Was Tubi’s Super Bowl ad genius, or just really weird?
Was Tubi’s Super Bowl ad genius, or just really weird?
The ad takes viewers to a world where people’s heads are made of giant, fleshy hats. You read that right.
Tubi is known for its off-the-wall marketing campaigns, and it decided to lean into that reputation in a big way on Sunday. The free streamer’s Super Bowl ad left some viewers feeling hopeful, while others were confused. Whatever your specific response, the borderline bizarre commercial might prove to be another opportunity for the Fox-owned service to grow its audience and get more viewers considering Tubi as a place to stream the types of content they most want to watch.
Key Details:
- Tubi’s Super Bowl ad featured a fleshy-hatted cowboy learning to appreciate his true self.
- The streamer has launched a site with a quiz viewers can fill out about their viewing habits.
- The spot was memorable, but if it turns viewers off of engaging with Tubi it could be all for naught.
There’s no two ways around it: Tubi’s Super Bowl commercial on Sunday night was pretty weird. It follows the life of a boy born with a literal cowboy hat for a head, signifying he’s a fan of Westerns. As he grows up, he is consistently mocked by fans of other genres who have hat-heads corresponding to their favorite types of movies and shows. Finally, however, Westerns become popular, but the commercial ends with a message from Tubi saying that viewers can watch whatever types of content they like because the streamer has something for everyone.
Watch the ad for yourself here:
It’s certainly a way to get the message across that Tubi has a wide range of content. Jobaaj spoke to executives and experts regarding their perception of the ad’s effectiveness, and got very different responses. Some, like Mary Cirincione — managing director at Propeller — found the ad’s message of inclusion encouraging at a time when DEI initiatives are being mothballed at many companies.
Others, such as marketing professor Chuck Byers, said that the ad was altogether ineffective, failing to truly promote the product it was advertising and leaving viewers unsettled by the body horror. Users on social media used words like “nightmarish” and “traumatic” to describe the ad.
From Tubi’s perspective, that can probably be considered a success, as at least these viewers will remember the brand — even if it is for being the most off-putting commercial of the entire Super Bowl. But there’s a good chance the streamer can farm more engagement from the ad, particularly since it also launched a site where audiences can take a quiz to find out what types of content they love most and see what titles in that genre are available on Tubi.
Love it or hate it, this year’s Super Bowl ad from Tubi was certainly memorable. Whether it will help the free streamer grow its audience pool past the 97 million monthly active users it drew in 2024 is an open question.
Tubi
Tubi is a free video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 200,000+ movies and TV episodes - more than any other streaming service. Its ad breaks are shorter and less frequent than most free services. Fox executives have called their service “TV on steroids.”