Super Bowl LIX commercials heavy on humor, celebs, nostalgia, but lighter on cars

The Super Bowl LIX ad deluge has arrived, with just over 30 commercials released by Wednesday, or close to half the total for Sunday's game.

As usual, the watchwords are "humor," "celebrities" and to a lesser degree "nostalgia," but expect some surprises too. A big one so far: There could be fewer automotive commercials this Sunday than any other Super Bowl in decades. By Wednesday, only Stellantis-owned Jeep and Ram had booked time on Sunday's four-hour telecast on Fox.

"You're seeing a shift from the old guard into a new normal for the Super Bowl," says Tyler Bobin, senior brand analyst for Bellevue, Washington-based iSpot, a company that measures ad effectiveness and other traits. He says automobiles once represented nearly 40% of all Super Bowl ads, but "what's happening now is that a lot of advertisers are pushing near-term purchasing, or micro-transactions, and I think it's going to keep trending that way."

This means a secondary deluge of junk food ads, or — more charitably — fast-food and comfort food ones, for ice cream (Häagen-Dazs), chips (Pringles, Lays), candy (Nerds, Reese's) and food delivery services (DoorDash, Instacart, Uber Eats). Notably — or tellingly — a weight-loss drug (San Francisco-based telehealth company Hims & Hers) is also advertising in Sunday's game.

By midweek, Fox had sold out commercial inventory at over $7 million per spot, with some going for as much as $8 million, a Super Bowl record, according to trade reports. (For some perspective, Super Bowl I ads in 1967 went for around $40,000.)

"The rate jumped from $7 to 8 million and when you're shelling out that kind of money, you better have some kind of idea that you'll get a return on the investment," Charles R. Taylor, professor of marketing at the Villanova School of Business, says. "Most car companies have other media alternatives that are more cost-efficient."

By contrast, he says, the other Super Bowl advertisers have loaded up on celebrities "because it lowers risks, and those companies with mass audiences tend to have multiple celebrities in the same ad who appeal to different generations — Martha Stewart, Charli XCX and Matthew McConaughey in Uber Eats comes to mind."

Here are some standout commercials so far:

HELLMANN'S

For its fifth consecutive Super Bowl appearance, the mayonnaise brand has paired Billy Crystal with Meg Ryan who reprise that particularly memorable Katz's Delicatessen scene from "When Harry Met Sally ..." which turned 35 last summer. This one lands squarely on those key watchwords — humor, nostalgia and multigenerational celebs (Sydney Sweeney also stars.)

UBER EATS

Bobin says 70% of all Super Bowl ads now have celebrities and humor and this UberEats release is the perfect example. (Matthew McConaughey teases a conspiracy theory that the Super Bowl is really a big plot to get people to eat — and he may be on to something.) Other multi-celeb ads this year include Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Kris Jenner (Meta), Catherine O'Hara, Willem Dafoe (Michelob Ultra), Adam Brody, Nick Offerman and James Harden (Pringles).

HIMS AND HERS

This 60-second ad for the weight-loss drug, airing the third quarter, could put a damper on the dozens airing before: "Obesity is America's deadliest epidemic," it begins, then launches into the litany of whys, concluding: "the system was built to keep us sick and stuck ..." Novartis and Dove ads will also focus on health.

ANGEL SOFT

This Super Bowl first-timer, a Georgia-Pacific toilet paper brand, has drawn some industry attention for a commercial (airing just before halftime) that will encourage millions of bathroom breaks. How? That's the mystery because this one reportedly won't be released in advance. Other newcomers include Duracell, Häagen-Dazs and water brands Cirkul and Liquid Death.

BOOKING.COM

This commercial starring the Muppets has achieved what few other  advance releases have so far — buzz — with just over 29 million views on YouTube since last week. Even with the celeb crush, most of the other ads aren't even close. Why? Maybe all these stars and attempts at humor are "wearing" on people, Villanova's Taylor says.