules. When Apple aired 1984, directed by Ridley Scott, it didn’t just launch a product. It transformed advertising into culture. From that moment on, Super Bowl ads weren’t interruptions they were events.

But this status wasn’t inevitable. In the 1980s, the entertainment was deliberately safe. Barry Manilow sang the national anthem. Halftime shows revolved around marching bands and Disney characters. It was spectacle, but not dominance.

The shift came in 1991. As the US entered the Gulf War, Whitney Houston’s national anthem became a moment of collective emotion - reassurance, unity, identity. It revealed what the Super Bowl truly is to America: not just entertainment, but an emotional checkpoint.

Two years later, Michael Jackson turned halftime from filler into headline. This century, artists like U2, The Rolling Stones and Beyonce cemented the Super Bowl as the biggest live entertainment platform on the planet.

As the entertainment escalated, so did expectations. Brands were no longer competing with other commercials; they were competing with culture itself.

That context matters - especially when analysing this year’s advertising. Mark Ritson has argued that Super Bowl ads are anomalies: 60 seconds, watched with intent rather than avoidance. They are not representative of how most advertising is consumed.

But that’s precisely the point. The Super Bowl doesn’t reveal universal advertising truths - it reveals cultural truths. It shows us what brands choose to say when everyone is watching.

 This year, four clear signals emerged.

 1. From Convenience to Conscience: Surveillance Goes Mainstream

Smart technology advertising crossed a subtle line this year. Ring played surveillance for good, presenting constant monitoring as a great way to find lost dogs. The benefit landed - but so did the implication of what they were saying.

That tension was knowingly punctured by Amazon Alexa’s spot featuring Chris Hemsworth, which openly mocked the creepiness of devices that listen too closely.

 The cultural signal isn’t fear. It’s acceptance. Surveillance is now normal enough to be joked about on the biggest stage in America. Which quietly raises the question brands can no longer dodge: when you hold this much data, what responsibility comes with it?

 2. Reassurance Over Aspiration: Brands as Emotional Anchors

The loudest ads weren’t necessarily the most effective. One of the most resonant spots came from Lay’s, which leaned into warmth, memory and human connection rather than spectacle or innovation. (All with a John Lewis style, Keane music vibes)

In a fatigued cultural climate, reassurance has become a premium currency. The Super Bowl amplifies this instinct because it still functions as a shared emotional moment.

 3. Cultural Shortcuts Beat Cleverness

 The clearest example of cultural intelligence came from Xfinity’s Jurassic Park reunion. No over-explaining. No conceptual gymnastics. Just instant recognition and some fun. (it also made me flinch as I thought about the cost and the sign off process…)

On a truly mass stage, familiarity isn’t laziness it’s efficiency. When everyone is watching, clarity beats cleverness. The ad succeeded because it respected attention rather than demanding more of it. And a load of celebrities were sprinkled into other adverts to take advantage of this.

4. Designed for Replay, Not Just Broadcast

Finally, the smartest brands treated the Super Bowl not as a one-night event, but as an ignition point. Pepsi and Coca-Cola leaned into recognisable assets and repeatable moments designed to travel beyond the broadcast into social feeds and cultural conversation.

The Super Bowl remains the world’s biggest advertising stage not just because of the size of audience, but because it’s meaningful. It is one of the few moments where brands don’t just buy attention they borrow a place in culture.

This year’s ads show that success on this stage now demands more than creativity or budget. Brands are being judged on cultural awareness: how they handle trust, emotion, familiarity and attention itself.

 In a world of fragmented media, the Super Bowl still offers something rare a shared moment. The brands that succeed are the ones that understand what that moment means, not just how much it costs ($10m for a 30 seconds – since you asked…..).