Advertising Age published the annual lengthy
examination of exclusivity in Super Bowl advertising, revealing campaign
creators are predominately White—a trend officially recorded since at least 2010.
For Super
Bowl advertising, systemic racism continues to reign as a perennial dynasty.
Super Bowl
ads retreat from diverse storytelling as brands pull back on inclusion
By Lindsay
Rittenhouse
At a time when
political tension around immigration in the U.S. is high, Super Bowl
advertisers are missing out on efforts to truly connect with diverse audiences,
industry experts said.
With some
notable exceptions, Hispanic representation is largely absent in Big Game spots
this year, according to diversity ad inclusion experts interviewed by Ad Age.
This is particularly disappointing, they said, given that Immigration and
Customs Enforcement’s targeting of the community has left them already feeling
isolated and vulnerable.
And the
exclusion is not limited to the Latino community. These experts cite a glaring
lack of diverse storytelling overall in Big Game ads, as creative featuring
white male stars and casts far outpace ads that spotlight minority or
multicultural groups.
For the fifth
consecutive year, Ad Age is evaluating how in-game advertisers prioritize
diversity and inclusion both on screen and behind the camera. But this list is
not comprehensive. That’s because voluntary participation in our survey, which
asks every Super Bowl advertiser how it approached diversity in casting and
production, has steadily declined amid larger cutbacks to diversity initiatives
in the industry. Last year’s survey yielded just 14 responses, out of the 58
brands with in-game spots.
So rather than
reach out to every advertiser in the coming game, Ad Age compiled this report
based on the limited information it had access to, including celebrity
appearances and directors, with the goal of spotlighting strong examples of
representation among this year’s Super Bowl ads.
Also new to the
report this year is a ranking from Havas evaluating how some in-game ads are
perceived by neurodiverse individuals.
With the cost
of a 30-second national Super Bowl LX spot reaching $8 million, brands must
prioritize diversity if they want to connect with younger viewers and an
increasingly global audience, the experts said.
“The real risk
for brands isn’t in taking a stand—it’s in ignoring the reality of the American
consumer,” said Myles Worthington, CEO and founder of agency Worthi.
Of the 71
celebrities appearing in the Super Bowl confirmed as of this writing, 22
identify as women and 49 as men. Only two celebrities (Andy Cohen, appearing in
Nerds’ Super Bowl ad, and Bowen Yang, in the Ritz commercial) are openly part
of the LGBTQ+ community. Only 27 celebrities are aged 50 or older.
Sofía Vergara,
starring in Boehringer Ingelheim’s in-game spot, is one of just five Hispanic
celebrities (alongside actors such as magician David Blaine, who appears in
YouTube TV’s spot, and Danny Trejo, who is in Novo Nordisk’s ad)—they
underscore a big gap in Hispanic representation. Six of the celebrities,
including Olympians Sunny Choi and Chloe Kim (who appear in the Michelob Ultra
and Oakley and Meta ads, respectively), are Asian American and Pacific
Islander, while only 12 celebrities are Black, such as Spike Lee (Oakley and
Meta) and Serena Williams (Ro). DJ Khaled, who appears in Novo Nordisk’s ad, is
Palestinian-American, and former ice hockey pro TJ Oshie, who appears in
Michelob Ultra’s in-game spot, is of Native American descent. The majority of
the celebrities—46 of 71—in spots released so far are white.
Based on those
numbers, the majority of brands in the Super Bowl have “decided to limit their
growth to just that segment, which is unfortunate,” said Lisette Arsuaga, the
co-president and co-CEO of DMI Consulting, a strategic marketing firm
specializing in diverse segments, and the co-founder of the Alliance for
Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM).
As of this
writing, Ad Age has confirmed only six of 31 directors behind this year’s Big
Game spots are people of color, including Rodrigo Saavedra (Toyota’s “Superhero
Belt”); Aiden Zamiri (Poppi); Taika Waititi (Pepsi Zero Sugar and Xfinity);
Felipe Lima (Him & Hers); and Brandon Pierce (who directed Dunkin’s ad
alongside Ben Affleck). Savannah Leaf, who directed Dove’s “The Game Is Ours,”
is the only Black woman directing a spot and the only female director of a
national in-game ad confirmed so far.
Marketing to
a global audience
While the ads
are not necessarily diverse, many experts praised the NFL for choosing Bad
Bunny as the performer of the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show. The Puerto
Rican reggaeton star, fresh off a big Grammys win, is also going to be a big
draw for global audiences. Fans are even calling this year’s Big Game “The
Benito Bowl,” a reference to the artist’s first name.
Worthington
pointed out that Bad Bunny was Spotify’s most-streamed global artist of 2025.
“Bad Bunny isn’t just counterculture; he is the culture,” he said.
While many
people still think of the Super Bowl as a purely American event, it is not. A
record 62.5 million viewers outside of the U.S. watched the 2024 Super Bowl—the
final international viewership total for the 2025 game has not yet been
confirmed by the NFL.
Despite this,
brands largely have not yet leaned into global advertising tactics in the Super
Bowl, said Kelsey Cross, president and co-founder of independent agency Tower
28, which might impact how the ad themes are perceived outside the U.S.
“Not enough
brands take into account the growing global viewers tuning into the Super
Bowl,” Cross said, noting that “Americana” themes such as Clydesdale horses and
beer will be isolated in some markets. “It’s an interesting space to be playing
in for brands, to be thinking of how [they] strike a responsible balance.”
NFL’s ‘You
Are Special’ spot
The NFL is
being lauded for its in-game cause spot—a 30-second version of a 60-second ad
that’s been airing since December, showing NFL players including Cam Heyward
and Christian McCaffrey singing Fred Rogers’ “You Are Special” with groups of
children. The spot was directed by Ben Quinn of the Los Angeles production
company Superprime, which is female-owned.
Arsuaga said
the spot continues the NFL’s mission of inclusion and promoting mentorship of
young kids, and showcases a diverse cast of children, highlighting their value
and importance.
She added that
it feels authentic because the NFL has carried out this mission on and off
screen, as its foundation supports various youth education, mentorship and
community programs.
Ensuring your
brand is taking actions off-screen that mirror your brand messaging is critical
at a time when consumers are much more aware of these efforts, and will call
marketers out for paying lip service.
“If your body
of work outside of the Super Bowl behaves in a certain way and you do something
completely different, people recognize that, and not necessarily in a good
way,” said Christine Guilfoyle, an executive VP at the Association of National
Advertisers and president of its SeeHer global initiative, dedicated to
championing the positive representation of women.
An NFL
spokesperson said the cast for the spot “consisted of 78 total talent,
including a diverse range of ethnicities, including Asian, Black, Latino and
white talent.” The kids are also actual members of the organizations
highlighted in the spot, including Harlem Children’s Zone, Boys and Girls Club
and Smash, according to the spokesperson.
“We were
mindful to ensure diversity across gender, race and those with disabilities,
featuring a young girl with Down Syndrome,” a spokesman said in a statement.
Dove’s ‘The
Game is Ours’
Arsuaga also
praised Dove’s “The Game Is Ours” ad, which continues to champion its mission
of keeping girls in sports.
Arsuaga said it
was particularly refreshing to see girls of all different sizes and shapes to
promote body positivity. She said Dove is “breaking the mold and the
stereotype” of a typical thin athlete.
A Dove
spokesperson said the brand not only worked with Leaf—the only confirmed Black
female director behind a Big Game ad this year—but also with cinematographer
Rodrigo Prieto and choreographer JaQuel Knight to shape the creative vision.
Its agency partner is WPP’s Ogilvy.
Toyota’s
‘Superhero Belt’
Although there
was not a big showing of AAPI representation in this year’s Super Bowl
advertising, an ad from Toyota stood out as an authentic tale that well
captured cultural nuances, several people interviewed said.
“Superhero
Belt,” one of two of the automaker’s in-game spots from Publicis agency Saatchi
& Saatchi, was directed by Rodrigo Saavedra, one of the few directors of
color behind Big Game spots this year.
The 30-second
spot flashes back to a grandfather as he convinces his grandson to put on his
seatbelt by referring to it as a “superhero belt.” The grandson mimics him 30
years later as an adult, telling his now elderly grandfather to buckle his
“superhero belt” in his 2026 RAV4.
The ad “did a
really good job” promoting Asian-American family values, in which the younger
character shows respect to his grandfather, Arsuaga said.
Guilfoyle also
praised the effort. “Automotive often is aspirational, and this just felt
gritty and real and everyday American,” she said. “And I loved that.”
Come Near’s
‘Is There More to Life than More?’
Come Near has
been one of the few Big Game advertisers that has consistently shared diversity
data across its casting and production teams over the past few years.
This year’s
in-game spot—“Is There More to Life Than More?”—takes aim at modern life’s
constant need to have “more” things. It shows a rapid-fire montage to visualize
mass consumerism and tech obsession, and then suggests Jesus can help people
find the true meaning of life.
It was created
by Hispanic-owned independent agency Lerma/ and directed by Salomon Ligthelm.
The production shop behind the effort was Prettybird, which was co-founded by
Kerstin Emhoff and Paul Hunter, who is a director of color, according to Come
Near.
Its cast in the
spot was 53% female and 46% male; 24% of actors were of multiple races; 21% of
actors were Black; 9% were Hispanic; 9% were Asian; and 3% were Middle Eastern,
Come Near reported.
The
organization noted that, true to the mission of the message, it did not use AI
in the making of the spot.
“Working on He
Gets Us felt deeply personal,” Ligthelm said in a statement. “It gave me space
to wrestle honestly with faith, doubt and the pressure of being human, and to
tell authentic stories that don’t preach or prescribe but invite all people to
feel seen and understood.”
Uber Eats ad
outperforms with neurodiverse viewers
For the first
time this year, Havas tapped into Neuroverse, its consultancy dedicated to
embedding neurodivergent talent into its creative process, in partnership with
AI company Vurvey Labs, to analyze a select group of Super Bowl ads. It
evaluated how accessible those ads actually are across different neurodivergent
identities, including autism, dyslexia and ADHD.
With nearly 50%
of Gen Z identifying as neurodivergent, according to Neuroverse, which
represents more than 1.7 billion consumers “who interpret content differently,”
the agency asked: “Is your creative connecting with them, overlooking them or
overwhelming them?”
The most
accessible ad, Neuroverse uncovered, was Uber Eats’ “Hungry For the Truth,” its
60-second spot in which Matthew McConaughey continues his conspiracy campaign
to convince Bradley Cooper that football was created to sell food. The ad
scored a 7.2 out of 10 for appealing to neurodivergent viewers, based on the
ranking.
“The narrative
was immediately clear and unfolded without abstraction,” the report stated.
“Familiar characters, a simple premise and visual and verbal cues reduced
cognitive load and reinforced comprehension rather than fragmenting attention.
This allowed viewers to focus on a single primary signal at a time, making the
experience comfortable to follow from start to finish.”
In contrast,
Instacart’s in-game spot with Ben Stiller and Benson Boone scored the lowest
with a 3.2 rating due to “rapid cuts, overlapping audio, flashing visuals and
constant motion, [which] made it difficult to establish a focal point, reducing
viewers’ ability to extract the brand message,” per the report shared with Ad
Age.
The takeaway
for brands: “Humor scales best when it’s anchored in simplicity. Clear
premises, controlled pacing and repetition can reduce cognitive load, making
comedy more accessible to a broader audience without dulling its impact,”
according to Neuroverse.
