E-Poll’s tenth annual review of the Super Bowl ads from a celebrity perspective showed that the use of celebrity endorsers in big game commercials continues at an epic pace. This year two-thirds of all commercials during the game utilized celebrities, and half of those used multiple endorsers in one spot.
The total number of celebrity endorsers was down somewhat from 2020, but was still very high, with the second-highest total in the past ten years. As always, the definition of celebrity is somewhat subjective. We did not include any of the Paramount+ or Apple+ celebrities, in keeping with our past practice of not including TV or film promos. We did, however, count the celebrity “impersonations” such as the Michelob Ultra Seltzer celebrities since these were licensed uses of the celebrity likenesses.
The reason celebrities are popular in these spots, is because they work. Using USA Today’s Ad Meter as the scorecard, celebrity ads were overwhelmingly among the most popular. Nine of the top ten spots (including the top 9) used celebrity endorsers. Here’s a breakdown:
Here’s the full list of celebrities in this year’s crop of commercials:
*We tracked 48 qualifying ads (ads between the National Anthem and the final whistle, excluding film, television program and NFL promotions). Of these, 31 (65%) used celebrities.
To see how celebrity endorser usage has changed over the years, check out some of our previous coverage of this topic.