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The Super Bowl is mere days away and chances are youve seen most of the ads already. Right? Lets rewind for a 10-second Super Bowl ad history lesson that goes like this: In 2011, Volkswagen decided to drop its full adcalled The Forceonline the Wednesday before the Super Bowl. This was brand marketer blasphemy! But it worked. Ever since, more and more brands began dropping ads earlier and earlier, which then evolved into creating teasers for the ads to run even earlier. If youre confused as to why this happens, dont sweat it, even Christopher Walken wasnt sure in BMWs 2024 Super Bowl teaser. Super Bowl commercials are no longer just Super Bowl commercials. They are Super Bowl campaigns that run for weeks before and after the game. Now, say it in your best Walken voice, Why would they do that? So much more than $8M The last time the Patriots and Seahawks met in the Super Bowl in 2015, 30 seconds of commercial time on NBC went for about $4.4 million. This year, a 30-second spot averaged $8 million, plus another $8 million in required spend for other NBC sports broadcasting and the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, according to Ad Age. That price tag could go as high as $10 million, when you consider expanding that to Peacock and Telemundo. And thats all before you spend a dime on actually making the ad. With this much at stake, brands are investing even more to extend the life of their Super Bowl ads. Which is why we start hearing about them in early to mid-January. Given the sheer size and scale of the Super Bowl season, we decided to do a power-rankings list to break down the five brands we believe have the most momentum heading into the game. 1. Budweiser Created by BBDO New York, “American Icons” traces the friendship and bond between a foal and an eaglet. I mean, come on. Buds done it before with a puppy in 2014, so why not adapt the audience-winning concept to celebrate Buds 150th (horse!) and Americas 250th (eagle!) anniversaries? Creative data firm Daivid analyzed early-release Super Bowl commercials to identify those that are most likely to resonate with consumers. This spot topped its pregame rankings after generating intense positive emotions among 54% of viewers11% higher than the U.S. average. It was also 155% more likely than the average ad to evoke intense nostalgia, and nearly twice as likely to generate strong feelings of warmth (+99%). Per Daivids analysis, the spot drove elevated feelings of adoration for its use of animal characters (+80%) and joy (+71%)and maintained above-average attention throughout. Budweiser consistently puts out top-rated ads, from comedy with the frogs and Wassup to all the variations on heartwarming puppies, dogs, and horses. Its so iconic, even Jason Kelces Garage Beer made a funny Clydesdales spoof for this years game. Here Bud is going full Murica, but manages to thread the nonpartisan needle to find a sweet spot that everyone can enjoy. Just dont be surprised if the guy next to you spontaneously holds his light in the air. 2. Pepsi Back in 1995, Pepsi dropped an iconic Super Bowl ad in which a Coke delivery truck driver takes an impromptu Pepsi Challenge in a diner. Many brands shy away from directly challenging their biggest rivals, especially on such a big ad stage, for fear of giving any oxygen to another brand. But Pepsi famously rode the Pepsi Challenge to success, constantly trolling Coca-Cola and scoring an impressive eight spots in the USA Today Ad Meters 10 Best Super Bowl Ads of the 1990s. Here, the brand goes back to the well and puts Cokes famous polar bear mascot in the delivery truck drivers roleanother symbol of Coke choosing Pepsi. The simplicity may seem like a waste of Taika Waititis talents, but its going to score big with Super Bowl audiences. According to the Daivid survey, the spot is 56% more likely to make viewers laugh than the average ad, and most likely to make viewers’ mouths water. 3. Rocket and Redfin Heres an idea: Lets get one of the biggest pop stars on the planet to reimagine a childhood classic. Right then and there you have a potential winner. Thats exactly what Rocket Mortgage and Redfins teaser featuring behind-the-scenes footage of Lady Gaga singing Fred Rogerss Wont You Be My Neighbor? does. This looks like it might be one of those vibe-shift adsthe one people shush the party for because they want to hear it. The Daivid data backs this up, reporting it generated the most intense positive emotions of any teaser or ull Super Bowl ad so far. 4. State Farm Just a Super Bowl shopping list of good stuff here: funny? Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key. (Check.) Celebrity? Hailee Steinfeld and Katseye. (Check.) Nostalgic sing-along? Bon Jovi remix. (Check.) And the teasers with McBride and Key doing full ads for Halfway There Insurance are also a nice touch. This continues State Farms long-running formula for its Super Bowl ad campaigns. In 2024, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger making the brands tagline his own with “Like a Good Neighbaaa. Last year, it was Jason Bateman becoming a less-than-ideal version of Batman. (The brand actually pulled that spot out of the big game due to sensitivities around the Los Angeles wildfires, but ran it a month later for March Madness.) CMO Kristyn Cook told me the strategy has been working. Insurance is very complex, and we’re able to break it down in a way that’s humorous enough for people to hopefully pay attention and get them thinking about it, she says. Do I have the right coverage? Are people going to be there when I need them? Just trying to create those opportunities for people to think about it and then drive action. It’s a formula for us, but it’s a big stage and we want to do it really well with the standards that we have that are very high. 5. Novartis Im not saying this spot involves a poop joke, but its pretty close. And its not going full Raisin Bran, but were in the vicinity. Directed by Eric Wareheim, Relax Your Tight End stars celebrated NFL tight ends and a playful double entendre for prostate cancer screening awareness. Set to Enyas Only Time (shout-out to Volvo and Van Damme), getting big tough guys talking about an uncomfortable health issue is important. Showing them all relaxing their buns when they hear its just a blood test will definitely clinch (clench?) some major attention. According to Daivid, so far the campaign has generated intense positive emotions among 52.6% of viewers8% higher than the U.S. norm.
Category:
E-Commerce
After more than two decades as a psychosexual therapist, I have learned to listen carefully for what people are not saying. When vulnerability is close to the surface, uncertainty shows up quickly. Am I doing this right? Do I belong here? What am I allowed to ask for, and what will it cost me if I do? At its core, psychosexual therapy is not really about sex. It is about how humans relate when the stakes are high, when power is present, and when much of what matters remains unspoken. It is about noticing how meaning is made in moments of vulnerability and choosing how to respond rather than react. What continues to surprise me is how familiar these same dynamics feel when I step into boardrooms, leadership teams, and global organizations as a social psychologist. The context changes. The language becomes more polished. But the relational patterns remain strikingly consistent. Over years of working across more than forty countries, I came to realize that my clinical work and my leadership work were asking the same essential question: how do humans make meaning together when the cues are subtle and the consequences matter? Our jobs are rarely just jobs anymore. Many of us are seeking purpose, belonging, and fulfillment beyond a financial transaction. This is where I often see a widening gap between traditionally informed organizations and leadership styles, and those that have evolved alongside shifting sociocultural norms. We talk a great deal about generational differences. What if instead we looked at work through a relational lens? I am often described as a relationship architect. My work is about helping people make sense of their relational spaces so they can direct their energy, attention, time, and resources to where they actually bear fruit. Through this lens, I have come to see that thriving relationships, whether in the bedroom or the boardroom, are built on the same six fundamental ingredients. 1. Respect Respect is often misunderstood as politeness, obedience, or walking on eggshells. In intimate relationships, respect looks like keeping the other persons priorities in mind, honoring boundaries, including your own, and practicing what I call the platinum rule: not treating others how you want to be treated, but how they want to be treated. In professional life, respect shows up in much the same way. It is reflected in how leaders honor boundaries around time, attention, and capacity. It appears when managers understand that what motivates one team member may exhaust another. Cultures of respect are built through everyday actions, arriving on time, being fully present, and not being distracted by a phone call in the middle of a conversation. 2. Trust Trust, in both intimate and professional relationships, is built through reliable and consistent actions repeated over time. Trust allows people to relax, to be vulnerable enough so connections could form, and to take risks. This looks like doing what you say you will do, taking accountability when you cannot, and repairing when things go off course. It means saying yes only when you can follow through, and saying no early rather than offering a lingering maybe. At work, trust functions the same way. Teams trust leaders who show up predictably and communicate clearly. Trust erodes when expectations shift without explanation or when people feel they must stay guarded. In organizations, low trust quietly taxes performance. People spend more time managing risk and protecting themselves than doing their best work. Over time, this shows up in burnout and avoidable turnover. 3. Attraction Attraction is often reduced to chemistry, but in reality it is about reciprocity and choice. In intimate relationships, attraction grows when people feel wanted and when there is space to be seen and chosen again and again. Attraction can take many forms, intellectual, emotional, social, physical, or financial. In professional settings, attraction shows up as engagement. Why do people want to be in the room? Why do they choose to stay with an organization or lean into a project? Leaders often underestimate how much attraction shapes retention. When attraction is absent, organizations rely on incentives. When it is present, people stay because they feel drawn to the work, the purpose, and the people. 4. Loving behavior Loving behavior is not about romance. It is about how we make others feel. In intimate relationships, it includes making the other person feel seen, special, and given the benefit of the doubt. It often means responding with generosity rather than suspicion when something goes wrong. At work, loving behavior translates into psychological safety. It shows up when leaders assume positive intent, acknowledge effort, and recognize unique contributions. People are more willing to stretch and innovate when mistakes are met with curiosity rather than punishment and they think their contribution is unique and it matters. 5. Compassion Compassion is often confused with empathy, but they are not the same. Empathy is feeling with another. Compassion is staying present without making the other persons experience about yourself. In intimate relationships, compassion allows partners to witness each others struggles without collapsing into them or turning away. In leadership, compassion means to be there for the other in a meaningful way. Leaders who can hold space for difficulty without over relating or becoming defensive are better able to guide teams through uncertainty and change. 6. Shared vision Finally, shared vision gives relationships direction. In intimate relationships, it helps couples navigate priorities, negotiate and compromise intentionally, and make sacrifices that feel meaningful rather than resentful. In organizations, shared vision determines where resources go, how decisions are made, and what success looks like. Without it, teams may work hard while pulling in different directions. With it, even difficult choices feel coherent and strategic rather than personal. The architecture of effective human systems What I have learned, sitting with couples and working with leaders across cultures, is that relationships do not thrive by accident. Across every context I have worked in, the relationships that truly thrive share these six foundations. They are not optional and they are not interchangeable. Respect, trust, attraction, loving behavior, compassion, and shared vision are the conditions that allow people to bring their full capacity into a shared space. When they are missing, no amount of strategy or incentive can make up for it. The bedroom and the boardroom are not as far apart as we like to think. Both are spaces where power, vulnerability, and belonging are negotiated. These are not soft skills. They are the architecture of effective human systems. At the end of the day, the way we do one relationship is the way we do them all.
Category:
E-Commerce
Over the past two years, a troubling trend has started to take shape in the media; for a large majority of journalists, DEI framing became the default for covering Black businesses. What should be stories about innovation, resilience, market disruption, and leadership have increasingly been flattened into a single, repetitive narrative: DEI. Not the company’s business model. Not the founders vision or entrepreneur journey. Not the problem being solved or the customers being served. Just DEI. And its often framed through the lens of rollbacks, political backlash, or cultural controversy. This didnt begin overnight, but in recent years and especially amid the political climate shaped by the Trump administration, it has accelerated to the point of absurdity. Today, if a business is Black-owned, media coverage almost reflexively treats it as a DEI case study rather than a company. The founder becomes a symbol, success becomes secondary, and the story becomes predictable before the first paragraph is even finished. One Narrative, Over and Over Again If you listen closely to news interviews from 2024 until now between reporters and Black founders, nine times out of ten a pattern quickly emerges. The questions sound eerily similar. How are DEI rollbacks affecting your business? What does the current political climate mean for Black entrepreneurship? How do you feel about corporate pullbacks from diversity initiatives? My company, Brennan Nevada Inc. New York Citys first and only Black-owned tech PR agency, has been able to witness this firsthand through my daily interactions and interviews with members of the media. Ive prioritized spending more time and conducting the necessary due diligence that preps my clients on how to engage, navigate, or just not participate in the same DEI obsessed interview. With these interviews between journalists and Black founders, the most important questions often go unasked, like What problem does this business solve? Or What makes it competitive? How did the founder build it? And What lessons can other entrepreneurs learn from its success? And when coverage does come out, it typically leads with the current administrations DEI rollbacks, and less like profiles of thriving companies. The rhetoric reflects commentary on diversity politics, with the business itself serving as a backdrop rather than the subject. When Black-Owned Becomes a Category, Not a Credential The underlying issue is subtle but very damaging: Black-owned has become synonymous with DEI in media framing. That equation is flawed and needs to be reworked. A Black-owned business is not inherently a diversity initiative or a political statement. It is first and foremost a business built by someone who just so happens to be Black. Thats it. Yet most media coverage today increasingly suggests that Black success exists primarily within the context of diversity efforts, and worse, that it is somehow dependent on them. When DEI programs face scrutiny or rollbacks, Black businesses are often portrayed as collateral damage rather than as resilient enterprises capable of thriving on merit, strategy, and execution. This framing does a disservice not only to Black founders, but to readers and audiences as well. It robs them of real business insight and reinforces the idea that Black success must always be explained through an external lens. The media tends to shift its tone to whats currently happening in the cultural moment, especially when towards Black businesses. Five years ago during George Floyds murder and the Black Lives Matter movement that happened around Juneteenth in 2020, the media positively highlighted a lot more Black businesses alongside brands that pushed for DEI to address systemic barriers. The Cost of Poor Storytelling This media obsession with DEI is getting old really fast. It reduces complex entrepreneurial journeys into political soundbites. And it quietly undermines the credibility of Black founders by implying that their success is inseparable from institutional support rather than personal vision and capability. Im not saying this is being done on purpose, because even well-intentioned coverage can fall into this trap, and oftentimes does. When every story leads with race rather than results, representation becomes reductive instead of empowering. The irony is that truly compelling stories are being missed. There are Black founders building category-defining products, solving real-world problems, scaling companies, and creating jobs; stories that deserve the same depth and seriousness afforded to any other entrepreneur. But those stories require more work. They require curiosity beyond a headline. They require journalists to move past the easiest narrative available. Whats Next for Black Stories in 2026 As media organizations reassess their role in shaping public discourse, 2026 presents an opportunity for a long-overdue reset. What would it look like to cover Black businesses the same way we cover all businesses, by focusing on innovation, leadership, and success first? What if founders were allowed to be experts in their industries rather than spokespeople for diversity debates? What if success stories were told as success stories? None of this means ignoring race or pretending systemic inequities dont exist. Thats not what Im saying since that context absolutely matters. But its my belief that context should inform a story not consume it. A Black-owned business should not automatically trigger a DEI narrative. And Black entrepreneurship should not be treated as a subplot in a political storyline. If the media wants to tell better stories in 2026, it needs to start by asking Black founders better questions, and by remembering that Black businesses are not symbols. We are enterprises. We are innovations. And we deserve to be covered as such.
Category:
E-Commerce
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