“I definitely thought it was cool and a little weird. I never thought stepping into this job that I would be part of an inspection for the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium,” said Lopez, who is a 49ers fan and was saddened her team didn’t make the championship. “I’m very glad that I was able to be a part of it with my colleagues who share that sort of pride around the event, representing our county.”
Following Lopez and other inspectors was Carolyn Lê, the senior communications officer for CEPA, who did some “content farming,” filming the staff as they went about their work.
Lê collaborated with her staff to post some cheeky and well-timed videos featuring the inspectors, and also clips of the halftime show itself, calling attention to all the plant life portrayed.
“POV: You tune into the halftime show, but you’re an agricultural inspector, so all you can think about are the plants,” some of the text over one video read, earning nearly 8,000 likes as of Tuesday.
“We’re approaching this in a way where it’s like, ‘Hey, we work for the government. This is the type of work that we do, and sometimes people don’t find it very fascinating, but we really love it,’” Lê said.
“We were pretty shocked” at the level of engagement the posts received, she said, even though the team knew there’d be a lot of eyes on videos related to Bad Bunny and the Super Bowl.
A Super Bowl Banner decorates the exterior of Levi’s Stadium in San Jose on Jan. 28, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)
Another successful post was rooted in a brief moment of panic Lê had when she saw the sugarcane grasses on screen and worried her team had missed some plants in their inspection, only to realize through other social posts that they were people.
“We’re just pretty grateful for the social media platform to allow us to connect with other people and then draw them into understanding why inspecting plants is so important,” she added.
The account also got a huge response from a video featuring the county’s animal services staff and a series of shots of bunnies at the county’s animal shelter, with a caption that said, “Looking for a bad bunny.”
“I was very surprised when I came to work on Monday morning and saw over the weekend, the posts had had thousands of views, hundreds of likes and was continuing to grow,” Lopez said.
“Most of our work is done behind the scenes, so kind of bringing it to the forefront of Instagram’s algorithm can be a great way to show the community what kind of services they have through us.”