Why Super Bowl Ads Need More Mascots

As the advertising event of the year, the Super Bowl garners massive attention from both the media and the general public. With ads selling at $8 million for a 30-second spot this year and viewership estimated to be more than 125 million, brands have high incentive to develop effective ads to achieve their objectives for the brand, which can range across the marketing funnel. It is well documented that celebrities, humor, animals, and emotional appeals are frequently used in Super Bowl ads. While research shows that these techniques can certainly work. However, simply using them does not guarantee that an ad performs above average on brand-building metrics. In contrast to the above techniques, brand mascots are underutilized and show good potential to build brands. Mascots vs. Celebrities in Super Bowl Commercials New insights from marketing effectiveness research experts at System1 Group document how effective mascots have been in recent Super Bowls relative to celebrities, and how they primarily help achieve long-term brand benefits. To more fully understand these insights, I spoke with Jon Evans, System1’s Chief Customer Officer. Evans affirms that mascots are less frequently used than celebrities, stating, “Celebrities appear in roughly 60% of Super Bowl ads, but their presence alone does not guarantee stronger results. Over time, ads featuring celebrities perform no better than ads without them.” Evans notes that in System1’s star ratings of Super Bowl ads, ads with mascots received a 3.4-rating on a 5 point scale, vs. 2.8 for ads featuring celebrities. The company’s star rating system measures activation of emotions and associated response strength, which has been found to translate into market share increases. Evans attributes the higher performance of ads using mascots to use of a known brand cue provided.“Mascots perform better because they act as a consistent brand cue. Looking across six Super Bowls, ads that feature a recurring character or recognizable slogan deliver stronger effectiveness and higher brand recognition. Despite this, they remain underused. Only 10% of ads featured a character and just 4% relied on a recurring slogan.” Why Mascots Work in Super Bowl Commercials In elaborating on the differences between the impact of mascots vs. celebrities, Evans observes: “Celebrities can help drive short-term attention, especially when they are used for what audiences already know them for and are closely tied to the brand. A good example of this is Pizza Hut’s latest ad featuring Tom Brady, which cleverly ties the former quarterback’s ‘HUT’ into Pizza Hut. That said, overall, mascots win over time because they build familiarity year after year, making the brand easier to recognize in the most crowded advertising moment of the year.” This view of mascots as brand assets that provide consistency aligns with prior academic research, which suggests that mascots can become symbolic assets with rich meanings. When well developed, they can concisely represent the brand’s personality and values. Importantly, they can help maintain consistency and coherence over time even as ad campaigns change. Evans cites the M&Ms spokescandies as a good example of how brand characters can be used to reinforce different campaigns while maintaining consistency. System1’s work also suggests that consistency has power in Super Bowl ads and, indeed, in advertising in general. As a result, Evans believes that repeat advertisers are well-advised to use mascots consistently, particularly at the Super Bowl. “When a brand shows up year after year with a familiar character, it creates a sense of continuity that audiences respond to.” Based on a study in which System1 partnered with the IPA on a study titled Compound Creativity, Evans notes that there is strong evidence of the power of consistency in advertising, saying, “The research found that consistency amplifies creativity, driving stronger ad performance and ultimately building brand equity and business results. Specifically, consistent creative execution (such as the repeated use of fluent devices or other brand assets) and other forms of consistency (maintaining the same agency of record, allowing ads time to wear in, and ensuring cross-channel alignment) led to greater advertising impact and improved brand and business outcomes." Why Consistency Facilitates Effective Super Bowl Ads In fleshing out the logic on why consistency works, Evans elaborates: “A strong example is Budweiser. The Clydesdales have been part of Budweiser’s Super Bowl advertising since the 1980s (though the business has used them since the 1930s), and they remain one of the most recognizable brand cues in the game. Their 2025 ad, First Delivery, built around a foal and a lost beer barrel, finished in the Top 10 with a strong 4.5-Star Rating, and, most notably, a 100 on Fluency, meaning the strength of branding (a continuous effort over many years) was spot on. Because the audience immediately knew it was Budweiser, the emotional story landed quickly and clearly.” It makes sense that some advertisers worry about overuse of mascots due to fears of repetition or the need to revinvent themselves every year. However, Evans argues that, in practice, the strongest brands see their mascots as a stable platform and then refresh the story around them in order to keep a stable platform that keeps the story both recognizable and enaging. Indeed, my own research with Sascha Raithel, Alexander Mafael, and David Stewart has verified that advertisers that deliver a consistent message achieve a special advantage in Super Bowl advertising that, on average, gives the brand a boost-- and using mascots is a good way to facilitate this consistency. Angelsoft’s 2025 Super Bowl ad, for example, used its mascot Angel in an effective way to deliver its message about taking a bathroom break ("pottytunity") in a ways that reinforced a link back to the brand. Indeed, System1 believes that repeat advertising is a smart strategy, especially in the Super Bowl. Evans says, “Our data strongly suggests that repeat advertising is a smart strategy, especially for the Super Bowl. When we looked at performance for last year’s Super Bowl, 18 of the top 20 highest-rated ads came from brands that advertise regularly. That is not a coincidence. Familiarity gives brands a real advantage in a crowded and expensive environment.” Evans believes that the explanation for why consistency works is that it lowers the effort the audience has to put in.“When viewers already recognize the brand’s look, characters, or tone, they do not have to work out who the ad is for,” he opines, “That frees up attention for the story and the emotion, which is where effectiveness really comes from. Super Bowl ads are often treated as one-off moments, but the strongest performers treat them as part of a longer conversation. Brands that return year after year can build on existing memories rather than reset them. Over time, that approach compounds. Each appearance reinforces the last, making the brand easier to recognize and easier to respond to positively when it matters most.” Building brands should be viewed as a long-term endeavor, and as pointed out by System1’s research, when possible mascots can and should be used in Super Bowl ads as part of a long-term brand-building strategy.