Super Bowl LVI was all about the celebrities, from the stands to the ads

Los Angeles Times

"To hold our attention, Super Bowl LVI leaned hard on star power, both in the stands and in the ads," says Lorraine Ali. "They showed up in person at SoFi stadium, a brand-new venue in Inglewood, just 16 miles outside Hollywood. (For those who don’t live here, that equals an hour and 15 minutes in L.A. traffic.) But they were omnipresent in the commercials. Matthew McConaughey, Zendaya, Paul Rudd, Salma Hayek, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pete Davidson were among the famous faces recruited to create buzz around such exciting products as ... mayonnaise." Ali adds: "Celebrities are particularly useful when the brand they’re paired with is something consumers have never heard of or don’t understand. Ty Burrell’s familiar face and affable goofiness were able to grab the attention of potential Greenlight customers in 'I’ll Take it' — even if they (still) don’t know that Greenlight is a financial tech company. See also: (Matthew) McConaughey in a spacesuit, in a hot air balloon, waving at office workers and farmers alike, spreading the word about Salesforce. They look puzzled, just like you will after watching this ad."

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