Authenticity Over Perfection: What Super Bowl LX Commercials Reveal About Brand Strategy in 2026
While, yes, Bad Bunny's performance is the most talked about aspect of Super Bowl LX, I've been thinking a lot about the commercials, and I keep coming back to one thing: in 2026, audiences aren't asking brands to be perfect. They're asking them to be real.
The Lay's "Last Harvest" spot stood out for all the right reasons. A real-life third-generation potato farmer family in Illinois at the core. The tangible reality of where our food actually comes from. Yes, it looked great, and yes, it's still an ad. But it was honest. And that honesty created an emotional resonance no AI-generated spectacle could touch.
In this same vein, and I will push back on the Kellogg board study results, the Redfin commercial wasn't a disconnect from authenticity. If anything, it was the opposite. That spot told the truth about what the brand fundamentally does. From a storytelling perspective, this is underscoring their mission and vision. You can't build communities without housing. The promise isn't abstract or aspirational. It's foundational, literal, and deeply human.
What we witnessed Sunday, I believe, was an "Authenticity Correction." Nearly a quarter of the ads featured AI themes, and viewers were calling it "AI fatigue" before halftime. The problem wasn't the technology. The problem was brands using artificial perfection as a substitute for human connection.
For me, authenticity is at the pinnacle of understanding that technology should support the story, not become it. The brands that resonated understood something fundamental: effort signals respect. In a world full of signals, when audiences see real relationships, real outcomes, or real community impact, they recognize human thought and human care. That recognition creates trust.
The beauty of this moment is what it reveals about value. As AI drives the cost of producing "perfect" content to zero, the value of perfection drops with it. What becomes valuable is the thing that can't be generated by a prompt: messy humanity, friction, effort, the unmistakable fingerprints of human intention. And for me, the unmistakable humanity of storytelling.
Audiences are not looking for brands to be flawless. They're looking for brands to be real. Show them the dirt under the fingernails, the wrinkles in the process, the humans behind the promise. Because in a world where machines can generate perfection in seconds, authenticity is the only thing that actually connects.
