A handful of car logos, a lot of nostalgia and an unmistakable absence.
This year’s Super Bowl felt different to anyone who pays attention to the way automakers advertise. Gone were the days when nearly half the commercial minutes were filled with car pitches. Instead, only a trio of major manufacturers — Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors — bought national ad time during Super Bowl LX, leaving a conspicuous gap on the advertising roster.
Not a coincidence: the industry is cautious
Industry watchers point to a cocktail of reasons. The Super Bowl is still phenomenally expensive — a 30-second slot now averages about $8 million — and automakers are facing pressure from slowing sales, tariffs, shifting regulations and the expensive pivot toward electrification. “Autos are tightening their belts,” Sean Muller of ad data firm iSpot told reporters, noting how automakers’ share of Super Bowl ad minutes plunged from roughly 40% in 2012 to single digits by 2025.
Former auto marketing executive Tim Mahoney hits on the practical side: the Super Bowl is a huge platform, but it only pays off if a company has the right product story, the creative and the capital to make a splash. Many brands seem to be reallocating that money: more targeted streaming, regional buys and sponsorships tied to live sports rather than broad national spots.
Those choices show up in this year’s campaigns. Stellantis, for example, opted out of national Super Bowl time to spread its creative across the year and lean on other activations. Nissan experimented with a social-first “Big Game” spot for its Rogue instead of a broadcast buy. The result is less sheetmetal on the broadcast break, but a proliferation of vehicles and automotive moments across streaming and social feeds.
What the three automakers aired — and why they matter
Toyota leaned on story and nostalgia. The brand ran two 30-second spots that avoided flash for warmth: “Superhero Belt” follows a grandfather in a 1997 RAV4 buckling in his grandson, then flips decades later when roles reverse in the all-new 2026 RAV4. The other spot, “Where Dreams Began,” pairs Team Toyota athletes (including Puka Nacua and Oksana Masters) with younger, dream-filled versions of themselves. Toyota’s approach was classic brand-building — emotional, human-centered, and squarely aimed at family-minded buyers. You can see Toyota’s own press material describing the campaign on the Toyota newsroom.
Volkswagen went the opposite direction in tone but similar in spirit: an updated riff on its 1990s “Drivers Wanted” message, set to House of Pain’s “Jump Around” and designed to tug at 1990s nostalgia while pitching a forward-looking invitation to drive. VW released an extended 90-second version online, banking on a viral lift beyond the 30‑second TV cut.
GM used the platform to make noise about motorsport. The company’s Cadillac brand held back a reveal until the broadcast to show its first Formula 1 livery — a marketing play designed to give the new Cadillac F1 team maximum visibility ahead of its racing debut. It’s a different kind of performance pitch: not a new consumer model to buy next week, but a statement about brand ambition.
A few creative asides — and where cars still appear
Even when an automaker didn’t buy national Super Bowl time, cars showed up in other advertisers’ work. Nissan’s social-first “Dip Seat” with chef Matty Matheson was a cheeky, low-cost example of getting attention without paying for a national slot. Car-lovers also had fun spotting a vintage Ferrari in a sportsbook ad and movie-era Ford Explorers in an Xfinity spot riffing on Jurassic Park — little reminders that car imagery still plays well in pop-culture shorthand.
Car and Driver’s Super Bowl spotter guide collected those moments and served as a reminder that you don’t have to be a car brand to put classic metal center stage.
What this shift means beyond the game
The pullback from national Super Bowl buys doesn’t mean automakers are abandoning big-stage marketing. Many are redirecting dollars into live-sports inventory, regional sponsorships, and digital plays that let them reach audiences more precisely and measure impact better. iSpot data suggests automakers now command a larger share of spending on live sports than they do on single-event national spots.
There’s also a product-story angle. Brands that have something unequivocally new — Cadillac’s F1 livery, Toyota’s 2026 RAV4 — will still use big moments to amplify those narratives. Others, wrestling with the cost and risk of launching new EVs or coping with market uncertainty, prefer steadier, year-round campaigns.
Automotive marketing is also borrowing more from tech and media companies: in-car services, streaming partnerships and navigation integrations are part of the pitch now. That ties into broader industry changes, like the growth of smarter, connected cockpits and digital assistants. If you follow how carmakers talk about in-vehicle tech, it’s easy to see why features that once lived in headlines are increasingly presented through digital experiences rather than big TV spectacles — a trend that echoes developments in consumer tech such as Google Maps’ Gemini integration for navigation.
You’ll also see personnel and corporate moves influencing creative direction. Recent leadership changes at automakers shape marketing priorities and product timelines, which in turn affect whether a brand takes the Super Bowl plunge; Toyota’s own corporate developments are part of that larger picture Toyota Appoints Kenta Kon as New CEO.
Expect fewer car ads in the halftime ad breaks next year. But when automakers do buy in — whether to debut a livery, launch a marquee model, or tell a human story — they’re trying to turn that expensive second into a cultural moment that ripples across social feeds and news cycles. The Super Bowl may be losing some of its old car-clogged character, but the brands that show up are aiming to make every second count — and to stretch it well beyond the TV frame.
If you’re watching next year, bring a sharp eye. There will be fewer launches, fewer boisterous jingles, and maybe more clever ways to get around the price tag. The marquee moments will feel more deliberate. And for those who love cars, that might be better — or at least more interesting — than another spot about a crossover that looks like every other crossover.