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As Super Bowl Sunday approaches, the battle off the field for advertisers to win over 120 million-plus viewers will be just as heated as the rivalry between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.Dozens of advertisers are pulling out all the stops for Super Bowl 60, airing Sunday on NBC. They’re hoping that audiences tuning in will remember their brand names as they stuff their ads with celebrities ranging from Kendall Jenner (Fanatics Sportsbook) to George Clooney (Grubhub), tried-and-true ad icons like the Budweiser Clydesdales, and nostalgia for well-known movie properties such as “Jurassic Park” (Comcast Xfinity).Each year Super Bowl ads offer a snapshot of the American mood as well as which industries are flush with cash that particular year: from the “Dot-Com Bowl” of 2000 to the “Crypto Bowl” of 2022.This year’s trends include health and telehealth companies advertising weight loss drugs and medical tests, tech companies showing off their latest gadgets and apps and advertisers showcasing AI in their ads.Villanova University marketing professor Charles Taylor said because of the heavy headlines in the news lately from the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota to conflicts abroad he expects a advertisers to stick to a light and silly tone.“Because of the Super Bowl’s status as a pop culture event with a fun party atmosphere, the vast majority of brands will avoid any dark or divisive tone and instead allow consumers to escape from thinking about these troubled times,” he said. Record-breaking prices Advertisers flock to the Super Bowl each year because so many people watch the big game. In 2025, a record 127.7 million U.S. viewers watched the game across television and streaming platforms.Demand is higher than ever, since live sporting events are one of the few remaining places in the fractured media landscape where advertisers can reach a large audience. NBC sold out of ad space in September.Space sold for an average of $8 million per 30-second unit, but a handful of spots sold for $10 million-plus, a record, said Peter Lazarus, executive vice president, sports & Olympics, advertising and partnerships for NBCUniversal. He said he was calling February, with the Super Bowl, Olympics and the NBA All-Star Game, “legendary February.”Lazarus said 40% of advertisers bought across all of NBC’s major sports properties, and 70% of Super Bowl advertisers bought the Olympics as well. Celebrities galore Featuring celebrities is a tried-and-true way advertisers can get goodwill from viewers. This year, Fanatics Sportsbook enlists Kendall Jenner to talk about the “Kardashian Kurse,” in which bad things happen to basketball players she dates.George Clooney appears in a Grubhub add to promote a deal that the delivery app offers to “Eat the Fees” on orders of $50 or more.Several ads feature more than one celebrity or sports star. Michelob Ultra shows Kurt Russell training actor Lewis Pullman, as Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim and hockey player T.J. Oshie watch on a ski slope.Xfinity reunites Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in a tongue-and-cheek reimagining of “Jurassic Park” that shows an Xfinity tech bringing power back to the island so nothing goes awry.And Uber Eats enlists Matthew McConaughey for the second year in a row to convince celebrities this year it is Bradley Cooper and Parker Posey that football is a conspiracy to make people hungry so they order food. AI takes the stage For the second year in a row, AI is making waves in Super Bowl ads.Oakley Meta touts their AI-enabled glasses in two action-packed spots showing Spike Lee, Marshawn Lynch and others using the glasses to film video and answer questions.Wix Harmony debuted an ad that features its web design software that uses AI tools. Wix is also airing an add for Base44, an AI app builder. And OpenAI will advertise during the game with a yet-to-be revealed ad.Svedka Vodka enlisted Silverside AI, an AI studio, to help create their ad, which features their robot mascot FemBot along with a male counterpart, BroBot. They took that approach because of Svedka’s positioning as the “vodka of the future,” said Sara Saunders, chief marketing officer at Sazerac, which bought the Svedka brand in 2025.“We reimagined the robot via AI,” Saunders said. “It took us many, many months to rebuild her, to give her functionality, to give her that human spirit that we wanted to show up on behalf of the brand.” Health and telehealth Health and telehealth providers are everywhere during Super Bowl 60. Two pharma companies are advertising tests: Novartis touts a blood test to screen for prostate cancer with the tagline “Relax your tight end,” featuring football tight ends relaxing. Boehringer Ingelheim’s ad stars Octavia Spencer and Sofia Vergara, who encourage people to screen for kidney disease.Liquid I.V., which makes an electrolyte drink mix, has teased an ad about staying hydrated.Telehealth firm Ro is using Serena Williams in their ad for GLP-1 weigh loss drugs. Novo Nordisk, which makes Wegovy and Ozempic, has teased that it will have a spot as well.Hims & Hers another company that offers GLP-1 weight loss drugs has an ad that says the company gives people better access to health care that usually only rich people get.“You could call this the GLP-1 Super Bowl,” said Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University. “Often you don’t see a lot from pharmaceutical companies on the Super Bowl, but this year we’re going to see quite a few showing up.” Tried-and-true themes Some advertisers are sticking to the tried and true. Budweiser’s heartwarming ad shows a Clydesdale foal growing up with a bald eagle to the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.” The ad celebrates Budweiser’s 150th anniversary.And Pepsi tries to reignite the Cola wars with their ad showing polar bears Coca-Cola’s famous mascots picking Pepsi Zero Sugar over Coke Zero in a blind taste test. The ad ends with the bears being caught on a “kiss cam.” Surprises While the majority of Super Bowl advertisers release their ad early to try to capitalize on buzz, some hold back until game day to reveal their ad.Pepsi-owned soft drink Poppi teased that pop star Charli XCX and actress Rachel Sennott will star in their ad.Ben Affleck is back in an ad for Dunkin’ Donuts. A teaser spot showed him with ’90s sitcom legends Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc of “Friends” and Jason Alexander from “Seinfeld.”And there are fewer car advertisers this year, but Cdillac is hinting that it will show off its new Formula 1 car in an ad. Mae Anderson, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
Olive Garden parent company Darden Restaurants has announced that it will shut down its Bahama Breeze restaurant chain for good. But in an unusual move, some current Bahama Breeze locations will live on as a different brand, while the remaining stores will close. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? On Tuesday, Darden Restaurants revealed the fate of one of its restaurant chains. The restaurant group, which is based in Orlando, Florida, owns LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, and Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and others. In a news release, it announced the closure and conversion of all of its Bahama Breeze restaurants. That Darden is jettisoning Bahama Breeze is no surprise. Last May, the company closed 15 Bahama Breeze locations and, in June, it announced that the brands 28 remaining locations were no longer a strategic priority for the company. At the time, CEO Ricardo Cadenas said the company would be considering strategic alternatives for Bahama Breeze, including a potential sale of the brand or converting restaurants to other Darden brands. Jump forward to yesterday, and Darden did indeed confirm the final fate of Bahama Breeze. A buyer for Bahama Breeze never materialized, so instead, the company has revealed that it will simply shut down the brand. Yet not all 28 locations are actually closing. Instead, half will shutter their doors for good, while the other half will continue running until they can be converted into locations of other restaurant chains Darden owns. These Bahama Breeze locations will close The following 14 Bahama Breeze locations will be closing for good. According to Darden, the closures should be completed by April 5. Those permanently closing locations include stores in nine states: Delaware 500 Center Blvd., Newark Georgia 3590 Breckenridge Blvd., Duluth Florida 12395 SW 88th St., Miami 10205 Rivercoast Drive, Jacksonville 1251 West Osceola Pkwy., Kissimmee 11000 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines 1540 Rinehart Road, Sanford Michigan 19600 Haggerty Road, Livonia New Jersey 2000 Route 38, Cherry Hill North Carolina 3309 Wake Forest Drive, Raleigh Pennsylvania 320 Goddard Blvd., King of Prussia 6100 Robinson Center Drive, Pittsburgh Virginia 2714 Potomac Mills Circle, Woodbridge Washington 15700 Southcenter Pkwy., Tukwila These Bahama Breeze locations will be converted As for the remaining 14 Bahama Breeze locations, they will be converted into other Darden-owned restaurants. Darden did not disclose which brands the stores will transition into. The company believes the conversion locations are great sites that will benefit several of the brands in its portfolio, Darden said in a statement. The 14 transitioning Bahama Breeze locations are expected to continue operating until their temporary closures are needed for the conversion. Those converting locations include stores in five states: Florida 499 E. Altamonte Drive, Altamonte Springs 805 Brandon Town Center Drive, Brandon 14701 S. Tamiami Trail, Ft. Myers 8160 Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy., Kissimmee 25830 Sierra Center Blvd., Lutz 5620 W. Oak Ridge Road, Orlando 8849 International Drive, Orlando 8735 Vineland Ave., Orlando 1200 N. Alafaya Drive, Orlando 3045 N. Rocky Point Drive East, Tampa Georgia 755 Earnest W. Barrett Pkwy NW, Kennesaw North Carolina 570 Cross Creek Mall, Fayetteville South Carolina 7811 Rivers Ave., Charleston Virginia 4554 Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach How is Darden Restaurants stock reacting? It seems investors have taken the news of Bahama Breezes demise in stride, most likely because Darden had previously announced that it was seeking to divest itself of the chain. Yesterday, shares of Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) closed up about 2.2% to $205.49. As of this writing, in premarket trading, DRI shares are down slightly by about 0.4%. So far this year, the companys stock price has risen more than 11%. That is nearly triple the return of the broader New York Stock Exchange during the same period. However, shares are currently down from their all-time high of around $228 in June of last year. Darden’s brands, like many restaurant chains, are facing tough times as inflationary pressures increase costs and make diners more choosy about where they spend their discretionary dollars. Darden is far from the only company closing restaurants in 2026. In January alone, Fat Brands disclosed that it would close a number of restaurants (including some Smokey Bones, Johnny Rockets, and Yalla Mediterranean locations) as it seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Meanwhile, Noodles & Company said it would close between 30 and 35 locations, and Salad and Go announced it would close more than 32 locations.
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E-Commerce
TV host, producer, author, and United Nations Development Program Goodwill Ambassador Padma Lakshmi has some candid advice for business leaders when it comes to speaking out, showing courage, and staying true to themselves, particularly amid the Trump administrations violent immigration crackdown. A passionate voice at the intersection of food, culture, and identity, Lakshmi shares how shes shaking up food media with her new series Americas Culinary Cup, and offers a refreshingly human take on modern work life. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. Your work, the book, your Hulu show Taste the Nation, youre drawing on multicultural experience, immigrant experience. With all the stuff that’s going on right now with crackdowns on immigration, how do you feel about that? How does that impact what you’re trying to do? I feel horrible. I feel horrible about all of it. It’s unconscionable, it’s unethical, it’s immoral. It’s antithetical to what this country has not only been about, but what makes it so unique and singular on the world stage. I mean, there are more migration today on Earth than there has been in the history of humankind, but America in particular is shaped and evolved into the superpower it is because of immigration, specifically because of immigration. Because we are able to attract talent from around the world and with the promise of, you can make your life here peacefully, and in turn, in exchange, make America better through whatever skill you bring, however you contribute to the economy, to the educational system, to the medical system, or whatever. And I think it is very shortsighted of this administration. I mean, it’s racist. Of course it’s racist. Let’s just call a spade a spade, but it’s also from pragmatic view, really stupid because first of all, all you have to do is open your social media to see this farmer who voted for Trump crying about carrots in his field that cannot be harvested because all of the people are scared and have run away and not come to work. We can thank Trump for that. He can thank Trump for losing his family farm, and if anyone else wants to pick that vegetable or fruit under those conditions for that money, they would have, but they don’t. When I talk to and ask business leaders about this kind of question, there’s a lot of wariness about being as clear about the way they feel as you are being here. They’re worried about poking the administration. They’re worried about alienating customers, potential audiences. I understand. Do you worry about that? I know that I turn some people who don’t think like me off. I know that I cannot credibly be anyone but who I am, and I think that me leaning into who I am has made me sleep better at night, but also has brought me a modicum of success that I feel I’ve earned. And so yes, of course I’m afraid of losing business, but I’m more afraid of losing my soul. Your new show is on CBS. You’ve talked about what great partners they’ve been. CBS itself has been a little bit of a lightning rod with the Paramount and Warner Bros. deal and what’s happening at Stephen Colbert’s show or 60 Minutes. Have you felt any of that? To be honest, I have not because I’m not in the news department. I personally think food is very political, but the show we are making is not at all political. You’re also a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. The environment around the U.N. has become more fraught also with this administration. Is what you hear when you go to other countries as an ambassador about America, is that changing? I mean, it’s been changing for 10 years. It’s not just changing now. I remember having a book tour in India, early 2017, and I felt like I was Trump’s press secretary. People kept saying, “What is going on?” And so all I could say was, “I’m so sorry.” I kept apologizing and saying, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t vote for him. On behalf of all Americans, we are sorry,” and those such innocent times. But that was happening even 10 years ago, and I think it’s a shame because we have squandered a lot of the goodwill that America had in spite of its very questionable foreign policy for decades and decades. We still had a lot of goodwill because we were that beacon on the hill. We were that shining light that said, “Listen, we don’t care where you’re from. As long as your values align with American values, i.e., the Declaration of Independence, i.e., the Bill of Rights, i.e., the Constitution, you too have a fair shot in this country.” And that is a beautiful sentiment, that the only club there is is what your efforts bring to the table or what your assets or resources, however you want to say it. That is a wonderful thing and very unique and something that I think every American can feel proud of, but it’s going to take decades to repair a lot of the damage that has been done and it’s too late. It’s too late to go back to how it was. That peoples’ trust in what we say we are as Americans doesn’t No, not that, because I think people are intelligent enough to make the distinction between one man and his administration in office and the average American citizen. I mean it’s too late for, no matter what they do, what this administration does with ICE or border patrol or any of the other ways they’re trying to impede the natural progression of what this country looks like, they want a white America. They do. They want only European descendants to be in this country, and it’s too late. It’s too late. Who’s going to program your computers? Who’s going to be your cardiac surgeon? And also the thing that is terrible, and I want to get away from this for a second, it’s not only about what you can contribute to this country, okay? A person’s worth should not only be based on their skills or resources. There’s nothing that is more valuable between my child and that child in the Congo and Gaza, in Brazil. My child’s blood is just as red as theirs. When we see each other that way, that will be a turning point, but this administration does not hold that belief at all. You integrate all of this into your work though, too, right? I’m lucky. I’m very fortunate, and I know this, to be able to make a living out of what naturally interests me. I didn’t get into food professionally until I was in my late twenties or almost 30, and so I was a literature and theater major. I was an actress, and then I made this change. Most of us spend most of our life at work, and so you’ve got to believe in what you’re doing because work is hard regardless. Even when you do, there are very difficult days and that’s why they call it work. So I think the more ou can find a way to spend your time doing things guided by your principles, the happier one will be. My producers were talking about the videos that you post with your daughter and how genuine your connection is to your community. A lot of the listeners of the show, they’re business people who are trying to come across as being authentic in their communications internally, social media, otherwise. Do you have a suggestion about how you do that? It was hard. For so long, especially when I was still an actor, I tried so hard to figure out and be what any one person who could give me the job wanted me to be. I mean, it’s inherent when you’re an actor, I guess. But I have now realized that there’s a difference between trying to be authentic and just being authentic. One is conscious of an observer, of an audience. The other is not conscious of the self being observed. So obviously my videos are edited. They’re also edited to protect my child and certain privacy issues in my home. But I am like, I am on those videos whether the camera is on or off, which is different, obviously. That’s a different version of me than you see on my television shows or in my op-eds for The Times or The Washington Post. How can corporate leaders be more authentic? The only piece of advice I have for them, especially when they’re doing media, whether it’s just an internal video or it’s something public facing, try to do it without the camera on or try to do it when you don’t know the camera’s on and someone on your staff that you trust, try not to be aware of being watched.
Category:
E-Commerce
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