2024 Super Bowl

A super PAC backing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president ran a Super Bowl ad on Sunday in support of the independent candidate, an unexpected move for the long-shot campaign. American Values 2024 ran a 30-second spot leaning on the legacy of former President John F. Kennedy, repeating clips, slogans and images from his 1960 presidential campaign.

Deaf artists Shaheem Sanchez, Anjel Piñero and Daniel Durant were introduced during the game before their performances. Sanchez performed Lift Every Voice and Sing with Andra Day, Piñero was introduced to perform alongside Post Malone’s America, The Beautiful and Durant interpreted the National Anthem alongside Reba McEntire. “I am absolutely SHOCKED at CBS for introducing the Deaf performers at today’s pregame #SuperBowl and then not showing even one second (or more) of their performance… as has been tradition for the last 30 years. WHY!?” Matlin posted on X.

For the second consecutive year, Madison Avenue relied on a massive parade of celebrities to capture consumer attention, foregoing in many cases the social messages and dynamic creative concepts that have generated chatter in the past. Where the Super Bowl was once the setting for Apple’s still-talked-about 1984 commercial or Procter & Gamble’s clever insertion of Tide into a bevy of ads, it’s now become a place for formulaic cameos of famous faces. “It’s like a celebrity arms race,” says Simon Bruyn, executive creative director at Mother, an independent agency. “It’s like one celebrity isn’t enough.”

The Kansas City Chiefs were crowned victorious over the San Francisco 49ers in this year’s Super Bowl — and, off the field, big-name advertisers competed for viewers’ attention with celebrity-filled, glitzy messages. Pictured: Ice Spice sips on Starry soda for PepsiCo.

“What a thrill to be able to say that we witnessed an overtime Super Bowl game and what will go down in history as one of the greatest games of all time and the longest Super Bowl game of all time. That’s what I’m trying to process right now,” Nantz said after the Kansas City Chiefs 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers. “I’m thrilled for our team and thrilled for the sport. It was an unbelievably fitting finish to a remarkable football season.” Pictured: Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce with Jim Nance (George Walker IV/AP)

On Sunday night, Mike Benson gets a little over seven minutes to cap off weeks of work. The CBS marketing chief will use promo time allotted to Paramount Global during the Super Bowl to turbocharge a broad array of campaigns he has set in motion in the past few months aimed at getting viewers excited about one of the most unorthodox TV seasons in history.

The storied network is facing a wave of change, including new leadership, the possible sale of its parent company and the continued challenge of streaming. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AP)

One of the biggest moments for advertisers interested in the Super Bowl isn’t actually in the Super Bowl itself. FanDuel and YouTube are trying to make a big splash in the moments just before the Big Game, hoping that commercials in the last break before kick-off will help them make a marketing point before consumers get deluged with 30-second spots — along with celebrity cameos and pop-song surprises – once the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers start their struggling in earnest.

As part of its week-long activation for the 2024 Super Bowl, Paramount Global took Drew Barrymore, Entertainment Tonight and Inside Edition to Las Vegas to shoot shows and segments on the ground before, during and after the big game. All three CBS Media Ventures-produced shows set up shop in front of the Bellagio fountains to talk football, parties, celebrity, and of course, the Taylor Swift of it all.

The Super Bowl is not just a big moment for television. With the big game approaching YouTube has a few new tricks in its playbook for advertisers to engage its millions of viewers. YouTube is offering First Position Moments, which ensure that a brand’s ad is the first one seen when audiences watch the platform at the times most relevant to its business.

The CBS Sports chairman, who joined the network in 1996, spent a lifetime in control rooms that brought the biggest events to the nation’s living rooms.

The network will use 165 cameras this Sunday for its coverage of the game in Las Vegas as well as pregame, halftime and postgame shows, which CBS says is the most ever for a Super Bowl. They will be supported by 19 mobile production trucks. And CBS’s 1080p HDR production from Allegiant Stadium will also be used as the backbone of an alternative broadcast on the children’s network Nickelodeon, Super Bowl LVIII Live from Bikini Bottom, that will use enhanced graphics and augmented reality to incorporate characters from the popular SpongeBob SquarePants animated series into live game coverage. Plus, there are the “doink cams.”

Pricing for national TV 30-second commercials for this year’s Super Bowl is up 11% from a year ago to $6.47 million, according to Guideline, the ad spend and pricing data measurement company. Guideline says the $6.47 million price tag (versus $5.83 million in 2023) is the collective perspective across all “currently” booked spots.

While some commercials that run in CBS’s Feb. 11 Super Bowl broadcast may shock or surprise, most will aim to comfort or amuse, as marketers pull back on pushing the envelope. The bulk of the 70-or-so Super Bowl commercials that run will rely heavily on celebrities such as Kate McKinnon, Tina Fey, Jason Momoa or LL Cool J. Few of them will expand beyond the usual 30-second or 60-second running time, according to two people familiar with the matter — a change from recent years when the Big Game featured commercials 90 seconds or even two minutes in length to encompass big concepts and cameos, such as Bruce Springsteen appearing in an ad for Jeep. And some may tap into consumers’ collective memories for such things as Budweiser’s famous Clydesdale horses or the Coors Light Chill Train.

CBS said the president declined its invitation to appear ahead of what may be the highest-rated television broadcast of the year.

The network’s morning show, where Burleson is a co-host, will originate from Las Vegas this week. Burleson will also be an analyst on the Super Bowl pregame show and a commentator on Nickelodeon’s game broadcast. Add in co-hosting Nickelodeon’s weekly NFL Slimetime show and the usual demands of Super Bowl week, and Burleson will not have much downtime.

With ratings ebbing and business models crumbling, last year’s edition registered the largest audience of any TV event in history, with 115.1 million viewers (albeit with the caveat of revised Nielsen methodology). This year’s matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Taylor Swift-enhanced Kansas City Chiefs could bring somehow make the big game even bigger.

The performances will take place Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas before the championship matchup and halftime show featuring Usher.

The week of the 2024 Super Bowl will see the network use the famed Fountains of Bellagio as the backdrop of its central broadcast location. CBS will offer weeklong, multiplatform coverage of the Super Bowl in sports, news and entertainment, all leading up to CBS Sports’ presentation of the game on Sunday, Feb. 11. The location will be home to shows from four CBS divisions across broadcast, cable and streaming from Monday, Feb. 5 to Sunday, Feb. 11, with four outdoor sets shared across the various shows.

Paramount Global said commercial inventory for CBS’s telecast of the 2024 Super Bowl is virtually sold out. The sellout comes amid a soft market for linear TV in which sports appears to be one of the bright spots, particularly with the SAG-AFTRA strike limiting the amount of original content on the networks.

The R&B star also shared what it was like getting the call from Jay-Z that he’d be performing in Las Vegas this February.

CBS and Nickelodeon team up for NFL’s biggest game, marking the first time the Super Bowl has had an alternate telecast on another network.