This year’s Super Bowl will most likely exclude cryptocurrency-related advertisements, CNN reported on Feb. 2.
Paul Hardart, a clinical professor of marketing for New York University’s Stern School of Business, said audiences will likely see a “notable shift away” from tech-related advertisements, especially those featuring crypto and AI.
Hardart said in a statement to CNN:
“Given the current global uncertainties, including geopolitical conflicts and a polarized political climate … advertisers are leaning toward feel-good advertisements that are more focused on fun, humor and entertainment — aligning with the Super Bowl’s uplifting spirit.”
Crypto-related Super Bowl ads peaked in February 2022. The event followed Bitcoin’s all-time high in November 2021, and although the price of Bitcoin had fallen by February, FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com and eToro all ran ad spots, seemingly in an attempt to capitalize on earlier hype around prices.
That trend ended as suddenly as it began. The next Super Bowl in February 2023 featured no crypto ads. Reports at the time suggested three crypto companies planned to or had secured ad spots. Still, those advertisers ultimately backed out following the collapse of FTX months earlier in November.
This year’s most significant development — the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs — is a positive one. But although ads for crypto ETFs are attracting attention elsewhere, no asset managers have announced ads in the upcoming game.
At least two AI ads are planned
Hardart suggested that Super Bowl ads will turn away from AI this year. Despite that claim, Etsy plans to air an ad promoting its Gift Mode, a feature that uses AI and human curation to automate gift selection.
Google also stated that it will air an ad for its Pixel phone. That ad focuses on Pixel’s AI accessibility features for blind and vision-impaired users. However, the ad takes a narrative approach and doesn’t explicitly mention AI.
Previous years featured similarly few AI ads. Dialpad, which advertised its AI-powered customer intelligence platform in 2023, is one exception.
Greater hype exists around chatbots and general-use AI services such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. There is no sign that either company will advertise their product during this year’s Super Bowl event.