Super Bowl ad nauseam: Commercials lose viewer interest

Let's be honest: The Super Bowl is not just a football game — it's a major cultural event. The hype for the biggest Sunday in February is never just about the two teams playing. People anticipate the halftime performers and whip up snack recipes weeks in advance. Another aspect of the game that has become even more in-your-face in recent years has been the commercials.

The Super Bowl is one of the highest-profile TV nights of the year, with more than 100 million people tuning in. It makes sense that brands would jump at the opportunity to capture audience's attention with big-budget, eye-catching ads. But are these ads even effective at gaining more customers?

According to a 2023 study, the answer is yes, but it isn't an absolutely massive increase in consumer demand. Demand for the advertised products increased by approximately 6 percent among all Super Bowl viewers. This increase is noteworthy, but with a 30-second ad costing approximately $7 million, it doesn’t sound like a worthwhile investment.

What about the cultural impact of Super Bowl commercials? This is where things get a bit more complicated. 

In certain aspects, these ads have become their own genre of entertainment. Sites like USA Today and CBS News publish Super Bowl commercial rankings akin to the film and TV show rankings one might find on a site like IMDB. Advertisers have managed to  permanently connect “Super Bowl” and “commercial” with each other.

But with the rise of social media, these ads are no longer limited to premiering during the big game with many companies putting out the ads beforehand. This year, a Doritos ad featuring Jenna Ortega debuted days before. Another prominent ad, which marked a collaboration between Beyoncé and Verizon, was teased on social media in the days leading up to the event. 

Instead of the usual Super Bowl experience, where fans are shocked to see celebrity appearances on screen, everything has become predictable in the social media era.

While these ads have entertained audiences in the past, viewers are clearly getting tired of them, particularly younger ones. They've been primed to see these ads as marketing gimmicks rather than creative commercials.

A survey done by Integral Ad Science found that social media users are skeptical about the ads shown to them on different social media platforms. With that distrust already established, it makes sense that a social media ad-weary generation wouldn’t have the same fondness for Super Bowl commercials as past viewers did. 

Despite this skepticism, Super Bowl ads have certainly not died out as an integral aspect of the event. Beyoncé's Verizon ad has already amassed more than 400,000 views on YouTube, but this is clearly the exception.

The expensive price tag and the slowly waning interest viewers have in these commercials promises that the way that brands interact with the Super Bowl will change in the future.