OpenAI enters the Super Bowl with a striking 60-second ad, marking its grand entrance into mainstream advertising. The ad, which aired during the first half of Super Bowl 59, aimed to position ChatGPT as a transformative technological milestone.
With an estimated 130 million viewers tuning in, OpenAI’s ad, titled The Intelligence Age, visually traced human progress. It covered evolution, starting from fire and the wheel to space exploration and modern AI applications. Using a pointillism-inspired animation style, the commercial symbolized the evolution of intelligence, with ChatGPT at the forefront of this new era.
While OpenAI's state-of-the-art video-generation model Sora was leveraged for early conception and prototyping, the final animation was executed by human artists alone. This was a deliberate move, in sync with OpenAI's vision to showcase AI as something that enhances human creativity rather than replacing it.
“We’re at the dawn of the intelligence age, and you can participate today,” OpenAI’s Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch shared. “This is potentially the most powerful tool we’ve ever created, and it’s in your pocket right now.”
The campaign comes at a pivotal moment for OpenAI. The company looks to cement its leadership in AI amid rising competition from Google, Meta, and newer AI players such as DeepSeek. The AI company is gunning for a whopping $300 billion valuation and hopes the ad will boost adoption and brand awareness beyond its 400 million users.
A High-Stakes Gamble in the AI Race
OpenAI entered the Super Bowl with a $14 million bet, using the high-profile event to establish ChatGPT as an everyday tool. A 30-second ad during the game costs up to $8 million, making OpenAI’s one-minute spot a significant investment in its future.
OpenAI isn’t alone in making an AI pitch to Super Bowl audiences. Google’s Gemini AI and Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses both had their own spots, further cementing AI as a dominant theme in this year’s advertising landscape.
