General Motors, Toyota, and Volkswagen. That’s it. That’s the complete list of automakers willing to write checks up to $10 million for 30 seconds of Super Bowl airtime in 2026.
Compare that to the heyday of automotive advertising during the Big Game, when five or six major manufacturers competed for attention with glossy spots showcasing new models, and the shift becomes impossible to ignore. The car companies that once dominated Super Bowl commercial breaks have largely abandoned the field, replaced by a new class of advertisers with deeper pockets and different priorities.
The automotive retreat tells a story about more than just advertising budgets. It reveals an industry in turmoil, hemorrhaging cash on failed EV bets while watching tech companies and pharmaceutical giants claim the spotlight during advertising’s most expensive night.
## The $10 Million Question
NBC sold out Super Bowl LX ad inventory in September, months before the season started. The average 30-second spot went for $8 million, but premium placements commanded upwards of $10 million, setting a new record for broadcast advertising.
That $8-10 million buys you the media time. Production costs add another $2-5 million depending on complexity and visual effects. Celebrity talent fees run anywhere from six figures for cameos to $3-5 million for A-list stars, according to WME senior partner Tim Curtis. All-in costs for a single 30-second spot now range from $12 million on the low end to north of $20 million for marquee advertisers pulling out every stop.
To put that in perspective: In 1967, the first Super Bowl, a 30-second commercial cost $37,500. Adjusted for inflation, that’s roughly $350,000 today. The actual 2026 price is more than 20 times higher in real terms.
For most automakers, that math stopped making sense.
## Why Detroit Blinked
“Super Bowl is just a massive platform, but it has gotten so expensive,” Tim Mahoney, a longtime automotive marketing executive who worked for GM, VW, Subaru and Porsche, told CNBC. “There are sometimes interesting ways to navigate around it.”
Translation: We’re finding better ROI elsewhere.
The automotive industry’s pullback from Super Bowl advertising corresponds directly with the sector’s ongoing crisis. The turmoil started in 2020 with pandemic supply chain chaos, then escalated with EV production pullbacks that have cost manufacturers billions. GM alone has written down multiple EV programs. Ford delayed its next-generation electric vehicles. Volkswagen paused production of the ID. Buzz, the retro electric minivan VW is actually advertising during the Super Bowl despite not offering a 2026 model year version in the United States.
That last detail is particularly telling. VW is spending millions to advertise a vehicle it doesn’t currently sell, likely trying to move remaining 2025 inventory while production sits idle due to rising costs and brutal competition from Chinese automakers in Europe.
Add tariff uncertainty, dealer inventory challenges, and consumer hesitation around EVs, and you have an industry in no position to gamble $15-20 million on a single commercial that might generate social media buzz but won’t necessarily move metal off dealer lots.
Automakers are redirecting budgets toward streaming platforms, YouTube, regional advertising, and sports sponsorships that offer more targeted reach at lower cost. CNBC’s iSpot data shows automotive brands have increased sports advertising overall while pulling back from the Super Bowl’s premium pricing.
## Who Replaced The Car Companies
If automakers are retreating, tech companies are charging forward. According to NBCUniversal’s Peter Lazarus, executive vice president of sports and Olympics advertising, tech and AI companies represent the strongest category growth in 2026 Super Bowl advertising.
“You’re going to see a plethora of AI units across our entire broadcast, and their creatives are terrific,” Lazarus told Axios. “Each one of them talks a little bit differently about AI and how AI can improve your life.”
Axios counted 16 tech companies advertising during Super Bowl LX. The list includes Google (promoting Gemini AI), Amazon (Ring’s AI-powered dog search feature), Anthropic (positioning Claude as the ad-free AI chatbot), Meta, Wix (showcasing its AI-powered website builder), Base44, Rippling, and others.
Tech spending on Super Bowl ads has doubled since 2022’s “Crypto Bowl,” the last time NBC broadcast the game. That shift reflects two realities: First, AI companies are flush with venture capital and need to establish brand awareness in the consumer market. Second, the crypto companies that dominated 2022 either imploded or learned expensive lessons about Super Bowl advertising’s inability to save fundamentally flawed business models.
Anthropic’s spot is particularly pointed. The ad shows a young man asking an AI chatbot for workout help, only to have the chatbot try to sell him shoes. “Ads are coming to AI,” the commercial states. “But not to Claude.”
It’s a direct shot at OpenAI’s recent announcement that ChatGPT’s free tier will feature advertising. And it demonstrates how tech companies are using the Super Bowl to differentiate in an increasingly crowded AI market where product features alone won’t establish consumer preference.
## The GLP-1 Super Bowl
Northwestern University marketing professor Tim Calkins called 2026 “the GLP-1 Super Bowl,” referencing the class of weight loss drugs that includes Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro.
Pharmaceutical companies rarely advertise during the Super Bowl. The audience isn’t precisely targeted, the cost is astronomical, and direct-to-consumer pharma advertising faces strict regulatory requirements that make creative execution challenging in 30-second spots.
But 2026 is different. Telehealth company Ro features tennis champion Serena Williams discussing her use of weight loss medication. Pharma giant Novo Nordisk makes its Super Bowl debut with a star-studded campaign. Hims & Hers addresses the “wealth health gap” with a spot promising to bring middle-class Americans the same healthcare access afforded to the wealthy.
Two other pharmaceutical companies are advertising medical screening: Novartis touts a blood test for prostate cancer, while Boehringer Ingelheim promotes kidney disease screening with Octavia Spencer and Sofia Vergara.
The pharma surge reflects both the massive commercial success of GLP-1 drugs and the telehealth industry’s need to establish consumer trust before traditional healthcare systems figure out how to compete. These companies are betting $15-20 million that Super Bowl exposure will legitimize their services and overcome skepticism about online medical care.
## The Real Winners
NBCUniversal is capitalizing on a fortuitous calendar. February 2026 brings the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics in Italy, and NBA All-Star Weekend, all on NBC platforms. The network branded the month “Legendary February” and packaged advertising across all three events.
The strategy worked. Seventy percent of Super Bowl advertisers also bought Olympics inventory. Forty percent purchased across all major NBC sports properties.
Total Super Bowl advertising revenue approached $485 million in 2021. With 2026 prices running 15-25 percent higher and inventory sold out by September, this year’s figure is expected to approach or exceed $600 million from a single four-hour broadcast.
For context, that exceeds the annual advertising revenue of most cable networks.
The Super Bowl remains one of the few monocultural events in American life where advertisers can reach 100+ million viewers simultaneously. In an era of fragmented streaming services and TikTok feeds, that level of undivided attention commands premium pricing.
“The Super Bowl is the only time of year when viewers don’t skip the ads—they actually turn up the volume,” one media buyer noted.
## What This Means For Business
The automotive industry’s retreat from Super Bowl advertising isn’t just about cost-cutting. It signals a sector in crisis, unable to justify premium marketing spend while bleeding cash on restructuring, EV pivots, and tariff uncertainty.
Meanwhile, tech companies flush with AI investment capital are using the Super Bowl to establish consumer brand awareness before the inevitable shakeout. Not all of these AI startups will survive. But the survivors will have established consumer recognition at a critical moment when “ChatGPT” risks becoming the generic trademark for all AI assistants.
The pharmaceutical and telehealth surge represents an industry that sees the Super Bowl as worth the premium because the total addressable market for weight loss drugs and preventive care screenings measures in tens of millions of potential customers. For Novo Nordisk, spending $15 million to reach 130 million viewers makes perfect sense when each new Wegovy patient represents thousands in annual revenue.
The Super Bowl ad landscape in 2026 reflects which industries have money and which industries are scrambling. Car companies are scrambling. Tech is spending. Pharma is betting big. And NBC is laughing all the way to the bank.
When Super Bowl LX kicks off Sunday night from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, pay attention to who bought commercials and who didn’t. The absence of familiar automotive advertisers speaks louder than any 30-second spot could manage.
Sometimes what’s not on your screen tells you more about the economy than what is.
