Super Bowl: Bad Bunny, the ads and everything but the football - live

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Alaina Demopoulos

AI vs AI

Ooh, the tech oligarchs are fighting! Ads are coming to ChatGPT – and its rival company Anthropic took the time to remind us that “Claude will remain ad-free”. Let’s see how well this ages.

Share

Alaina Demopoulos

Serena Williams wants you thinner

No plot, story or special effects to speak of: the telehealth company must have spent all their money on Serena Williams. As far as Super Bowl commercials go, this Ro one is pretty straightforward.

Share

Benjamin Lee

The Mandalorian and Grogu

Disney’s Star Wars strategy – decrease quality of movies, increase amount of TV shows – hasn’t really been paying off all that well, Andor aside. While there is a fanbase for The Mandalorian and his little baby Yoda friend, it remains to be seen if a big enough audience is excited enough to see this as something other than an extended episode of something they’re used to watching on their smartphone. I do appreciate a specially made, or at least freshly packaged, big game teaser though, not purely reliant on the same cocktail of clips, more of that please studios.

Share

Updated at 19.05 EST

Benjamin Lee

The Michelobs are on Lewis Pullman

Nepo baby Lewis Pullman (son of Bill) meets father of Nepo baby Kurt Russell (dad of Wyatt) for an ad to celebrate the importance of being a cheapskate. Lewis must learn how to ski better to prevent paying for the beers being drunk by his far more accomplished Olympian friends Chloe Kim and TJ Oshie. Whatever it takes!

Share

Alaina Demopoulos

Ben Stiller gets out-flipped

Ben Stiller and Benson Boone? Sure, why not. Zoolander stars alongside everyone’s favorite back-flipping Mormon as the two act as 1980s pop stars performing a song about the grocery delivery app. But when Boone starts with the acrobatics – and why wouldn’t he? – Stiller cannot keep up. Cue a very Stiller-esque meltdown that involves the comedian failing backflips from unnervingly increasing heights. For such a random pairing, the two leads do have some sort of chemistry going on.

Share

Adrian Horton

Hailee Steinfeld needs a lift

Hailee Steinfeld’s husband (Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen) may not have made it to the big game this year, but the Sinners actor did – for a spot with State Farm, where she has to endure Keegan-Michael Key’s off-key cover of Livin’ On a Prayer (he’s an off-brand insurance broker, you see), until she’s rescued by none other than Patriots fan Jon Bon Jovi himself.

Share

Updated at 18.55 EST

Dani Anguiano

It was a lively crowded scene outside Levi’s Stadium, where a handful of protesters had gathered ahead of the largest sporting event of the year.

Santa Clara county had been on edge in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl amid reports that ICE agents would be conducting immigration operations during the game.

The NFL announced this week that there was no planned ICE activity during the game and the governor said his office had also received a similar confirmation. But officials had been prepared for either outcome, and the area’s congressman Ro Khanna said he would be outside the stadium on Sunday to make sure ICE does not “harass a single American or immigrant”.

“ICE stay out of my district on Super Bowl Sunday.”

Outside one stadium entrance on Sunday, dozens of onlookers gathered to take in the scene. A handful of demonstrators from different religious groups handed out pamphlets, while vendors sold T-Shirts and snacks, and fans waited in hopes of somehow snagging a last minute ticket. There was a small crowd of protesters with signs and drums demonstrating against ICE, and one playing a xylophone; but most began clearing out before the game kicked off.

By the time the game began, Elisabeth Pitts, carrying a sign that read “United We Stand Against Fascism”, was among the only protesters left on the scene.

She came out to watch for ICE. She felt the administration’s move last fall to suggest immigration agents would be in the area was “petty” and wanted to take a stand against that.

“I just think it’s important to protect our rights and stand up against bullies and to protect ourselves from a fascist style government,” Pitts said.

Share

Updated at 18.53 EST

Benjamin Lee

Disclosure Day

Arriving at just the right time for increasingly energised UFO conspiracy theorists, Steven Spielberg’s big return to the sci-fi genre is still looking like a whole bunch of question marks (Good or bad aliens? Bad CGI? Why is every American played by a Brit?) but it is thrilling to have a summer blockbuster that’s actually original once again. The latest spot shows a giant ship emerging through clouds, Independence Day style, and some more questionable accents. Time will tell.

Share

Adrian Horton

Puthers rise! Those opening jazzy keys made me a little nervous that we were heading into Fergie national anthem territory, but Charlie Puth, the niche-beloved pop artist (“You smoked, then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist” goes a choice Taylor Swift lyric) delivered a smooth-as-butter rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. Complete with a flyover and cutaways to troops in the Middle East (eek) of course. I will once again be returning to his excellent and deeply underrated 2018 album Voicenotes.

Share

Benjamin Lee

Because it’s hard to put your shoes on, right?

Skechers here providing much-needed aid to adults struggling to put their shoes on without having some sort of breakdown. Their easy slip-ons are smooth enough to impress Sofía Vergara, an actor worth a reported $180m, who can probably just pay someone to put them on for her, I would have thought.

Share

Benjamin Lee

Hoppers

Pixar, a company that used to turn the wildest premises into both critical and commercial gold, has been struggling to impress either side in recent years. After Elio was a historic flop for them, they’re hoping Hoppers might turn the tide, and they might have a safer hit on their hands. It’s a fun, grabby premise – tech that allows humans to masquerade as animals – and while there’s not that much here in this big game spot, here’s hoping the recent billion-dollar success of Zootopia’s animated animals will help nudge it along.

Share

Benjamin Lee

Scream 7

Poor old Sidney Prescott. It’s almost been 30 years of menacing phone calls, non-lethal stab wounds, severed relationships (some literally), unwanted press attention, and now, as the Scream franchise continues to be more commercially successful than ever before (the sixth chapter was a record-breaker), here comes Ghostface threatening her teenage daughter. But as Sidney’s bad luck continues, Neve Campbell’s does the opposite. The actor was lured back after taking one film off over a pay dispute and it’s her most substantial role, and we assume salary, to date. The new spot offers more of the same, keeping the film’s long list of back-from-the-dead cameos under wraps, but the repetition is almost reassuring, the biggest secrets not being spoiled just yet.

Share

Justin and Hailey Bieber are here, spotted entering a private suite to watch the game.

Share

Adrian Horton

OK we’re back to the musical performances, with Americana singer-songwriter and Washington state native Brandi Carlile for America the Beautiful. We’re now 3 for 3 on solid performances – she sounds gorgeous, with just the right level of twang.

Share

Updated at 18.44 EST

Adrian Horton

And for the New England Patriots, we have… Jon Bon Jovi? Ok this one confuses me as Bon Jovi is famously from New Jersey, home to the New York Giants and now the New York Jets, but I guess he is a Pats fan. Where are the Wahlbergs?

Share

Updated at 18.55 EST

Benjamin Lee

Your hair is sad

A quick moment here to feel bad for all your unwanted body hair which, according to Manscaped, misses being on you so much that it sings a sad little song before it’s washed down the drain. Pretty scary, honestly.

Share

Owen Myers

Nostalgia-bait goes boring

It’s hard to make accounting software sexy, and it’s some credit to Ramp that they don’t even try with their ad featuring The Office US’s Kevin Malone. But it doesn’t do much beyond prompting a watery smile of recognition, and I still have no idea what Ramp is actually for.

Share

Click here to read article