Commentary

Super Bowl Sentiment: AI-Tainted Advertising?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 11, 2026

Super Bowl advertising is always a high-value affair for many brands -- but now increasingly critical. 

Does artificial intelligence (AI) have anything to do with it -- either from what was promoted or from customer sentiment around perceived AI -- creative advertising?

One survey, for example, says 50% of social media comments about Super Bowl AI-driven advertising were sharply negative, according to Meltwater Advertising. Audiences believed "automation" hurts the overall production standards for typical high-quality TV Super Bowl advertising.

That’s right. Consumers are looking more critically at Super Bowl commercials than at other times.

One report says 23% of Super Bowl commercials -- 15 out of the 66 ads -- featured AI.

Looking specifically, the Dunkin’ “Good Will Dunkin” ad took the brunt of this -- with 37% of AI-related mentions and 9% of engagement share.

Audiences were critical of the disjointed nature of Dunkin’ ad featuring AI-generated sitcom-style/celebrity integrated characters.

Meltwater defines "sentiment" as the tone of the conversation by volume of mentions versus "engagement sentiment" as the tone of the conversation by volume of reactions to those mentions.

What effect will any of this have on real financial and business outcomes for brands? So far we can see some early-round results.

The best result so far was from AI.com, a future personal AI assistant. The ad was so powerful that viewers immediately signed on to reserve a "handle" on the site. 

The spot was so popular that it crashed the company’s servers. TV advertising/data analytics company, EDO says the ad got 9.1 times as much engagement as the median Super Bowl LX  ad.

This ad nipped out the second-biggest ad in terms of engagement -- Universal Pictures’s upcoming theatrical movie "Minions & Monsters," which posted 9.09 times the engagement of other Super Bowl ads.

Other high-performing spots included ads from Lay’s, Netflix, Universal Pictures' "Disclosure Day," Cadillac, Budweiser, Invest America, and Wegovy. 

The bottom line is that brands believe consumer interest lies around AI-platforms consumer services, cryptocurrencies, sports wagering and weight-loss medications.

Will any of this be driving the economy in 2026?