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This year, Super Bowl commercials will be full of famous names: the aforementioned Kendall Jenner for Fanatics Sportsbook, Sabrina Carpenter for Pringles and
Andy Samberg for Hellmann’s (see above). There’s a reason for that.
“Taking a side and making a big stand about what you stand for is very, very difficult at this moment,” said Sean McBride, chief creative officer at Arnold, a global ad agency. “We don’t quite know what to do. And so I think it seems like people have settled on, ‘OK, celebrity.’”
Traditionally, advertisers have settled on patriotism. But nothing’s really safe these days. It’s why Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said we might see more traditional ads: A bit of a blunt, “Hey, we make this great thing, you should buy it.” “We will see advertisers by and large stay very close to the product,” Calkins said. He said more than usual, we’re also seeing brands run commercials early, before the big events.
“If you have a problem in your Super Bowl ad it is much better to learn about it before the game rather than after the game when you just showed it to 100 million people or more,” Calkins said.
About 130 million people last year, actually — a record. Those viewers are why brands are paying
as much as $10 million for 30 seconds or air time this year. Ross Benes, a senior analyst at Emarketer, said as viewing habits have become more fragmented, live events have become more important for advertisers.
“Whether you’re watching in California or in New York or wherever you got everyone experiencing the same ad at the same time,” he said. Which is sort of the opposite of what most advertising is these days: tailored and targeted. | 
