In November, actor Walton Goggins of The Righteous Gemstones and Fallout fame got into the eyewear game, releasing five futuristic ski goggle–style glasses in bold colors with names like Cumulonimbus and Limoncello. They retail for $150 a pair.

The shades—called Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses—were swiftly covered by the press. “Yes, Walton Goggins really launched an eyewear line called ‘Goggins Goggles,’” a headline from GQ reads.

Last week, it was revealed that the goggles would be featured in an elaborate Super Bowl campaign for the web services company GoDaddy, which made a name for itself in the early aughts with provocative and sexist Super Bowl ads.

Fara Howard, GoDaddy’s CMO, told Marketing Brew that the campaign was “not a stunt” but said the company helped Goggins “birth his idea” for the glasses after it decided to enter the big game last year. Maggie Gallant, a spokesperson for Goggins Goggles, said that the actor came up with the idea for the product line prior to working with GoDaddy on the campaign. After the announcement, the Goggins Goggles website began to feature a banner highlighting GoDaddy’s AI-powered tools, with an invitation for visitors to try it out for themselves.

So yes, Walton Goggins really has an eyewear line called Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses—and it was part of a Super Bowl ad.

Made you look: GoDaddy isn’t the first advertiser to leave a trail of breadcrumbs leading up to the Super Bowl.

• Last year, Michael Cera was photographed holding bags of CeraVe lotion as part of a faux-outrage campaign leading up to its big-game reveal.
• In 2023, Mars announced that its M&M “spokescandies” would be placed on an “indefinite pause” ahead of the big game following a rebrand, a decision covered by outlets like the Wall Street Journal before the mascots were brought back.

Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, said that the unpredictable and high-stakes nature of the Super Bowl means brands are looking for inventive ways to stand out among competitors without revealing too much about their ads.

“You want to generate excitement without giving away the story,” Calkins said. “You also don’t want people to feel duped or totally misled, or if they are going to be duped and misled, it’s in the nicest kind of way.”

Continue reading here.—RB

Amid the beer and financial services ads that ran in this year’s Super Bowl, there were a few spots dedicated to sweet treats.

Nerds, Reese’s, and Häagen-Dazs all ran ads in the game, with Nerds returning for a second year in a row to promote its Gummy Clusters, Reese’s highlighting its new Chocolate Lava Big Cup for its third appearance in the game, and Häagen-Dazs making its Super Bowl debut to promote its ice cream bars.

While it’s a drop from last year, when six candy and dessert brands showed up in the big game, it could be evidence of a growing trend. In 2023, only one sweet treat, M&Ms, appeared in the Super Bowl, and it’s been more typical in the last 15 years to see just one or two candy and dessert brands appear in the game, according to data compiled by iSpot for Marketing Brew.

“The Super Bowl is one of the biggest snacking occasions in the United States, and it is the perfect opportunity for a brand to connect with audiences,” Rachel Jaiven, marketing director at Häagen-Dazs, told Marketing Brew.

Read more here.—JS

While millions of Americans tuned into the final game of the NFL season on Sunday, Fox Sports was pitching a new potential hyperfixation for sports fans.

IndyCar, the open-wheel auto racing series that Fox now holds the media rights to, got some coveted promotion time during the Super Bowl this year.

“We’d be crazy to not hit the Super Bowl with this campaign,” Shelby Romero-Brown, senior manager of brand marketing at Fox Sports, said. “I think it’s always great to get ahead of it and share with [the NFL audience] and tease what’s on the horizon as far as what they can tune into next.”

While football isn’t a motorsport (although it sometimes feels like it when watching Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley), Romero-Brown and her team are betting that the growing appeal of racing sports across the board—plus a cameo from a certain retired quarterback in the campaign—will encourage sports fans to tune into IndyCar during its first season on the network that kicks off in March.

Continue reading here.—AM

Executive moves across the industry.

• Warner Bros. Discovery elevated two execs, Ryan Gould and Robert Voltaggio, to replace the company’s longtime ad sales chief Jon Steinlauf, who exited late last year. Gould will serve as president of US advertising sales, go to market, and Voltaggio will be president of US advertising sales, platform monetization.
• Google Marketing Platform Americas head Stephen Yap left the role to become global CRO at ad-tech shop Perion.
• Just Salad elevated Jennifer Lally, previously the brand’s VP of marketing, to CMO.