Ad Age is counting down to Super Bowl LIX. In the days leading up to the game, which will air on Fox on Feb. 9, Ad Age will bring you breaking news, analysis and first looks at the high-stakes Big Game commercials—all in our Super Bowl newsletter. Sign up right here to get them via email.
Super Bowl updates—Jesus returns, Dove gets emotional; plus, what’s with all the flying facial hair?
Almost halfway there
With the game just five days away, brands are releasing ads at a quickening pace—nine brands revealed spots today, meaning 25 in-game commercials have already debuted out of a total expected pool of about 60.
Nerds is back with its anthropomorphic gummy, which this year is accompanied by Shaboozey. Stella Artois cast David Beckham and Matt Damon as “twins.” And indie-darling Irish actor Barry Keoghan is featured in Squarespace’s ad. But the prize for the biggest celebrity cast goes to Uber Eats, whose spot includes appearances by Matthew McConaughey, Martha Stewart, Charli XCX, Kevin Bacon, Sean Evans and Greta Gerwig.
While celebrities are everywhere, some brands did go without them, including Dove, which made a 3-year-old girl the star of an ad that focuses on the obstacles to keeping girls in sports.
To keep track of all the advertisers running national spots in the game, bookmark Ad Age’s regularly updated Super Bowl ad chart. And for all the latest teasers, check out Ad Age’s Creativity’s daily roundups and sign up for the Creativity Weekly newsletter.
Hairy
The most unexpected 2025 Super Bowl creative trend? Flying facial hair. Little Caesars today revealed its ad that stars Eugene Levy, but mostly features his bushy eyebrows, which are shown flying off his face in response to his enjoyment of the chain’s Crazy Puffs. Pringles also got hairy with its spot, which shows mustaches flying off the faces of Nick Offerman, James Harden and Andy Reid. That Kansas City Chiefs coach also appears in Skechers’ Super Bowl ad, which was released today—his mustache is spared, with the ad instead joking about his side hustle as a hand model while promoting Skechers Hands Free Slip-Ins.
Jesus, Snoop and Tom
While the Saints did not make the New Orleans Super Bowl, Jesus did. “He Gets Us,” the campaign centered around rebranding Jesus for the contemporary world, is returning for its third straight game, according to Come Near, the non-profit that manages the effort. Ad Age’s Brian Bonilla has more on what to expect. Another non-profit appearing in the game is the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which this week revealed its Big Game campaign featuring Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady. It released a 30-second ad that will be broken into two 15-second spots.
AI is MIA
This will not be the AI Bowl, after all—at least not when it comes to an influx of AI-generated commercials. Ad Age’s Asa Hiken surveyed 39 Super Bowl and 31 said they did not use AI at all in their 2025 ads or declined to speak on the matter.
GoDaddy, Hims & Hers and MSC Cruises each used AI in the ideation phase of their Super Bowl spots, mostly for creating storyboards of early ideas, Hiken reports. GoDaddy used AI for the conception phase “because it can create imagery so fast and really tell a visual story,” Fara Howard, GoDaddy’s chief marketing officer, said today during Ad Age’s Super Bowl Playbook. But for the ad, which will promote GoDaddy’s Airo AI tool in a collab with Walton Goggins’ Goggle Glasses brand of eyewear, “we felt that story was best told in ways that [were] human created,” Howard said.
Doritos barred AI-generated content from being used in its Crash the Super Bowl contest. The winner was announced yesterday—an alien-themed spot called “Abduction.” During Ad Age’s Super Bowl playbook, Tina Mahal, senior VP of marketing at PepsiCo Foods North America, said the brand did not allow AI out of fairness, adding, “I’m glad that we did that because we got all this wonderful content and I think content these creators are very proud of because it game from them.”
Stay tuned
As the game draws near, Ad Age will continue delivering the latest breaking ad news, trends and analysis. Below, a sample of some of our other coverage this week:
Super Bowl 2025 FAQ for brands and agencies
Super Bowl influencer marketing strategies to know about
How Squarespace’s Super Bowl ad starring Barry Keoghan came together
Inside Coors Light’s Super Bowl ad as ‘Case of the Mondays’ campaign nears its finale
This week in Super Bowl history
Super Bowl XLI was played on this day in 2007 when the Colts beat the Bears in Miami. CBS had the game, charging nearly $2.4 million for a 30-second ad.
Ads included “Live the Flavor” from Doritos, the winner of its inaugural Crash the Super Bowl user-generated ad contest, which it brought back this year after a nine-year absence. The co-creator of “Live the Flavor” was then-21-year-old Dale Backus. He is now founder and CEO of Cary, North Carolina-based phone grip brand Ohsnap, whose hilarious campaign called “Get Grippy With It” last year won best work in Ad Age’s annual Breakout Brand awards.
For a complete look at Big Game commercial history, check out Ad Age’s Super Bowl ad archive.