Super Bowl ads, Bad Bunny, and the business of cultural risk, with Autodesk’s Dara Treseder

What It Covers

Autodesk CMO Dara Treseder analyzes Super Bowl 2025 advertising through a framework of simplicity, sincerity, and statement-making. She critiques celebrity overuse, identifies Anthropic, Rocket, and Pepsi as winners, defends the Bad Bunny halftime show as culturally significant, and discusses navigating fear and joy as a Black leader during rising anti-Black sentiment in America.

Key Questions Answered

• •Super Bowl Ad Evaluation Framework: Successful 2025 Super Bowl ads required five elements: ownable, relevant, memorable, simple, and sincere while making a statement. Brands spending 8-10 million dollars per thirty-second spot without meeting these criteria should have sat out. Most ads failed to cut through, creating widespread mediocrity where brands tried speaking to everyone and ended up speaking to no one.
• •Celebrity Misuse Cost: Over 250 million dollars was spent on celebrity placements across Super Bowl ads, with 60 percent of spots using celebrities. Most brands used celebrities without intentional strategy, generating poor ROI. Only sincere celebrity use worked, like Ben Affleck for Dunkin' Donuts leveraging his authentic love for the brand, or Lady Gaga rerecording mister Rogers' song for Rocket's culturally resonant neighbor message.
• •Anthropic's Strategic Win: Anthropic's attack on OpenAI succeeded by generating conversation before the game aired and provoking responses from OpenAI's CEO and CMO, proving they struck a nerve. The brand now faces accountability pressure: if they introduce ads to their platform after criticizing OpenAI for doing so, the internet will not forgive the hypocrisy, making this a binding strategic business decision.
• •Bad Bunny Halftime Strategy: The Bad Bunny halftime show succeeded as brand marketing for Bad Bunny, NFL, and Apple by targeting global audiences rather than attempting to please detractors. The performance included unifying elements like saying God bless America in English and a football reading together we are America. NFL's global expansion strategy aligned with featuring a globally popular artist despite domestic controversy.
• •Joy as Leadership Resistance: Joy functions as a choice and strength separate from happiness, allowing leaders to maintain it while experiencing fear, sadness, or anger. During periods of historic unemployment for Black women and rising anti-Black sentiment, bringing joy and sunshine into professional and personal spaces serves as active resistance against moral decay and creates strength for navigating volatile environments.