Star power, AI jabs and Free Bird: Digiday’s guide to what was in and out at the Super Bowl

Now that the washing up’s done and the snacking detritus has been swept off the floor, it’s time to consider the real winners and losers of this year’s Super Bowl – the brands. (The Seattle Seahawks may have won the actual game, but it was far from an offensive juggernaut – you have to really like punts to have gotten something out of it.)

The creative strategies employed by advertisers, as well as the media plans they relied upon to multiply the effect of their $8 million dollar spots, offer hints about how advertisers aim to reach audiences throughout the rest of the year.

With mutli-million dollar price tags and a highly polarized cultural climate, brands found themselves walking a tight rope at this year’s Big Game. To avoid alienating consumers, brands intentionally avoided saying anything that might sound remotely political, preferring to stay in the safety zone.

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Media Buying Briefing: Why is Wall Street punishing Publicis – and maybe other holdcos?

Speak to any holding company leader and they’ll be the first to tell you they’re misunderstood. They feel maligned by all the independent agencies looking to poach their smaller clients who may feel overlooked or under appreciated. They feel the downward pressure on pricing from client-side procurement and finance folk, who see media spend as just a cost center, not a means to successful marketing.

Based on last week’s stock performance of arguably the most successful holding company out there — Publicis Groupe, which issued strong 2025 earnings as well as pretty bullish projections for 2026 — it seems Wall Street may not understand the value of a holding company anymore. And the truth is, if Publicis’ stock is going to get smacked around the way it did last week, then WPP, Omnicom and Dentsu should probably be even more worried, since their 2025 results are widely expected to fall short of the house of Sadoun.

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