Part of a larger guide
This article is part of our comprehensive guide Content as Entertainment: The Framework That Separates Memorable Campaigns from Forgettable Ads, where we present the 4-principle framework for creating branded content audiences choose to consume.
Diane Sayler, Senior Director of Full Funnel Marketing at Mars Snacking, knows every Super Bowl marketer’s nightmare: “One of the worst possible things that can happen to a Super Bowl marketer is the audience remembers your celebrity or your song or your ad concept, but not your brand.”
In 2026, that nightmare became a statistic. System1 reported Brand Fluency dropped to a record-low 77% in their Super Bowl ad pre-test. Nearly one in four viewers can’t identify the brand behind the ad they just watched.
And this isn’t due to lack of spending. It’s due to excess of the wrong strategy.
The numbers nobody wants to see
The Super Bowl advertising industry has a celebrity addiction. And like any addiction, costs go up while returns go down.
| Metric | 2020 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Celebrity talent spend | $187M | $253M | +35% |
| Ads with multi-celebrity ensemble casts | — | 28 | — |
| Total celebrities in Super Bowl ads | — | 92 | — |
| % of ads featuring celebrities | — | ~61% | — |
| Brand Fluency (recall) | — | 77% | Record low |
| Cost per 30 seconds (NBC) | — | $7-10M+ | — |
The math is brutal: brands pay between $7 and $10 million just for 30 seconds of airtime, plus millions more in production and talent, only for 23% of the audience to not even remember who paid.
Jon Evans from System1 put it in perspective: “Brands that lean into familiar assets score on average a full point higher on System1’s scale than ads with celebrities in them.”
A full point. Your brand mascot generates more recall than the movie star you paid millions for.
Why celebrity ads fail at brand recall
It’s not that celebrities are bad for advertising. It’s that the way most brands use them creates a structural problem.
The overshadowing effect
When a celebrity appears in your ad, the audience processes two pieces of information: the celebrity and the brand. Cognitive psychology research shows that when both stimuli compete for attention, the more familiar one wins. And for most viewers, the celebrity is more familiar than your brand.
The result: the audience remembers Ben Affleck but not that it was a Dunkin’ ad. They remember Matthew McConaughey but not that it was Uber Eats. The celebrity absorbs all the memory capital.
Ensemble cast dilution
28 Super Bowl 2025 ads used multi-celebrity casts. 92 total stars. The reasoning seems logical: more celebrities = more attention = more recall.
The reality is exactly the opposite. Each additional celebrity:
- Competes with the others for attention within the same spot
- Reduces the time audiences spend processing the brand
- Creates a “celebrity parade” experience where the entertainment is spotting famous faces, not remembering the brand
It’s like inviting 4 bands to the same stage: the audience is entertained, but nobody remembers who organized the event.
The “swappable brand” test
The most revealing test for any celebrity ad is simple:
If you swap the brand for a competitor, does the ad work the same?
Take the Dunkin’ ad with Ben Affleck. Swap Dunkin’ for Starbucks. Does it work? Probably yes. Affleck being funny behind a counter is entertaining regardless of which coffee brand he’s selling.
Now take the Pringles ad with Sabrina Carpenter. Swap Pringles for Lay’s. Does it work? No. You can’t stack Lay’s to build a boyfriend. You can’t have Lay’s mascot whisper “Build him.” The product shape, the stacking mechanic, Mr. P as character: it’s all exclusively Pringles.
If your brand is interchangeable in your own ad, you’re paying for attention that doesn’t generate memory.
What actually works: the product-as-character model
Pringles’ “Pringleleo” ad with Sabrina Carpenter for Super Bowl LX demonstrates the alternative.
The product is the story, not a prop
Sabrina Carpenter builds a boyfriend made entirely of stacked Pringles. Mr. P (the mascot) catalyzes the action by whispering “Build him.” The can is the setting. The stackable shape is the narrative mechanic. The act of eating Pringles is the resolution.
You can’t tell this story without the product. You can’t remember this ad without remembering Pringles. Recall is automatic because the brand is encoded in the narrative, not tacked on at the end.
One celebrity, deep integration
While competitors spread their budget across 4, 5, or 6 celebrities, Pringles went all-in on a single celebrity with total integration:
- Carpenter has a #1 hit (“Manchild”) with the lyric “I like all my men incompetent” — which practically wrote the creative brief
- The ad’s directors (Heymann and Muggia) are the same team behind her “Manchild” music video
- The spot was shot on film, matching her personal retro aesthetic
- She chose her own favorite teaser and the dialogue was written “in her own voice”
- In 2017, at age 17, she tweeted: “Is there a way to look attractive while eating Pringles” — 9 years before becoming the brand’s face
That’s not an endorsement. It’s a collaboration where the celebrity’s personality and the brand’s identity are inseparable.
The results speak
Before the Super Bowl even aired, pre-launch data tells the story:
| Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| TikTok teaser likes | 562,800+ |
| New Pringles Instagram followers (January) | 26,000+ |
| Clio’s Ad of the Week ranking | #1 |
| Estimated Super Bowl audience | 127+ million |
The audience didn’t just watch the ad. They searched for it, shared it, created memes about it. That’s entertainment, not advertising.
Checklist: 5 questions before greenlighting a celebrity campaign
If you manage a marketing budget and are considering a celebrity campaign, ask yourself these questions before signing:
1. Does the product play an active narrative role? If the product only appears at the end of the spot, it’s not a character in the story. It’s a cameo in its own ad. Demand that the product be inseparable from the concept.
2. Is the brand swappable? Mentally swap your brand for a competitor. If the ad works the same, your campaign has a recall problem no media budget can solve.
3. Does the celebrity extend your brand’s narrative or just attract eyeballs? Look for alignment in tone, aesthetic, and audience. “They’re famous” isn’t a creative brief. What about this person connects organically with what your brand represents?
4. One deeply integrated celebrity or multiple surface-level celebrities? The data is clear: the multi-cast model dilutes recall. One celebrity with deep integration consistently outperforms 4 celebrities with surface-level appearances.
5. Would your audience share this even if it wasn’t an ad? The entertainment test. If the answer is no, you’re producing interruption. In the scroll era, interruption doesn’t generate memory.
Your brand has the same problem. We solve it.
If your content generates visibility but not recall, the problem isn’t the budget. It’s the strategy. At Mazkara Studio we build content where your brand is inseparable from the story. Get your free consultation to diagnose the problem and design the solution.
Related resources:
- Content as Entertainment: The Complete Framework
- Product as Character vs. Celebrity as Image
- The Taylor Effect and Cultural Timing
Your brand spends on visibility but nobody remembers it? At Mazkara Studio we build content that makes your brand inseparable from the story. Get your free consultation →