Key events
Benjamin Lee
Here’s that very patriotic Brad Pitt ad:
Adrian Horton
Now we’re on to a musical celebration of New Orleans, from jazz to hip-hop, marching big brass bands to bounce, featuring Harry Connick, Jr (and the voice of New Orleans cultural icon Big Freedia). A hype way to start the evening, and convincing that New Orleans is a premiere US city for live music.
Adrian Horton
On a pure name recognition level, the two most famous people in attendance tonight are Taylor Swift and Donald Trump. One very much wants to be associated with the other, and one would love to have her name out of his mouth.
A brief rundown of their terse relations: Trump, you may recall, published an AI-generated fake endorsement from Swift last summer. The singer – who avoided politics entirely until 2018 and remains loath to make a statement – then supported Kamala Harris with a very Taylor Instagram post calling out said fake endorsement. Trump then posted on Truth Social: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”
So I would not expect them to interact tonight, nor would I want to see it.
Benjamin Lee
A pre-recorded video paying tribute to the resilience and community of New Orleans in the face of the recent tragic truck attack in January. Lady Gaga, all in white, is performing an emotional performance of her Top Gun: Maverick theme to a crowd of locals and some football celebrities. It’s a smart way to nod to recent events and provide a rousing kickoff to tonight’s events. Video to come soon …
Adrian Horton
Brad Pitt is making sure you know that football is culture. The actor just showed up in a PSA for … the Super Bowl? That was essentially a rambling collage of American propaganda. Appearing in New Orleans – an interesting choice, given the many issues with homes his foundation built there post-Katrina – Pitt waxes poetic on the football huddle as “a metaphor for our history” along with many platitudes on American unity, for a game Donald Trump is attending.
Alaina Demopoulos
Planes, trains and Oikos
A planes, trains and automobiles theme from Dannon’s Oikos Greek yoghurt: Juno Temple carries Cleveland Browns defensive end Miles Garrett on her back through a busy terminal so he can catch his plane on time.
Adrian Horton
Remember when Super Bowl advertisers tried very hard to convince people to buy into crypto? (Tom Brady would love you to forget.) Or the year with weird Scientology ads? This year, the mainstream normalization push is for AI. Several companies, including Google, Meta and Salesforce, will have spots touting their AI ventures. And OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT, will purportedly have their first Big Game ad, assumedly to make generative AI seem less scary to the average American consumer.
Andrew Lawrence
We just had a pretty stirring performance from Ledisi of Lift Every Voice and Sing. Given the NFL’s decision to remove the “END RACISM” logos from the end zones, it’s somewhat surprising the league kept on with the song – one of their big concessions to come out of Colin Kaepernick kneeling to bring awareness to social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Benjamin Lee
Kendrick vs Drake! Taylor vs Trump! That team vs that other team! Here’s a look at what you can expect from tonight:
Adrian Horton
Spotted: one Taylor Swift. Outfit judgment forthcoming.
Adrian Horton
Ahead of the game, in the latest move of what is shaping up to be the greatest Oscar campaign in recent memory, Timotheé Chalamet managed to get in a car with Kendrick Lamar to talk shop. And be a fan boy, of course. Full clip below:
Benjamin Lee
There are multiple non-football celebrities already in attendance, close-ish the normies. More to come …
Benjamin Lee
Kendrick gave a rare interview this week with Apple Music if you want to look for some clues of what to expect from tonight’s performance:
The Bowl Begins
Benjamin Lee
It’s that time of year once again for our sports brethren to focus on the big game and for us to focus on everything else. The Super Bowl is of course primarily about football, but for us it’s about the culture surrounding it.
This year will see a more star-packed bundle of expensive ads than ever before with celebrities such as Charli xcx and Ben Affleck, the re-appearance of Taylor Swift and whichever big-name friends she brings along, and, most importantly, recent Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar taking over the half-time show.
It’s set to be an exciting night for many Americans and a hellish night for one Canadian (will Lamar perform his controversial Drake diss track to the biggest crowd of his life?) and we will be here to cover every little non-sport moment of the night, so stay tuned.
