{"id":278222,"date":"2026-02-07T02:19:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/278222\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T02:19:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:19:29","slug":"the-ai-super-bowl-ad-battle-is-a-new-phase-in-the-competition-to-ipo-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/278222\/","title":{"rendered":"The AI Super Bowl ad battle is a new phase in the competition to IPO first"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sunday\u2019s big rivalry won\u2019t be Seattle versus New England. It\u2019ll be Anthropic<\/a> against OpenAI,<\/a> via Super Bowl ads.<\/p>\n

The two largest AI startups duking it out during America\u2019s most-watched cultural event of the year signals a new phase in the battle for dominance: the fight for mindshare and legitimacy as both prepare for massive IPOs.<\/p>\n

Invest in Gold <\/p>\n

Powered by Money.com – Yahoo may earn commission from the links above. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the Wild West, and everyone\u2019s rushing in like it\u2019s a gold rush or land grab, trying to convince people to go to their platform,\u201d said Kim Whitler, a professor at University of Virginia\u2019s Darden School of Business whose research focuses on analyzing what makes for an effective Super Bowl ad. \u201cThis is not about awareness at all; everyone knows Grok<\/a>, Perplexity<\/a>, Gemini<\/a>, ChatGPT, Claude. This is about trying to establish preference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthropic\u2019s four ads take aim at OpenAI\u2019s decision to start advertising inside ChatGPT. Words like \u201cdeception\u201d and \u201ctreachery\u201d flash across the screen as various conversations unfold between people and chatbots, embodied by humans. Shortly after beginning to answer the humans\u2019 questions, the chatbots noticeably shift into sales pitches, like suggesting height-boosting sneakers for someone interested in fitness, or a cougar dating site to a son looking to improve communication with his mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cAds are coming to AI. But not to Claude,\u201d each clip announces at the end.<\/p>\n

How can I communicate better with my mom?<\/p>\n

VC-backed companies have a long history of trying to establish themselves during the Super Bowl. The Farmer\u2019s Dog<\/a>, which sells subscriptions to boutique dog food, tugged on heartstrings in 2023 when it suggested its food could extend the life of your furry companion. And in 2021, Robinhood <\/a>tried to keep riding the meme-stock craze with its \u201cwe\u2019re all investors\u201d ad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about \u2018hey, we exist,\u2019 but rather about establishing what you stand for during this big game where everyone is watching,\u201d Whitler said. \u201cThe current market, it\u2019s all so in flux. If you look at today\u2019s current market share, will it be exactly the same in three years? Highly unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n

New turf<\/p>\n

Capturing attention is the name of this game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure they\u2019d like to be able to compete on new features and capabilities,\u201d said Mathew Isaac, a professor of marketing at Seattle University who has analyzed and dissected the impact of Super Bowl ads in the last 14 years. \u201cBut they now also realize that brand associations matter a lot, and their goal right now is to just be a survivor and bring in as many users as they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, the glut of ads by crypto startups, like FTX<\/a>\u2018s spots featuring Larry David and Crypto.com<\/a>\u2018s commercials with LeBron James, led many to refer to that year\u2019s championship as the \u201cCrypto Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article appeared as part of The Weekend Pitch newsletter. Subscribe here<\/a><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s AI ads have the same goal: normalize a new\u2014and somewhat derided\u2014technology for a large skeptical audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these folks are trying to buy in to get more legitimacy,\u201d said Timothy McMahon, a marketing professor at Creighton University and New York University. \u201cYou\u2019re buying into the conversation with a huge audience that is tuned into what the cultural zeitgeist is being shaped into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Research PitchBook Analyst Note: Tracking AI Venture Activity in APAC: Part II<\/a> This analyst note examines how AI investment across APAC is consolidating around infrastructure and selective enterprise use cases, with later-stage funding rising while consumer and emerging applications remain early and uncertain. 4 hours ago<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s certainly helpful for a consumer products company eyeing an IPO in the not-too-distant future. Consumers are both potential customers and potential retail investors. Both Robinhood and the ecommerce company Squarespace went public within months of splashing ads across Super Bowl viewers\u2019 TV screens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go into the Super Bowl space, everyone thinks of you differently, it\u2019s like you\u2019ve arrived … you\u2019re legit,\u201d McMahon said.<\/p>\n

Whole other ball game<\/p>\n

This new phase of jostling could also have implications for the greater venture ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraditional venture capital was designed to price and underwrite product and technology risk,\u201d said Anna Barber, GP at Everywhere Ventures<\/a>. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now is a different game where large funds are allocating capital to secure narrative dominance and market inevitability, not to validate innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the height of the dot-com bubble, when unfettered capital flowed into early internet startups, another company that used a Super Bowl ad to propel itself to an IPO was Pets.com. In February 2000, it debuted a series of commercials during Super Bowl 34 featuring a sock puppet, just weeks before it went public.<\/p>\n

By November 2000, the company had shut down.<\/p>\n

Barber worked at Petstore.com at the time, which Pets.com acquired that same year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen startups behave like brands before they behave like businesses, it\u2019s fair to ask whether this is still venture capital or something new we haven\u2019t named yet,\u201d she said. \u201cSome are calling it asset allocation. Others are calling it king-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthropic\u2019s other Super Bowl ads: <\/p>\n

Can I get a six pack quickly? What do you think of my business idea? Is my essay making a clear argument? Recent News Once Upon a Farm IPO validates the celebrity effect<\/a> Actor Jennifer Garner\u2019s organic baby food brand raised $198M in its debut on Friday. 1 hour ago AI climate tech startups are propping up clean energy VC deals<\/a> Overall, VC investment into climate tech startups has increased even as deal counts have dipped. 3 hours ago<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on PitchBook News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday\u2019s big rivalry won\u2019t be Seattle versus New England. It\u2019ll be Anthropic against OpenAI, via Super Bowl ads.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46,143344,3035,143345,34880,143343],"class_list":["post-278222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-kim-whitler","tag-lebron-james","tag-seattle-university","tag-super-bowl","tag-super-bowl-ads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}