Seven million dollars for thirty seconds. That's what brands paid for a Super Bowl spot this year. And most of them used those thirty seconds to say absolutely nothing.
I hosted a Super Bowl ad watch party. Yes, I'm that person. I made scorecards. There were categories. My friends tolerate a lot from me.
When Apple removed the headphone jack, they weren't solving a design problem. They were making a statement about the future they intended to create. The backlash was predictable. The AirPods revenue was the plan.
Here's what I noticed: the ads that landed weren't the ones with the biggest celebrities or the most elaborate productions. They were the ones that had a clear point of view. A specific thing they wanted you to feel or think or do. The Farmer's Dog ad made people cry because it told a complete, emotionally coherent story about one dog's life. It wasn't clever. It was clear.
Meanwhile, half the crypto and tech ads felt like they'd been written by a committee that couldn't agree on a message, so they agreed on a celebrity instead. "We don't know what to say, but here's a famous person saying it." That's not strategy. That's panic in a tuxedo.
There's a disease in advertising right now that I'm calling Message Avoidance Disorder. Brands are so afraid of saying the wrong thing that they've stopped saying anything at all. They hide behind vibes. Behind aesthetics. Behind celebrities whose mere presence is supposed to transfer meaning through osmosis.
It doesn't work. It has never worked. People remember how you made them feel, yes, but feelings require content. You can't make someone feel something about nothing.
The best Super Bowl ads of all time, the ones we still reference, had a point of view. Apple's 1984 said "we're the rebels." Volkswagen's Darth Vader kid said "our car has cool technology, and also, kids are funny." They committed to a message.
Commitment is the thing brands are most afraid of right now. In a culture where everything gets screenshotted and discourse-ified, taking a clear position feels dangerous. But here's the paradox: saying nothing is more dangerous. Because nothing is forgettable. And forgettable is the one thing seven million dollars should never buy you.
My challenge to every brand spending big on awareness: before you cast the celebrity, before you hire the director, before you book the media buy, answer one question. What is the one thing you want people to think about you after seeing this? If you can't answer that in one sentence, you're not ready to spend the money.
My challenge to every brand spending big on awareness: before you cast the celebrity, before you hire the director, before you book the media buy, answer one question.
Clarity is the ultimate creative brief. And this year, most brands left it on the table.