The 2026 Super Bowl will focus on a range of brands selling innovative products that are shaping American culture, covering several hot areas including artificial intelligence, wearable technology, weight loss drugs, and gambling.

Its core importance lies in the fact that, even with the current fragmented media landscape, the Super Bowl still holds irreplaceable value for brands – some brands' ad prices have even reached over $10 million for 30 seconds, setting a new historical high.

Looking at the overall landscape, Peter Lazarus, who oversees sports advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, pointed out that the strongest growth categories in the current advertising field mainly come from technology and artificial intelligence companies.

"You'll see a lot of AI units throughout our programming, and they're all very creative. Each unit talks about artificial intelligence in a slightly different way, and how it can improve your life and what it can do for you," Lazarus said in a media interview.

"Some of these companies you might hear about every day, and others, I think, will be new," he added.

Specifically, according to media analysis data, a total of 16 technology companies plan to run Super Bowl ads this year, including well-known companies such as Google, Amazon, Rippling, Wix, and Squarespace. This analysis only covers in-game ads that have been released or previewed as of February 5th, as well as national ads aired on linear television.

Anthropic has announced its first Super Bowl advertising campaign, which will include a 60-second pre-game ad and a 30-second in-game ad, while promising that Claude will not be advertised like OpenAI's ChatGPT.

OpenAI is expected to make another appearance in the Super Bowl advertising market this year, having launched its first television commercial during last year's event. Salesforce is collaborating with MrBeast on a Super Bowl commercial, with CEO Marc Benioff stating in an X post to MrBeast, "Let's create the craziest Salesforce-Slack co-branded commercial the world has ever seen."

Meta will air two 30-second commercials, focusing on its Oakley smart glasses, featuring notable figures such as running back Marshawn Lynch, filmmaker Spike Lee, golfer Akshay Bhatia, and skateboarder Sky Brown.

In the weight-loss drug sector, health startup Hims & Hers will return to the Super Bowl advertising lineup this year, while one of its competitors, Ro, will make its Super Bowl debut and has partnered with Serena Williams for a commercial.

In the gambling sector, Fanatics Sportsbook will debut its first Super Bowl commercial, starring Kendall Jenner; Colin Jost and Michael Che from Saturday Night Live will appear in a DraftKings commercial; and FanDuel's commercial will air before the game.

However, it's worth noting that, according to Front Office Sports, the NFL has reportedly banned prediction markets from advertising during this Super Bowl, a rule that will remain in effect for the 2025 season.

The reality is: the Super Bowl advertising lineup still heavily relies on traditional categories familiar to the general public, such as alcoholic beverages and snacks.

In addition to various brand commercials, major film studios are also expected to use the Super Bowl platform to promote new films, including Paramount Pictures' *Scream 7*, Lionsgate's *Michael*, Universal Pictures' *Super Mario Galaxy*, and Disney's *The Mandalorian* and *Grogu*.

Notably, advertisers are currently sticking to tried-and-tested creative themes, such as humor and celebrity endorsements. According to data from advertising technology company XR Extreme Reach, spending on celebrity-endorsed commercials will surge to $253 million between 2020 and 2025, with 61% of commercials featuring celebrities as the central focus, a phenomenon largely driven by the continued popularity of celebrity endorsements. However, Kerry Benson, Senior Vice President of Creative Strategy at Kantar, stated in a media interview that audiences now have higher expectations for Super Bowl commercials than ever before.

"The secret to a successful Super Bowl ad is: good storytelling, entertainment value, celebrity appeal, and humor," Benson said. "But simply stacking up celebrity appearances, as was done a few years ago, is no longer fresh. Celebrities attract attention, and creating humor is often part of their advertising strategy."

Martin Blich, Executive Director of Media at WPP and Head of Sports Investment and Partnerships in the US, also commented, "Humor is always popular."