eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
The Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles had another winner: AI companies. OpenAI, Meta, Google, and others poured money into some of the most coveted TV spots of the year. Here are the highlights.
OpenAI links ChatGPT to the history of tech
OpenAI’s ad focused on ChatGPT, reflecting the message that the company wants its famous chatbot to be used for a wide range of consumer and business applications. The Silicon Valley darling didn’t bother with the details of how to use OpenAI o1 in ChatGPT or its newest model, o3; instead, the ad suggests ChatGPT is as much an evolution of humanity as the invention of the spear of the Moon lander. (We particularly liked the brief moment showing the slow passage of information from the Earth to the Moon.)
The black dot symbol and jingle in the commercial may be part of the AI company’s rebranding. Last week, the company slightly changed their circular logo and font.
As far as we know, OpenAI’s ad is AI-related but not AI-generated.
Google positions Gemini as a tool for busy parents
Google also showed off its chatbot in its recent ads, which concentrated on Gemini. The Super Bowl ad shows a busy father handling both an interview for his dream job and raising a child.
Google’s national TV spot gained more positive buzz than one of its big-spend local ads, which aired last week and featured an incorrect statistic about gouda cheese. Google claims the ad team corrected Gemini’s response in collaboration with the business owner featured in the ad, changing it from a percentage to a general statement about the cheese’s popularity.
Meta walks off with the million-dollar banana
Meta brought star power to its flashy ad for Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, recruiting Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, and Kris Jenner.
The ad referenced this year’s most-memed work of fine art, “Comedian” by Maurizio Cattelan. (“Comedian” is also known as the $6.2 million banana eaten by crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun in his own meme-slash-marketing moment.)
The ad shows the two Chrises bantering about asking Meta “Who eats art?” to deflect from their rummaging around in Jenner’s fridge. Jenner then asks Meta to call her lawyer.
Apple and other brands have been trying with mixed success to get a piece of the augmented reality glasses pie. The collaboration between Meta and Ray-Ban has been working out relatively well, selling more than one million pairs last year, according to a leaked recording of a Meta company meeting. In addition, companies including XREAL and TCL introduced high-quality products into the market.
Salesforce wants you to find your way in an airport with Agentforce
Salesforce went all-in on its Agentforce AI product in an ad featuring Matthew McConaughey. Salesforce said the ad’s message – that McConaughey could have known his gate changed earlier if he used Agentforce – refers to the AI chatbot embedded in Heathrow Airport’s site. It can perform “FAQs & real-time wayfinding,” Salesforce said. McConaughey has been on board for several Agentforce ads.
Meanwhile, consumer sentiment around one of Salesforce SEO Mark Benioff’s posts about Salesforce last week was mostly negative. Commenters point out that Agentforce performs mostly conventional chatbot tasks, sometimes poorly, instead of being a revolutionary AI.
Did ChatGPT accurately predict the winner of the Super Bowl?
ChatGPT’s deep research failed to predict the big game’s winner, at least in this answer.