Do You Remember the First Major Super Bowl Celebrity Ad?
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What To Know
In 1970, Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus appeared in a Prestone antifreeze commercial during Super Bowl IV, marking the first major celebrity endorsement in a Super Bowl ad.
This groundbreaking commercial helped establish the now-common practice of using star athletes and celebrities to promote products during the Super Bowl.
Butkus’s early pitchman work paved the way for his post-NFL entertainment career and signaled a shift toward the high-budget, celebrity-driven Super Bowl ads seen today.
For some people, the Super Bowl commercials are better than the game itself. These days, many ads have huge budgets and feature celebrities. But before the 1970s, the ads weren’t as flashy. In fact, 1970 was reportedly the very first year that a celebrity was featured in an ad, and it was Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus in a commercial for Prestone antifreeze. Unfortunately, the ad doesn’t seem to be circulating online, but several stories mention its existence.
A 2023 story in The Athletic notes that Butkus “became a pitchman in 1970, appearing in a Prestone antifreeze commercial during Super Bowl IV,” and that the ad helped launch the now-familiar idea of using star athletes to sell products during football’s biggest event. The piece even recalls Butkus delivering a fitting tagline: “Because plugging holes is my business.”
At the time, the Super Bowl was still growing into the cultural phenomenon we know today. Companies certainly advertised during the game, but the modern concept of celebrity-driven Super Bowl commercials hadn’t yet taken hold. Entertainment Weekly later described the commercial as “the first highly successful celebrity endorsement for the big game,” underlining how significant it was in the history of Super Bowl marketing.
For Butkus personally, the timing turned out to be important. Injuries forced him to retire from the NFL in 1973, but his early work as a pitchman helped pave the way for a long second career in entertainment. His later Miller Lite ads with former NFL player Bubba Smith became especially popular and cemented his image as more than just a football legend.
Now companies spend millions to secure top-tier stars and create commercials designed to dominate social media. In 1970, it was simply a tough, well-known linebacker standing in front of a camera talking about antifreeze. But that straightforward spot helped change the direction of advertising in a way few people could have predicted. The original commercial may be lost to time, but its place in Super Bowl history is not. Long before pop singers, movie stars, and elaborate ad campaigns took over the game, Butkus helped kick off the tradition.
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