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Welcome to The Brief by Kuro House, your daily shot of what’s shaping the marketing world. Today, we’re diving into the high-stakes drama brewing around Super Bowl ads—where AI rivals are sparring on the biggest stage, and the industry’s most-watched ad meter is back to spotlight which brands truly capture America’s attention. Whether you’re here for the creative, the controversy, or the business behind it all, we’ve got the full story.
Let’s start with the return of the USA Today Ad Meter, as reported by ADWEEK. This tool has become a kind of “Tomatometer” for Super Bowl ads, letting the actual viewers decide which spots connect best. Now in its 38th year, the Ad Meter is more relevant than ever, especially with a lineup that editor Rick Suter calls one of the most compelling in recent memory. Classic brands like Budweiser and Pepsi are back, but there’s serious energy from newcomers as well. If you want to have your say, voting is already open and runs until February 9 at midnight Eastern. ADWEEK’s Super Bowl 2026 Ad Tracker already has most commercials live for preview, and ADWEEK will reveal the winner early Monday, as they have in recent years—past winners include Budweiser, State Farm, The Farmer’s Dog, Rocket Mortgage, and Jeep. There’s a noticeable Americana thread running through those victors: homes, dogs, insurance, beer. The big question this year is whether a tech company or a new health-focused brand can break through that tradition. To add to the excitement, USA Today is offering behind-the-scenes reporting, even embedding a reporter with celebrities like Kurt Russell and Ben Stiller on set. Meanwhile, ADWEEK is promising deep-dive coverage into the business strategies behind the ads, including how Uber Eats plans to dominate the delivery wars and why healthy messaging is suddenly everywhere. And don’t miss their live show with Viral Nation, which brings exclusive interviews with the creative minds and marketers behind the year’s most talked-about commercials.
But the real fireworks this year aren’t just between beer and chip brands—they’re between the titans of artificial intelligence. According to ADWEEK, Anthropic’s very first Super Bowl ad has already sparked a pointed response from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Anthropic’s campaign touts its chatbot Claude’s promise to remain ad-free, a jab at OpenAI’s recent announcement that ChatGPT will start running ads. Altman took to X (formerly Twitter) to say he found the Anthropic ads funny but “clearly dishonest,” insisting that OpenAI would never run ads in the intrusive way depicted. He also accused Anthropic of hypocrisy, pointing out their own premium-priced subscription model and suggesting that OpenAI’s approach is about making AI accessible to billions, not just the wealthy. Kate Rouch, OpenAI’s CMO, echoed this, calling out Anthropic for calling ads a “betrayal” while selling subscriptions to companies. Anthropic, for its part, declined to comment directly to ADWEEK, but published a blog post emphasizing their revenue comes from enterprise contracts and subscriptions, which they reinvest into improving Claude. Their Super Bowl campaign, “A Time and a Place,” created by Mother, features four vignettes where AI chatbots—personified as professionals—are interrupted mid-conversation by jarring ad scripts, ending with the slogan “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.” Anthropic expects the campaign to reach around 120 million viewers. Meanwhile, OpenAI is reportedly prepping its own Super Bowl spot, setting the stage for an AI ad showdown. Google’s Gemini has also joined the fray with its own “helpful AI” pitch, marking a shift where AI companies are embracing cinematic, emotionally charged advertising strategies reminiscent of Apple.
ADWEEK’s analysis goes even deeper on Anthropic’s Super Bowl debut, “A Time and a Place.” The campaign is intentionally awkward, showing people asking Claude deeply personal questions—about health, relationships, work—only for a fictional ad-supported chatbot to interrupt with a sponsored message. The effect is jarring and, according to ADWEEK, both realistic and uncomfortable enough to grab serious attention. The ad comes at a time when OpenAI is softening its stance on ads, introducing beta ads to ChatGPT with a $200,000 upfront commitment. Altman’s criticism of Anthropic’s “expensive product for rich people” and Rouch’s assertion that “real betrayal isn’t ads, it’s control” have fueled a public spat, with both sides accusing the other of hypocrisy or doublespeak. The irony, as ADWEEK points out, is that Anthropic is making a bold anti-advertising statement while spending millions to advertise on the most ad-saturated platform in existence: the Super Bowl. The real question is whether Anthropic can stick to its ad-free promise as financial pressures mount—history is littered with companies who promised “no ads” and later changed course. The campaign is a creative win, but the real test will be whether they can hold the line as the AI industry’s economics evolve.
That’s all for today’s Brief. The Super Bowl is shaping up to be more than just a showcase for the world’s biggest consumer brands—it’s now a battleground for the future of AI, business models, and the very nature of advertising itself. Whether you’re watching for the touchdowns or the taglines, keep an eye on how these stories play out—they’ll shape not just what we see on screen, but how we interact with technology for years to come. Thanks for tuning in, and we’ll catch you tomorrow with more insights from the front lines of marketing.
