Everything is bigger at the Super Bowl, including the price tags. In 2026, that’s up to $10 million for a 30-second ad. Ten. Million. Dollars. And advertisers couldn’t get enough. NBC sold out five months early—the fastest sellout in Super Bowl history—for half a minute of old-fashioned, anachronistic, 20th century TV advertising.
In 1967, a Super Bowl commercial cost $42,500. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $383,000 today. Prices have doubled in the past decade alone. This is not a market keeping pace with the economy. This is a market on fire.
Even VaynerMedia’s Gary Vee, TV’s self-appointed mortician, backtracks when the Big Game arrives. While insisting all linear advertising is “overpriced,” he admits that Super Bowl advertising is the opposite: “The best deal in marketing. Like, not even close… a steal!”
The contradictions are as obvious as they are important.
Personalization? Don’t know her
We say advertising must be personalized. Super Bowl ads are the definition of mass marketing: 127 million people, no targeting, no segmentation, no first-party data enrichment. Just a single creative bet placed in front of half the eyeballs in America.
We say digital is the future. Super Bowl advertising is…
