Super Bowl 2026 Marketing Lessons: Why Authentic Strategies Beat Serena's $10M and Made Bad Bunny's $0 Go Viral
- Gabrielle Burgess-Smith
- 47 minutes ago
- 5 min read
A couple got married during Bad Bunny's halftime show for $0. Meanwhile, Serena's $10M ad got ratioed into oblivion. Here's what every brand needs to learn from Sunday night.
A couple invited Bad Bunny to their wedding.He couldn't make it.So he invited them to get married during his Super Bowl halftime show instead—in front of 125 million people.
They were legally married. They cut a real cake. Bad Bunny signed the marriage certificate as a witness.
Cost to Bad Bunny: $0 extra.Cost to competing brands: $8-10 million per 30-second ad.
The internet's response?"If that was a real wedding, that's fire.""Honestly, so sweet to see a wedding, children, and old people in a halftime show."
Meanwhile, across town in the commercial breaks, Serena Williams was getting destroyed for her $10M pharmaceutical ad.
Hours later:"Bad Bunny wedding" was trending #3 globally.Serena's ad? Ratioed into oblivion.
And just like that, Super Bowl 2026 marketing was turned on its head. The most talked-about moment cost nothing. The most expensive ad got destroyed. This wasn't supposed to happen.
At Wordsmith Communications, we help entrepreneurs and business leaders develop authentic marketing strategies by navigating the gap between what you intend to communicate and what audiences actually receive.
The Tale of Two Super Bowl 2026 Marketing Strategies
Sunday night gave us a rare, real-time case study in what works—and what spectacularly backfires—in modern communications.
While Pringles spent millions making mustaches fly off Nick Offerman's face, and Dunkin' deployed Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Tom Brady in matching orange tracksuits, three moments dominated the conversation:
A wedding that made people cry.
A health confession that made people angry.
A quarterback nobody believed in who just won the Super Bowl.
Let me show you why two of these worked, why one crashed and burned, and what it means for your brand.
Moment #1: The Wedding Everyone Loved
During "Tití Me Preguntó," a jeweler in Bad Bunny's elaborate Puerto Rican vecindad set handed him a ring. He passed it to a man who proposed. Later, during "Baile Inolvidable," that couple stood before an officiant, surrounded by dancers in white, and got married for real. Lady Gaga sang their wedding song. They cut cake on stage.
The backstory? The couple had invited Bad Bunny to their wedding. When he couldn't attend due to his Super Bowl commitment, he flipped the constraint:"You invited me to your wedding. Let me host your wedding at the Super Bowl."
Social media exploded:→ "This is incredibly cool."→ "If that was a real wedding, that's fire."→ "Honestly, so sweet to see a wedding, children, and old people in a halftime show."→ Designer Hayley Paige: "Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine one of my wedding dresses making a cameo at the Super Bowl."
Why It Worked:
Zero corporate agenda. It was a pure human moment.
Authentic generosity. Bad Bunny scaled a genuine act of kindness to the world's biggest stage.
Instead of filling 13 minutes with more pyrotechnics or celebrity cameos, he made room for a real couple's wedding.
The strategic insight: He turned a limitation (not being able to attend their wedding) into an opportunity that served them, not him. That's crisis communications gold.
Moment #2: The Confession That Backfired
Cut to the commercial breaks.
Serena Williams appeared in a Ro pharmaceutical ad, showing herself injecting a GLP-1 medication and revealing she'd lost 34 pounds. She named the drug, showed the app, and gave the numbers: reduced knee stress, stabilized blood sugar, and lower cholesterol.
Her stated goal? To remove the stigma around weight-loss medications, show that even elite athletes struggle, and be honest about what actually helped.
On paper, it was a textbook example of vulnerability-driven marketing. The kind of authentic storytelling brands pay consultants like us to help them craft.
But social media revolted:→ "Absolutely disgusting—calls herself a role model?"
→ "Showing someone injecting herself in front of millions of young viewers is wrong on so many levels."
→ "If the greatest tennis player of all time is on Ozempic, we're done for."→ "These ads are repulsive. They're aimed not only at overweight people but also at people with healthy bodies."
→ "Famous athlete Serena Williams trying to sell weight-loss drugs—that was not on my Super Bowl bingo card."
The complicating factor: Her husband, Alexis Ohanian, is an investor in Ro and sits on the company's board—a detail not disclosed in the ad itself.
Why It Backfired:
The what was honest. The how felt commercial.
Conflict of interest. The undisclosed financial ties poisoned the authenticity.
When you:
Pay $10M for a Super Bowl slot,
Show a celebrity injecting medication,
Have undisclosed financial ties,
Launch during a game watched by millions of kids,
Frame it as "health" while profiting from weight-loss sales...
You don't remove stigma. You create suspicion.
Meanwhile, Bad Bunny spent $0 extra to host a wedding and generated nothing but goodwill.
Moment #3: The Redemption Nobody Saw Coming
Sam Darnold—the former "draft bust," the punchline of every Jets joke, the backup who bounced between four teams—threw for 234 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead the Seattle Seahawks to a 20-17 Super Bowl victory.
No redemption PR tour. No carefully crafted comeback narrative. No crisis comms firm managing his image rehabilitation. Just years of showing up, improving quietly, and letting the work speak.
Why It Worked:
The story wrote itself. The performance was undeniable.
No messaging strategy required.
Sometimes, the best PR strategy is no PR strategy. You build credibility by doing the work, not by talking about the work.
The Authenticity Paradox
The Super Bowl gave us a case study in why authenticity works—and why big budgets sometimes backfire.
The wedding succeeded because it wasn’t trying to succeed.
Serena’s ad failed because we could see the strategy.
Darnold’s comeback worked because he didn’t announce it.
Audiences don’t want content that feels authentic. They want actually authentic moments—and they’ll reject anything that smells like strategy, no matter how good your intentions.
What This Means for Your Business
1. Generosity Beats Promotion
Bad Bunny didn’t promote anything. He gave a couple the gift of their lives. The virality was a side effect of genuine kindness, not the goal.
For your brand: What can you give without expecting ROI?
2. Conflict of Interest Kills Credibility
Serena’s message might have landed if Ro wasn’t paying her, if her husband wasn’t on the board, or if it wasn’t a $10M Super Bowl ad.
For your brand: Are there financial incentives or partnerships that could make audiences question your motives?
3. Let the Work Speak
Darnold didn’t craft his comeback narrative. He just played better football until nobody could deny it.
For your brand: Are you spending more time talking about the work than doing the work?
4. Audience Reception Matters More Than Intention
Ro intended to destigmatize. The audience received it as pharmaceutical marketing to kids.
For your brand: Outside perspective is critical to see how your message will actually land.
Why Authentic Marketing Strategies Beat Big Budgets Every Time
We need to stop asking: "How do we make this go viral?"And start asking: "Are we doing something genuinely worth sharing?"
Because audiences can tell the difference.
Let’s Talk About Your Story
If you’re an entrepreneur who wants to build authentic brand communications without the $10M price tag (and the $10M mistakes), let’s talk.
Wordsmith Communications helps mission-driven leaders tell stories that actually land—because we understand the gap between intention and reception.