From Peyton Manning and Post Malone chasing a runaway keg to Serena Williams talking health, Kendall Jenner poking fun at the “Kardashian Curse,” and Ben Affleck popping up again for Dunkin, this year’s Super Bowl ad lineup is packed with star power.

Add in appearances from Octavia Spencer, Sofía Vergara, George Clooney, Andy Samberg, Kurt Russell, Emma Stone, Matthew McConaughey, William Shatner, and even Spike Lee, and it’s clear brands are betting big on celebrities to break through the noise. But the big question remains: do celebrity Super Bowl ads actually work?

The short answer is yes — when they’re used right. Celebrity Super Bowl commercials grab attention fast, which matters when you’re one of dozens of brands competing for eyeballs on the biggest advertising stage of the year. Familiar faces help stop the scroll, spark conversation, and give people a reason to lean in. Think Bud Light using Peyton Manning’s everyman likability, or Budweiser leaning on decades of emotional equity with its iconic Clydesdales. In those cases, the celebrity or symbol amplifies the story instead of replacing it.

Where brands get into trouble is when the celebrity becomes the entire idea. A random A-lister dropped into a weak script won’t save an ad, no matter how famous they are. As Pavone Group CCO Chuck Meehan puts it, “A celebrity should never be the idea, they should be in service of the idea. When the casting is right, it deepens the story. When it’s wrong, it just feels like expensive wallpaper.”

This year’s lineup shows brands are at least trying to be more intentional. From humor-driven spots like Andy Samberg’s musical turn for Hellmann’s to emotionally grounded storytelling like Toyota’s grandfather-and-grandson narrative, celebrities are being used as storytellers, not shortcuts. Even buzzy tech and pharma brands are pairing star power with clear messages, aiming for relevance over novelty.

So do celebrity Super Bowl ads work? When the brand, the idea, and the celebrity align, absolutely. When they don’t, audiences notice — and they vote accordingly. That’s why fan-powered platforms like SpotBowl matter. Because at the end of the game, it’s not about who showed up. It’s about who was remembered.