Super Bowl tech ad roundup: Al can kill you — or help you find your lost dog
Remember when the Clydesdales were a big deal, or just saying “wassup” to your friends on the phone was funny? Well, the world of AI now.
Artificial intelligence is taking over Super Bowl LX commercials just as technology is taking over our lives. And that’s a good thing if your dog is lost. Or worse if you’re confused about Alexa bringing the garage door to your neck.
Amazon and Ring, the security camera company that owns it, offered a few AI ideas in ads that aired on Sunday. Ring’s ad about how its “Search Party” feature can help bring back lost pets is currently the No. 1 pregame ad according to iSpot, a Bellevue, Wash.-based company that measures the impact of television and video advertising campaigns.
But it’s not all AI and technology: Budweiser, Pepsi and Michelob hold the other top spots so far, according to iSpot. Ad fans can also see tons of ads and measure themselves with USA Today’s annual “Ad Meter.”
Here’s a quick roundup of some tech ads that caught our eye:
Amazon
- Product: Alexa+
- Star power: Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth
- Tone: Hemsworth is worried about having Alexa in his house and tells his wife how AI can kill you in a million different ways. But Alexa’s suggestion at the end of the cinnamon rub helps him change his mind.
Call it
- Product: The ring’s “Search Party” camera feature
- Star power: The founder of the ring is Jamie Siminoff
- Tone: The Amazon-owned security camera company knows the power of the dog trade, especially a stray dog. The AI seems better than the flyer on the pole when the girl is searching for her dog, Milo.
IT-Mobile
- Product: T-Mobile wireless network
- Star power: Back Boys
- Tone: The boy band is all grown up and singing about the benefits of T-Mobile — it’s their song “I Want It That Way.” The people at the T-Mobile store in New York seemed happy to be back.
Redfin / Rocket
- Product: Redfin real estate services
- Star power: Lady Gaga (singing)
- Tone: Movement is difficult. Being a good neighbor is important. The first Super Bowl ad from Seattle-based Redfin features a tear-jerking version of the Mister Rogers classic “You’ll Never Be My Neighbor” at a time in America when neighborly behavior would go a long way.
Anthropic
- Product: Claude
- Star power: there is none
- Tone: Your AI agent is very helpful — until ads get in the way. The site takes a dig at OpenAI’s ad testing system for its ChatGPT chatbot. Anthropic says its Claude bot will never have ads — except for the Super Bowl?
Meta
- Product: Oakley Meta smart glasses
- Star power: Marshawn Lynch and others
- Tone: “Hey Meta, play my Animal Mode playlist,” Seahawks great Marshawn Lynch commands his AI-powered sunglasses before jumping out of the plane. I wish he had them during “The Quake of the Beast.”
Comcast Xfinity
- Product: Xfinity Wi-Fi
- Star power: Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum
- Tone: “Jurassic Park” could be a lot more fun if security systems stayed online. Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler and Dr. Ian Malcom enjoys an alternate timeline where dinosaur nightmares don’t happen.
- Product: Gemini
- Star power: Randy Newman (singing)
- Tone: AI helps a mother and her young son visualize how they will make a new home their own. More and more people seem to be moving to advertising this year, and AI is packing its bags to keep up with it.
