Recent reports indicate that Americans are a bit worn out and looking for some respite from all the news, views, opinions and messages they’ve been inundated with recently — a tightly contested Presidential campaign, inflation, raging California wildfires and ongoing wars abroad, for example.

Super Bowl LIX to the rescue

Enter Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles and all the TV commercials that mean so much to an iconic sports and cultural event expected to draw roughly 110 million gameday viewers. And that doesn’t even account for all the consumers reached by merchandising these ads across social media platforms during the weeks before the game or leveraging those ads online during the game itself and for the many months that follow.

We need to remember that Super Bowl advertising is a high-stakes game for marketers, whether they are automotive companies, upstart digital social media platforms or consumer products giants selling food, beverages and snacks. Savvy marketers recognize the potential immediate and long-term buzz a standout commercial integrated with a strategic pre- and postgame online campaign can create.

We conducted our annual content analysis of this year’s Super Bowl advertisers and their ads to find out who is paying $7 million per 30-second spot (plus production costs) this year, what products or services they’re promoting and the specific messaging they are relying on to reach their target audiences. What we found was that advertisers are keenly tuned into the mood of consumers, what matters to them today and — importantly — what no longer appears to matter as much as it used to.

This year, we’ll see a return to what Super Bowl ads historically do best: making us laugh by telling great stories that generate wildly high demand for wings, pizza, chips and frosty cold beverages. Advertisers will also fuel our excitement for upcoming movie blockbusters with trailers for “Superman,” “Jurassic World Rebirth” and others.

Social responsibility takes a big step back

Social responsibility issues appear to have less appeal with advertisers than in previous years. Our content analysis of 2019 Super Bowl ads found that half of the top 10 commercials focused on social responsibility issues, including Microsoft’s “We All Win,” Verizon’s “First Responder,” Budweiser’s “Wind Never Felt Better ” Google’s “100 Billion Words” and Audi’s “Cashew.”

At the time, consumers trusted business more than government to tackle social issues, fueling the “Brands Taking Stands” era. Today’s more polarized society offers business leaders a less clear, less unified consensus as to what social issues are most important to an increasingly diverse population.

As a result, brands such as Target and Bud Light have struggled with forays into supporting social causes, pulling back dramatically from initiatives that once earned them accolades for being two of the most socially conscious consumer products companies.

Behind the scenes — facts and figures

How have some of the more recent political and societal changes affected Super Bowl advertising this year? Significantly, it turns out. Last year, the Big Four automakers — Ford, GM, Stellantis and Toyota — sat out the Super Bowl. Only KIA, BMW and VW ran ads, with both KIA and BMW promoting their electric vehicles (EVs).

But now the U.S. EV mandates requiring sales of EVs in the U.S. to reach 50% of all sales by 2030 are on hold, unwinding the previous pressure on auto companies to produce, market and sell EVs. That may be a welcome sign for automakers from a business perspective — reports are that Ford lost $130,000 on every EV sold in the first quarter of 2024. We suspect similar financial losses have been experienced from the disappointing sales of EVs logged by other major U.S. automakers.

As a result, automakers across the globe are sitting out the Super Bowl this year, with only Jeep and RAM (Stellantis) choosing to advertise during this year’s game. Stellantis experienced a 15% drop in U.S. sales in 2024. Its Global Chief Marketing Officer, Olivier Francois, believes in the “power of the Super Bowl” supporting previous ads featuring Bill Murray, Bruce Springsteen and Clint Eastwood.

Notably, State Farm has also opted out of the Super Bowl after the wildfire tragedies in California, choosing instead to focus on supporting customers affected by the devastation. Last year, State Farm aired one of the most popular ads, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. This year’s ads were set to reunite the pair as a follow-up to last year’s success, but the company shifted priorities to focus on relief efforts. We see that as a sound move.

First-time advertisers come for engagement

The Super Bowl has always been a great way to reach a mass market audience. Properly leveraged, a great commercial will be played, replayed, shared on social media and discussed for years. Consider the iconic E-Trade ad from 25 years ago featuring a dancing monkey: while it cost $2 million, it created lasting brand awareness in a highly competitive market.

Looking at 2025’s first-time Super Bowl advertisers, there is the traditional focus on food and beverage (Häagen-Dazs, Ritz and Coffee Mate) and services (MSC Cruises, NerdWallet and Instacart), as well as household names (Duracell and Bosch). Add to that advertisers that are coming back to the Super Bowl after a hiatus, including Totino’s Pizza Rolls, GoDaddy, Stella Artois and Taco Bell, and you can see that food and beverage companies have the mass market diversity that benefits from nearly 110 million viewers’ attention.

As we’ve seen in recent years, brands will capitalize on Super Bowl excitement through strategic social media marketing, enhancing their reach and engagement. Last year, more than 2.6 million social media posts were made about the Super Bowl from more than 500,000 accounts, according to Brandwatch.

Many companies complement their Super Bowl television ads with targeted social media posts and advertisements, creating a cohesive and integrated marketing approach — an effective strategy given that large numbers of viewers engage with their smartphones during the game. By leveraging social media platforms, brands can extend the impact of their Super Bowl campaigns, building a lasting connection with their audience.

For example, after a 10-year hiatus, Doritos brought back its Crash the Super Bowl campaign, a social media-driven competition that invites fans to create their own Doritos ad for a chance to air during the big game and win $1 million. Since September, Doritos has encouraged its millions of followers to submit entries.

Now, in the final weeks before the game, the company is urging its audience to vote for and share their favorite commercial on social media, building excitement leading up to the event. While a Super Bowl ad on its own can be nothing more than a flash in the pan, a well-thought-out campaign like Doritos transforms the ad into an ongoing conversation and a community brand experience.

Eat, drink and be merry

This year’s Super Bowl will be remembered for big-name celebrities (like David Beckham in Stella Artois’ ad and Doja Cat in Taco Bell’s ad), big budgets, cutting-edge production and archetypal commercial teasers that compete with movie trailers. And, don’t forget the actual Super Bowl movie trailers that typically deliver exceptional opening weekend numbers by teasing films months in advance.

The celebration in advertising departments and among internal marketing teams comes when an ad scores highly on USA TODAY’s Ad Meter and other polls, fueled by social media shares and continued buzz long after the game ends.

Maybe it’s time for all of us to take a deep breath, get together with family and friends, enjoy a great game with great ads, eat too many tortilla chips (4,000 tons) and guacamole (100 million pounds) and, perhaps, even enjoy a Bud Light. And if you overdo it, remember that antacid sales at 7-Eleven spike 20% the following day.

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O.C. Ferrell is the James T. Pursell Sr. Eminent Scholar in Ethics at Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business and former president of the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association.

Linda Ferrell is the Globe Life Professor of Marketing at Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business and serves on the board of the Responsible Research in Business and Management. Both are former presidents of the Academy of Marketing Science.