Ad Age is counting down to Super Bowl LVIII. In the weeks leading up to the game, which will air on CBS on Feb. 11, 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.

Calling an audible

The latest brand to confirm a Super Bowl ad is a surprise—Toyota today said it would be in the game promoting its 2024 Tacoma, just 10 days after saying it would sit it out. The reversal shows that the ad lineup remains fluid with the game still a little more than two weeks away. A Toyota spokesperson said the brand “realized that we had a creative execution that rises to the level of Super Bowl worthy.” While CBS owner Paramount announced the Super Bowl on CBS was “virtually” sold out in early November, media buyers have told Ad Age in recent days that a handful of slots remain.

Who else is in?

It was long expected that Anheuser-Busch InBev would return to the game, and we now know the brewer’s plans—one ad each for Bud Light, Michelob Ultra and Budweiser. Bud is bringing back the Clydesdales after the brand sat out last year’s game. While it’s debatable how much beer sales the Clydesdales drive, they have been successfully used as a corporate branding tool in many Super Bowls. Hard to hate on majestic scenes of horses hauling beer (America!). And the brewer could certainly use some consumer love right now as it continues to deal with the fallout from last year’s Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney drama. Meanwhile, soccer legend Lionel Messi will star in Ultra’s spot.

Bubly déjà vu

Other brands confirming ad buys this week include E-Trade, Booking.com and the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which will continue its #StandUpToJewishHate campaign with its first Super Bowl commercial. CeraVe has not officially confirmed its plans, but it sure seems like the brand is in, given how it has been building buzz with actor Michael Cera, who has been spotted carrying giant bags filled with CeraVe products and writing his name on bottles of the brand in drugstores. The brand has also sent packages of “Michael CeraVe” products to members of the media. The approach reminds us of how PepsiCo five years deployed singer Michael Bublé in a Super Bowl spot for sparkling water brand Bubly.

So far, only one brand has released its actual Super Bowl spot—Kawasaki, which is having fun with mullets and Steve “Stone Cold” Austin. The WWE legend teased the spot on Instagram, wearing a T-shirt with the language “Austin 2:11,” a nod to the Super Bowl date, but also his “Austin 3:16” catchphrase.

Teasers out this week include an extended movie trailer-esque one from FanDuel aptly named, well, “Trailer”—catch up on all of the ad news and watch the teasers here. 

Value play

“It’s a lot of money for one day.” That was how Hyundai Motor America Chief Marketing Officer Angela Zepeda described the automaker’s decision to again sit out the Super Bowl during an Ad Age interview this week. The brand has found success advertising during championship weekend instead—a tactic it will take this year with a Viking-themed spot for its 2024 Santa Fe SUV.  Zepeda said Hyundai pays about one-third of the cost of a Super Bowl ad, which is going for about $7 million for 30 seconds this year. Her agency partner, Jason Sperling, chief creative officer at Innocean USA, suggested the timing was right, given the ad will air during the Chiefs-Ravens game, which will surely draw plenty of Swifties. If the Chiefs lose, “you’re gonna lose the Taylor Swift effect in the Super Bowl,” Sperling said. So this weekend’s game is “a huge potential moment” to reach Swifties.

Speaking of Swifties, here’s a look from Ad Age on how Taylor Swift could impact Super Bowl advertising. 
 

Today in Super Bowl history

Super Bowl XXXI was played on this date in 1997. The Packers beat the Patriots at the Louisianna Superdome and advertisers included Holiday Inn, whose “Bob Johnson” spot from Fallon McElligott compared the hotel’s upgrades to gender affirmation surgery. It drew complaints from the likes of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Home Mission Board and Holiday Inn canceled plans to keep the ad in regular rotation. We wonder how the ad would be received today, given how transgender rights have become a political issue.