Forwarded this email? Click here to get your weekly slice.

 

🪩 Volume 121 | January 28, 2026

 

We’re running a diagnostic quiz right now, and the #1 thing holding small businesses back isn’t traffic or tactics.

 

It’s that their brand is allergic to taking a stance.

 

Everything sounds “fine.” It… works. It explains.

 

And once you notice that pattern, the (here it is) Super Bowl becomes impossible to ignore—because every brand that shows up there is doing the exact opposite: picking a side, saying it loudly, and trusting the audience to keep up.

 

 

 

I am always fascinated by who decides to put their brand in front of that many eyeballs on the biggest advertising day of the year.

 

Not because I think everyone should aspire to a Super Bowl ad (they absolutely shouldn’t), but because it’s a masterclass in different. In committing. In taste. In restraint. In POV.

 

In GUTS.

 

This is why we’re talking about it. 🙂

 

The Super Bowl is one of the few remaining moments where brands are doing more than fighting the damn algorithm by stepping DIRECTLY into culture. Every year, it exposes who actually knows who they are… and who just bought a very expensive slot and hoped for the best. (RIP)

 

My prediction for this year: brands are going to be more on-the-nose than ever.
 

Waaaay more conciseness. WAY more humanity. They’re gonna be out there “saying the damn thing.”

 

(Bookmark that thought—I’ll come back to it in dessert.)

 

Even without confirmed advertiser lists, in my ~ light research ~ I discovered that networks are aggressively pre-selling inventory in the same categories we see over and over again:

Translation: the same categories that already dominate culture are doubling down on being unavoidable.

 

 

One of the more interesting recent examples? Rippling.

 

Their Super Bowl spot (allegedly) promises NOT to explain the product, but INSTEAD skewer outdated technology, then introduce the brand as the modern alternative.

 

We’ve seen SaaS brands show up before on Game Day:

And when you line ‘em all up, those ads fall into buckets:

These are brand-led plays, not demand-gen plays
→ These ads rarely explain features. They build legitimacy, trust, and cultural presence.

 

They’re NOT trying to convert you on Sunday night.

 

You do not need:

to run a great campaign.

 

And what’s got me all giddy and talkign about Super Bowl a bit too early is that: 2026 is already shaping up to be the year of smaller businesses rooting themselves in POV.

 

I saw this everywhere toward the end of last year—and it’s only accelerating. When everyone can sell anything, differentiation disappears. When everyone sounds the same, nobody stands out.

 

At my agency (DON’T CHECK OUT, THIS IS NOT A PITCH), we work with disruptive brands whose biggest competition often isn’t a direct competitor at all—it’s:

It’s actually harder when you have direct competition. But the answer isn’t louder messaging—it’s anchoring harder.

 

Anchor in your POV.
Stand for something (loudly).
Niche on purpose.
Take the leap.

 

Every great Super Bowl campaign taps into:

They’re human as shit.

 

And you can “unlock” real growth—or at least real consistency—by doing the same at any scale.

 

→ Fanatics / betting culture; Kendall Jenner + basketball boyfriends – this one had my ENTIRE team laughing. So on the nose.

 

→ Lay’s going back to its roots; a little kid picking a potato. Why am I already emotional?

 

→ Squarespace x Emma Stone; Fully living for the era of short films. What does this turn into next?

 

→ ALSO HONORABLE MENTION: I was cackling/crying w hen I saw Sydney Sweeney did the illegal thing of scaling the Hollywood Sign to hang bras in promo of her new brand. BOLD LOL.

 

--

 

Next week, I’ll come at the Super Bowl from a totally different angle.

 

And after the game, I’m settling fully into how this style of advertising is going to ripple through the rest of 2026 marketing—not just on TV, but everywhere.

Stay tuned. 🍰