Automakers are essentially skipping Super Bowl ads for 2026

DETROIT — Automakers are largely sitting on the sidelines of announcements during this year’s Super Bowl amid uncertainty in the U.S. auto industry including sales, tariffs and regulations.

Automakers — historically major buyers of ads during the big game — have been inconsistent with ads during the Super Bowl in recent years, with only a handful of ads each year.

“It’s definitely been on the decline,” said Sean Mueller, CEO of advertising data company iSpot. “Auto companies are tightening their belts, they’re probably cutting their budgets, and that’s definitely being reflected. I think the Super Bowl is a good barometer of all of this.”

Automakers accounted for 40% of Super Bowl ad minutes in 2012, but that will drop to 7% by 2025, according to iSpot. Only three automakers are expected to air ads totaling about two minutes during this year’s game.

It’s a balancing act when it comes to advertising during the Super Bowl, said Tim Mahoney, a longtime auto marketing executive. He said that a company must have the right product, advertising campaign, and of course capital to stand out and get a return on its investment.

“The Super Bowl is just a huge platform, but it has become very expensive,” Mahoney, who has worked for General Motors, Volkswagen, Subaru and Porsche, told CNBC. “There are sometimes interesting ways to move around it. … The juxtapositions can be clever.”

During Mahoney’s tenure, Subaru became the presenting sponsor for Animal Planet’s “blackout” TV screens and GM’s Chevrolet brand just before the Super Bowl for an in-car Wi-Fi ad in 2015.

Outside of the Super Bowl, automakers have been evolving sports advertising as well as embracing more streaming and regional advertising on a national scale, according to iSpot.

“They are not cutting spending on live sports,” Mueller said, citing iSpot data that suggests automakers now account for nearly 60% of spending on live sports.

Auto executives who spoke to CNBC about not advertising during this year’s Super Bowl said they were deterred by the cost — $8 million on average for a 30-second ad — and felt their advertising dollars would be better spent elsewhere.

“We’re going to really spread out our efforts, the money and the creativity, over the course of a year,” said Olivier Francois, Stellantis’ chief marketing officer, known for past Super Bowl ads. “There’s no need for a peak or something like that in February.”

Stellantis, which is in the midst of a corporate turnaround plan, will instead focus this year on the US’s 250th anniversary as its main marketing push as well as more business-oriented spending and a provocative social media campaign for Jeep featuring a singing fish that it launched this week.

Nissan Motor Co., which last advertised during the Super Bowl in 2022, is experimenting with parallel advertising this year.

The Japan-based automaker on Friday released a high-energy, comedic social media ad titled “Big Game” promoting the chip-and-dip stand for the Nissan Rogue SUV. The “Nissan Dip Seat” ad stars chef and “The Bear” actor Matty Matheson promoting the fictional product. It also promotes sweepstakes to win one of the vehicles.

“One of the key things for us is we wanted to find a way that was more social in nature,” Allison Witherspoon, Nissan’s US marketing director, told CNBC. “That was part of what our overall strategy was this year.”

Witherspoon declined to discuss the cost of the concert, but confirmed that it was less than what he would have spent on airing a traditional Super Bowl ad.

Others like Honda Motor They will look to the Olympics as their main advertising spend. Honda is sponsoring the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams for this year’s Winter Games in Milan as well as the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

“The Super Bowl is one moment in time,” said Ed Biddle, who leads marketing for Honda Motor Co. of America. “The Olympics has so many verticals that you can delve into and tell these stories.”

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics is scheduled to take place on Friday in Milan. As the month begins Comcast NBCUniversal — which will broadcast the Olympics, Super Bowl and NBA All-Star weekend — has coined a “Legendary February.”

GM remains a wild card in this year’s game, as the only automaker not to have made its announcement in advance. The Detroit automaker is using the Super Bowl to launch its Cadillac F1 team, including unveiling the look of its first livery to a national audience.

Last month, the automaker showed off a prototype of the car’s design in Detroit, including at the city’s auto show, but did not release any information about the commercial.

Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, is expected to air two 30-second ads focusing on family bonds.

One, called “Superhero Belt,” shows a grandson and grandfather taking turns over the years and asking the other to secure their seatbelts. The other was not released.

The Volkswagen ad revives the carmaker’s iconic 1990s advertising campaign for a new generation of customers in a marketing campaign called “The Great Call: Drivers Wanted.”

The new campaign, including a 30-second Super Bowl ad, features several of the automaker’s vehicles being driven to House of Pain’s 1992 hit song “Jumparound.”

– CNBC Lillian Rizzo She contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Versant, parent company of CNBC, carries Olympic coverage produced by NBC Sports on its networks, including USA Network and CNBC.