Ben Stiller and Benson Boone make for an interesting pair. Are they fascinating enough to grab the attention of what will likely be one of the biggest TV audiences of all time in Super Bowl LX?
Instacart bets they will. Stiller is known for years of playing offbeat characters in movies including “Dodgeball,” “There’s Something About Mary” and “Greenberg.” Boone is a hit with a younger crowd that likes his soaring songs and on-stage flips. They will costar in the delivery service’s offbeat new Super Bowl commercial, which will air when the Seattle Seahawks play the New England Patriots on NBC February 8. And their combination is no accident.
“We wanted a broad reach, and sometimes that’s harder with celebrities” because audiences have split around dozens of different ways to watch TV favorites, says Laura Jones, chief marketing officer of Instacart. The company believes it will need both. Stiller plays across different age groups, she says, while Boone is “very much the like Gen Z poster child and so in the zeitgeist right now.”
Super Bowl advertisers have always taken big swings, tapping hot celebrities, pop culture surprises and outlandish jokes in a bid to gain traction with an audience that now totals more than 120 million each year. In 2026, however, they are left scrambling, because sports crowds have become so big and broad that there may be no one single way to catch the attention of everyone who has tuned in to watch. As TV networks become increasingly reliant on the NFL and other leagues to fill hours on their schedules, advertisers need to be cognizant not only of the traditional sports crowd, but also more female consumers and younger customers too — all of whom have different interests and different ways of engaging with advertising.
The audience for such stuff is “shifting to one that’s maybe not just about sports,” says Mark Kirkham, chief marketing officer for Pepsi’s U.S. beverages business, which is running two ads in Super Bowl LX — for so-called “better for you” beverages with fewer calories. “I think we’ve seen this across sports, but I think the NFL has really embraced it.”
With more sports in primetime, the networks and leagues have tried to add new elements that have little to do with the games at hand. NBC tapped Snoop Dogg and Alex Cooper, for example, to help bring younger fans to its mammoth telecast around the 2024 Paris Olympics. Stanley Tucci, the actor who has gained traction with shows that take viewers on a tour of cuisine in Italy, will be on hand during NBC’s 2026 Winter Olympics work from Milan.
What that means is the Super Bowl is increasingly being viewed by audiences who typically weren’t as significant for the more than half century the event has been a TV mainstay. Instacart wants to reach all consumers, says Jones, but “if we had made something that didn’t speak to Gen Z or didn’t appeal to women, I think we would have been missing the mark.”
Advertisers may have to step more carefully as they enter the Big Game. The Super Bowl brings with it massive attention, viral pass-along on social media, and clicks, views and likes. Yet the event can also be one of the riskiest maneuvers on Madison Avenue. A single misstep can offend or alienate some portion of the crowd, leading to recriminations and outrage. Over the years, Super Bowl advertisers have had to apologize for everything from a racist depiction of an African runner (a spot from Just for Feet in 1999) to the inclusion of a suicidal robot (a General Motors ad in 2007). In 2021, Jeep pulled a well-regarded Super Bowl commercial starring none other than Bruce Springsteen following a revelation after the game that the musician had been charged with a DWI months earlier. Springsteen was eventually cleared of the charges, spurring thoughts the automaker might have moved too quickly.
Advertisers now must navigate between the tactics they know win over big crowds and the techniques they need to use to lure important niches. “It’s getting harder and harder to succeed in the Super Bowl” for advertisers, says Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, who has long studied Super Bowl commercials . The cost of buying ad time has grown exponentially, with NBC seeking from $7 million to more than $10 million for 30 seconds of ad time in its February 8 telecast of Super Bowl LX. “The expectations are high and the crowds have become bigger and bigger,” Calkins says.
An influx of women into sports programming can’t be dismissed, says Diane Sayler, who oversees marketing for salty snacks for Mars, including Pringles, which will put Sabrina Carpenter at the center of its Super Bowl commercial in 2026. “We are seeing female viewership in sports hold or continue to rise,” she says. “And I do think that networks and leagues are getting better at telling the story of the players. and telling more than just the story on the field. And I actually believe that is what is driving a lot more female interest in this space.” She believers the audience is changing and “expanding, not just for Super Bowl, but for sports in general.”
One way to ensure that no one feels left out is to use larger groups of celebrities. Mondelez International’s Ritz crackers has tapped Bowen Yang, Jon Hamm and Scarlett Johansson to grab viewers’ attention, while Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light rounded up Shane Gills, Post Malone and Peyton Manning.
In years past, one famous face might have done the job. “Partnering with multiple celebrities, especially with an ensemble or a cameo, gives ads an opportunity to hit the broader group,” says Brett Duchon, an agent at UTA who specializes in celebrity endorsements and voiceovers.
New crowds flocking to the Super Bowl give advertisers hope that they can promote some things the audience might not have been interested in not too long ago. Among them: taking more control over health information and remedies. Telehealth provider Ro will feature Serena Williams telling viewers how using GLP-1 helped her weight, blood sugar levels and even the stress on her knee. Hims & Hers will tout cutting-edge therapies like GLP-1 microdosing and easy cancer-detections tests. Unilever’s Liquid I.V. will focus on staying hydrated. Pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim has enlisted Sofia Vergara and Octavia Spencer to encourage viewers to take a health screening that might reveal early signs of kidney damage.
“I don’t want to say cool, but it’s in the conversation that people want to eat healthy and live longer,” says Dan Kenger, chief design officer at Hims & Hers. “People are very welcoming of it. A lot of brands out there want to attach themselves to that movement, to what’s happening in culture.”
The new tactics and products might alienate more traditional viewers, who tend to expect commercials for candy, beer, snacks and movies. Those will all be in abundance. But it’s the non-traditional that often captures extra attention.
Can Madison Avenue accommodate a fork in the road? Such a task is difficult, particularly in an era when interactive streaming has given rise to placing commercials more precisely in front of audiences defined by algorithms tied to geography, income or attitude. “Most marketing today is very targeted. You have to deliver a specific message to specific audiences,” says Calkins, the marketing professor. “With the Super Bowl, that’s not the case, because you’ve got a huge range of differences. And the Super Bowl is so expensive you really don’t want to miss out on a significant portion of the audience.”
Source: variety.com
