Dunkin’ stuffed Ben Affleck, Jason Alexander, and Jennifer Aniston in its ’90s sitcom ad. Grubhub tapped George Clooney to talk about food-delivery fees, and Uber Eats brought back Matthew McConaughey. Kendall Jenner advertised sports betting platform Fanatics Sportsbook, and Doechii showed off her Levi’s.
Super Bowl 60 was another celebrity-driven bonanza, but actually featured slightly fewer famous faces than expected, according to data from TV measurement firm iSpot: 62% of ads featured celebrities, down from 68% last year. The firm predicted that 70% of ads would include celebrities.
Brands like Instacart, Ritz, and Xfinity also used multiple celebrities in their ads. According to iSpot, 37% of ads featured multiple celebrities, down from 51% last year.
Total celebrity count grew while total celebrity-based ads dropped
Separate data from TV adtech firm Extreme Reach shows that the number of individual appearances from celebrities in ads increased in the 2026 Super Bowl.
Even as fewer Super Bowl ads featured celebrities, brands like Dunkin’, Michelob Ultra, Novartis, Pokemon, and T-Mobile packed celebrities into their ads, increasing the total number of talent in Super Bowl ads, per Extreme Reach. There were 103 celebrity appearances in 66 ads; out of those, 39 featured more than one celebrity, according to Extreme Reach.
Paying for top-tier talent on top of an $8 million TV ad buy has become the norm for advertisers to cut through the noise of the Super Bowl. As it’s gotten harder for brands to get attention during the Super Bowl, celebrities have become a proven formula for a winning Super Bowl ad.
Plus, celebrities help brands reach audiences outside of the Super Bowl, sustaining buzz beyond 30 or 60 seconds.
“When a brand adds a celebrity to a campaign, they have the opportunity to reach audiences far beyond the TV spot,” Jessie Mash, partner and chief business officer at SonderCo, a brand and talent partnerships agency, previously told ADWEEK. “The commercial often extends into earned media opportunities, social amplification, and cultural conversation.”