Super Bowl the ads would aim to target a less traditional audience ahead of Sunday’s NFL title game.
Although the league championship game has often been associated with older men, major companies are using the game to reach both Gen Z and female viewers with their latest commercials.
“[I]If we had done something that didn’t speak to Gen Z or appeal to women, I think we would have missed the boat,” Laura Jones, Instacart’s chief marketing officer, says Variety Wednesday.
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Advertisements leading up to the Super Bowl hope to reach a wider audience. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images via Reuters/Reuters)
Super Bowl audiences hit record levels in 2025 with approximately 127.7 million people listening to the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.
This broke the previous record set a year before in 2024 to approximately 123.4 million viewers.
With more viewers than ever expected to watch the Big Game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, big companies are hoping to attract the widest possible audience, which includes a growing female population.
“We’re seeing female viewership in sports hold steady or continue to grow,” Diane Sayler, senior director of Mars Snacking, told Variety. “And I think the networks and the leagues are getting better at telling the story of the players and telling more than just the story on the field. And I actually think that’s what’s driving a lot more female interest in this area.”
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The 2025 Super Bowl saw record viewership and even more are expected in 2026. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Companies have attempted to bridge the age and gender gap using celebrity appearances, often partnering with multiple celebrities such as actor Ben Stiller and singer Benson Boone to attract a wider audience.
“Today, most marketing campaigns are very targeted. You have to deliver a specific message to specific audiences,” Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, told Variety. “With the Super Bowl, that’s not the case, because there are so many differences. And the Super Bowl is so expensive that you really don’t want to miss a significant portion of the audience.”
Media Research Center video host Justine Brooke Murray said Fox News Digital that the new marketing strategy was “perfect”, but urged companies to focus instead on avoiding divisive politics.
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Super Bowl LX will be broadcast on February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in California. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images via Reuters/Reuters)
“We want to be entertained, not sold some weird version of body positivity that includes commercials showing sweaty armpits on the screen while we reach for another nacho,” Murray said. “Those of us who grew up in the 2000s, the Zoomers, would like to see a return to ads that sell us things we really like: chips and cookies – not a political agenda.”
She added: “Big business has already learned its lesson that appealing to the 0.0001% of our population with men wearing bikinis is not inclusive to almost anyone. Just be funny and keep politics out of it!”
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Super Bowl LX will be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.