Bad Bunny brought new audiences to the Super Bowl. Why didn’t more brands lean in?

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, took the Super Bowl stage this weekend in a historic moment for Puerto Ricans and Spanish-language music. And while some brands celebrated with great fanfare, a number were notably quiet.

Bad Bunny’s halftime show performance was announced in September, and since then, brands like e.l.f., Skechers, and Duolingo have shaped their Super Bowl ads and surrounding campaigns to appeal to fans of the superstar, who just took home the Grammy for Album of the Year, a first for a Spanish-language artist, and has been crowned Spotify’s Global Top Artist (aka the artist with the highest number of streams worldwide) title four times, most recently in 2025. Ranging from telenovela storylines to more subtle nods and spotlighting Latino talent, these brands are leaning in on the Bad Bunny hype—perhaps enough to become one of his Conejos themselves.

But there’s still plenty of space for brands to have done more, according to Myles Worthington, CEO and founder of Worthi, a comms and creative agency that specializes in harnessing the power of underrepresented communities. According to a pregame Ad Age analysis, only five of the 71 celebrities confirmed to be in Super Bowl ads are Hispanic, while few ads prominently featured a Latino cast. (One notable exception was Redfin and Rocket Mortgage’s “America Needs Neighbors Like You.”)

“We know Bad Bunny is a massive, global star…you would think advertisers would think about that and be like, ‘All right, let me find ways to activate around a Latino audience who might be either new to the Super Bowl or more engaged this year than ever before,’” Worthington told Marketing Brew.

Te amo

For some of the brands that opted to lean into the new audiences Bad Bunny could bring to the Super Bowl, the move was a no-brainer. When Bad Bunny’s halftime performance was announced, e.l.f. Beauty Chief Brand Officer Laurie Lam said she knew it was time to lean in. The brand opted to make a telenovela-style spot starring Melissa McCarthy, which aired on Peacock and Mex Univision.

“We have a lot of passionate Elves in our Latin and Hispanic community,” Lam told Marketing Brew. “We wanted to be there for our community in a really funny way.”

In the 30-second spot, McCarthy stars as a woman who crashes her car after panicking over her less-than-impressive Spanish skills ahead of “the world’s biggest reggaeton show.” She wakes up in a hospital, staffed by The Good Doctor’s Nicholas Gonzalez, who applies lip oil to her lips before drilling her on Spanish vocabulary in preparation for the show. Itatí Cantoral, best known for ’90s-era telenovelas like María la del Barrio, also makes an appearance.

It’s not the first time e.l.f. has dipped into the genre. The brand also produces Descubre e.l.f.ecto, a telenovela-style YouTube series, which Lam said was part of how the brand was able to create “a lot of equity in building telenovelas.”

Worthington said he was disappointed that the brand didn’t go with a different lead for the spot, noting that Colombian American actress Sofía Vergara, who stars in Skechers’s Big Game ad, is a rare example of representation in ads surrounding the game. Choosing to cast a Latino lead could have been a chance for the brand to get even more specific in its relationship to the community, a strategy he said still provides plenty of connection points for a general audience, too.

“I can see the comedy there for sure, but in a space where there’s so few Latinos who are at the forefront of some of these bigger commercials, it seems like a miss, because there’s [also] a lot of Latinos who don’t speak Spanish,” Worthington said.

¿Hablas Español?

Well before kickoff, Duolingo took the chance to remind non-Spanish speakers that it could help them ahead of the Super Bowl. In a 15-second spot called “Bad Bunny 101” that aired in certain regions during the NFC and AFC Championship games, the iconic green owl helped translate potentially relevant words and phrases like “perreo” (twerk) and “tití me pregunto” (Auntie asked me), ending with a reminder to “Practice Spanish for free before halftime.”

The ad was well-received online, and according to iSpot data, brand recognition scored at 64%, about average with other tech ads in the last 90 days. But the ad’s likeability scored slightly lower than other technology ads in the same timeframe, coming in at 7% below average, iSpot found.

Still, Worthington had high praise for the campaign, calling it a demonstration of Duolingo’s ability to show up in a reactive, relevant manner.

“Duolingo is a masterclass in self-awareness of where [they should] show up and double-click,” Worthington said. “Especially at a time, with the ICE of it all, with people who are going to be English-dominant watching the halftime show, it’s like, this is a great way to remind you that we exist.”

More important than ever

The ad choices come as the NFL looks to attract Gen Z viewers and has aimed to grow its Latino fanbase, which is the league’s fastest-growing demographic. Notably, more than 70% of Bad Bunny’s audience on YouTube is Gen Z, while the NFL can only claim a 27.6% Gen Z YouTube audience itself, according to Tubular Labs.

But the choice to have Bad Bunny perform has generated controversy, something that brands often look to side-step at all costs, including from the president and from some people falsely suggesting that Benito should not perform because he isn’t American (he was born and raised in Puerto Rico, a United States territory). On Sunday, right-wing activist organization Turning Point USA hosted an alternate halftime show featuring country artists like headliner Kid Rock, who has never won a Grammy.

Plus, Bad Bunny has made an appearance at the Super Bowl before—at least in the advertising. Last year, Ritz’s Super Bowl featured Benito alongside several other celebrities, which scored slightly higher in likeability in the category than the average, according to iSpot.

Overall, Worthington thinks brands aren’t doing enough to fully appeal to the audience. What started with Apple Music’s halftime show trailer post becoming its most-liked Instagram teaser post ever has led to Bad Bunny’s performance breaking social media records with 4 billion views across platforms—proof enough that brands should dive in headfirst.

“We might be getting a new audience that is there and more engaged than they’ve ever been before,” Worthington said. “[Brands should be asking], how can I show up to bring them into my brand? I have not seen that.”