AI as the creative
While a helpful force behind the scenes, AI is also a cultural phenomenon—making it a ripe theme for Super Bowl creative.
AKQA’s Missingham said ads are “going to [make] nods to it left and right,” on account of its status in pop culture being tantamount to an internet meme.
The degree of mainstream curiosity in AI was evident at the end of 2023, when numerous dictionaries selected AI-related terms as their words of the year. The Wikipedia page for ChatGPT was the website’s most-viewed entry last year, netting nearly 50 million visits, and AI was a consistently favorite topic of late-night talk shows like “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Fears around AI have cemented its place in the public consciousness. Deepfakes, such as the recent ones of Taylor Swift that spread like wildfire on X, have elicited condemnation from the White House, which issued an executive order on the subject last fall. And the potential of job replacement at the hands of automation is causing anxiety in workers across numerous industries.
Brands from Salesforce to Sephora and KitKat have already learned that whether they highlight the good or the bad of AI in their ads, merely giving it a shoutout is likely to catch attention. Dialpad, a customer intelligence company, aired a local ad chock-full of AI references during last year’s game.
This year already has a couple of confirmed spots around AI tools. Google is focusing its ad on the AI-powered camera assistant on Pixel 8, which has now been the subject of its last three Super Bowl appearances. Etsy will air an ad highlighting Gift Mode, a service that blends generative AI, machine learning and human curation to surface relevant gifts. The spot does not make any direct mention of AI technology, however.
Super Bowl creative always aims to be topical, said Missingham. Cultural touch points such as celebrities, the pandemic and cryptocurrency have manifested heavily in previous Super Bowl advertising.
But those looking to call 2024 the “AI Bowl”—as they did the “Crypto Bowl” in 2022—may want to refrain from doing so. The jocular title is a misrepresentation of the staying power that AI will have in society, said Missingham, and differs from the flash-in-the-pan status that many attribute to crypto.
Avocados From Mexico is not airing a Super Bowl spot this year, but its marketing stunt is an example of how brands could pair AI with relevant messaging around the game. An online generator from the brand takes inputs from users and creates personalized guacamole recipes, which can be both practical and humorous. AI-generated images of these creations are also provided, increasing the effort’s chances of becoming a moment worth sharing on social media.
“Integrating our brand with the cultural trends around us … gives us an opportunity to continue building our brand and growing awareness in a way that excites and engages consumers,” said Alvaro Luque, president and CEO of Avocados From Mexico.
The fruit marketer last year had plans to embed its official spot with a QR code linked to ChatGPT, which would generate a tweet for the user, before scrapping the idea. But the QR approach could still make for a viable AI activation for a brand airing an ad during this year’s game, said James Young, executive VP and head of digital production for BBDO, North America.
Read: Avocados From Mexico’s AI-generated guacamole recipes
There’s always social media
While generative AI may not be ready for primetime, brands will likely deploy the technology in social media campaigns around the Super Bowl, according to Amy Luca, head of social at Media.Monks. The agency is working with two brands on commercials for the game.
BetOnline, a web-based gambling company, will recreate scenes of Super Bowl 2024 using Midjourney, including AI-generated roster photos for players, images of Allegiant Stadium and portraits of notable “Super Bowl characters” such as Taylor Swift, a spokesperson told Ad Age. It will post these creations on its social accounts leading up to the game.