AI transforms culture into a production shortcut: faster, cheaper and sometimes familiar. But the Super Bowl is one of the last places where brands are reminded that cultural similarity is easy but that shared experience is earned.
This year’s game made that distinction clearer than ever. The ads that got a real reaction weren’t the ones that leaned into the aesthetic of AI or winked at the technology itself. They are the ones who did something more old-fashioned: making people laugh, exalting feelings or touching an American collective that seems increasingly rare in the current climate. AI, meanwhile, appears less as a source of shared pleasure and more as a point of suspicion – a backdrop for conversation rather than the moment itself.
Technology was omnipresent in the ambient discourse, but not in the emotional meaning of the work. In fact, the term “AI” was mentioned 6,939 times in conversations related to Super Bowl ads, according to data from social analytics firm Sprout Social between Jan. 27 and Feb. 9, with viewers openly debating which spots seemed made by machines and what that meant for creativity.
Reactions to some AI brands have underlined this point. Anthropic’s ad received 41% positive sentiment and approximately 33,000 engagements on its Instagram post, with ChatGPT appearing 3,829 times as a related keyword. Similarly, OpenAI’s ad garnered 44% positive sentiment and around 1,600 engagements on Instagram, with Anthropic mentioned 3,738 times alongside it. It turns out that much of the conversation framed the ads through the rivalry sparked by Anthropic’s decision to mock OpenAI’s decision to introduce ads into ChatGPT. Viewers were analyzing the situation, not just reacting to it.
A technological effort has broken with this model. Oakley’s collaboration with Meta garnered 88% positive sentiment, according to the same data set, with creator iShowSpeed generating over 1,000 associated mentions. The ad traveled more as creator-led entertainment than a statement about AI. When technology receded and personality took over during commercials, the response heated up considerably.
The wider landscape seemed to confirm this. Pepsi generated more than 33,000 mentions, according to Sprout Social, making it one of the most talked about brands of the night. Its ad relied on one of the most recognizable advertising symbols: rival Coca-Cola’s polar bear. While there, the bear participates in Pepsi’s blind taste test, ultimately preferring Pepsi and even finding another fan. The idea was bold, but the mechanism was simple: make viewers feel like they were in on the joke. The humor was immediate, the reference widely understood, and the payoff required no explanation.
The way culture has shifted in gaming has reinforced this dynamic. According to analysis of Super Bowl ads by social intelligence firm Dig, 86.4% of content circulating during key moments came from users rather than brands, with 97,873 posts generating more than 501 million views two hours before kickoff and two hours after the final whistle. Dig also found that 92.4% of production-related posts favored traditional ads featuring real actors and celebrity-led narratives, reflecting a clear audience preference for human-made creations.
Its Impact Score – which combines sentiment and normalized engagement rate with the most weighted sentiment – crowned Poppi (8.51), Tree Hut (7.99) and Raisin Bran (7.21) as the best performers, while Meta topped the tech category. In the context of Dig, positive reaction matters more than raw volume, so it’s no surprise that these ads struck a chord: They hit all the usual Super Bowl ad triggers: zeitgeist-piercing celebrity (Poppi); a memorable creative idea (Tree Hut) and Raisin Bran nostalgia.
“AI may be the future of content production, but this year’s Super Bowl reminded us that it’s not the future of connection,” said Dig CEO Ofer Familier: “Viewers didn’t just prefer human-made ads. They demanded them. The message is clear. In moments that matter, authenticity trumps automation.”
Behavioral data confirmed this. According to EDO’s annual Super Bowl Results Ranking, which measures spikes in site visits and brand searches immediately after ads air, top performers looked at clarity, familiarity and tangible value. Ai.com‘s spot generated 9.1x the engagement of the Super Bowl media ad, Universal Pictures’ “Minions & Monsters” came in at 9.09x and Lay’s came in third with 7.1x, fueled by a free token offer. Dunkin’s nostalgia-filled “Good Will Dunkin” generated 5x the median engagement while Budweiser, Cadillac and Netflix also landed well above the midpoint. Even Wegovy topped the pharmacy 3.7 times. Conclusion of EDO; recognizable intellectual property, celebrity, nostalgia and simple offerings generated a measurable consumer response.
Notably, EDO found more ads there on the AI platform (seven) than traditional beer and auto ads combined (six) and most AI spots were still generated above the median results. But even there, success came from conducting superficial search behaviors (performance signals) rather than dominating the cultural conversation.
Taken together, the data shows a two-track Super Bowl. One avenue is cultural theater where humor, nostalgia and celebrity stimulate conversation and positive feelings. The other is performance, where clarity and usefulness drive a measurable response. AI brands are increasingly active in both areas, but they still struggle to own the former at scale.
This contrast reflects a growing tension in marketing. AI reduces the cost of creative production at the precise moment when emotional impact becomes harder to achieve. Familiarity is abundant. The shared experience is scary, which is why so many marketers seem to take more inspiration from the halftime show itself.
“I think we can all agree that culture won the Super Bowl,” said Leila Fataar, founder of brand consultancy Platform13. “Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio is not a global phenomenon because he followed the traditional musical playbook “soften your edges, make yourself palatable”. He remained rooted in Puerto Rico. He does not translate or sanitize. His language, his politics, his humor, his sound, his style – he keeps it all intact, especially now in the face of the current situation in the United States. And the world responded. This is power led by culture. The biggest lesson for the Brands: Culture-led brands don’t seek scale First, they create deep resonance, with real communities, rooted in lived context, first by adding value to that culture as it emerges.
