Richard Lawler
Pokémon 30.
This Super Bowl ad pulls together a grab bag of global celebrities (Lady Gaga, Trevor Noah, Jisoo, Charles Leclerc, Lamine Yamal, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Young Miko) to ask which one is their favorite.
Richard Lawler
Senior News Editor
Senior News Editor
More From Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Mr. Beast and Rainbolt pop up with Super Bowl ad contests.
Redfin is doing a geoguessing-themed game of skill to give away a million-dollar house in its app, based on clues found in its Super Bowl ad, and Rainbolt is part of the promo — but he’s not allowed to help, based on the rules here.
Meanwhile, Salesforce’s Mr. Beast ad promises a million-dollar giveaway based on the clues in its 30-second ad.
Richard Lawler
T-Mobile and Coinbase’s Super Bowl ads used the Backstreet Boys in very different ways.
And neither one had noticeable AI. T-Mobile brought the actual Backstreet Boys in, while Coinbase broke things up with a weird karaoke-style presentation of “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” to highlight its crypto exchange without actually mentioning crypto.
Richard Lawler
Pepsi snags the polar bear for an apparently AI-free ad.
After so many people hated Coke’s AI holiday ad, Pepsi’s Taika Waititi-directed Super Bowl ad looks like standard CG, as a bear chooses Pepsi over Coke in a blind taste test.
Pepsi exec Gustavo Reyna told AdWeek that it focused on human touch because “f there’s something we care about and we believe in, it’s in the craft and the creativity of our people, our talent, and our partners.”
Richard Lawler
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad has a change that made it less directly about OpenAI and ChatGPT.
The round of Big Game ads Anthropic previewed earlier this week set Sam Altman off, as he called them “clearly dishonest.”
Now, while the original ad says, “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude,” nodding to OpenAI’s plans, the one that aired replaced it with a new tagline: “There is a time and place for ads. Your conversations with AI should not be one of them.”
Richard Lawler
OpenAI’s Super Bowl ad claims “You can just build things” with Codex.
As OpenAI and Anthropic feud over AI advertising, both companies are running Super Bowl ads for their AI products. After OpenAI boss Sam Altman said its ad would focus on “builders,” OpenAI debuted this ad about its AI coding agent, Codex.
ChatGPT is much more well-known, but enterprise use of tools like Codex is probably where OpenAI’s money is.
Richard Lawler
Pixar previews Hoppers.
Just before kickoff, Disney and Pixar previewed their next CG family flick, Hoppers. As we’ve heard and seen in a teaser trailer, this one follows a world where people put their minds into 3D-printed versions of animals to try and live among them. It’s coming to theaters on March 6th, although the YouTube description mentions an early viewing window on February 28th.
Richard Lawler
SpaceX brings Starlink to the Super Bowl broadcast.
The first Super Bowl ad from SpaceX apparently didn’t have enough time left in production to mention its newly-joined X / xAI elements, but it is promoting the idea of global satellite internet.
Richard Lawler
Giannis Antetokounmpo claims “We all on Kalshi now.”
First, no, we’re not, and second, I’d be happier if he said he was joining the Celtics than joining the prediction markets mess, as the still-on-the-Bucks superstar says he’s “joining Kalshi as a shareholder.”
Is this better or worse than the days when every athlete was pitching an NFT scheme/scam?
Image: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Richard Lawler
Trump deletes racist Obama clip from his Truth Social account and blames anonymous staffer.
A clip that put Barack and Michelle Obama’s faces on the bodies of apes appeared on the president’s Truth Social account for about 12 hours before it was deleted, but not before press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the post, saying it was simply “an internet meme.”
An unattributed statement from the White House published by Variety said “a staffer had erroneously made the post and that it has been taken down.” It’s an excuse Trump has used before.
Trump Deletes Racist Video of Obamas After Outcry
[New York Times]