A year to play it safe

An epic overtime offensive drive won the Super Bowl for Kansas City last night. But for advertisers, the game was all defense. At $7 million a pop, Super Bowl ads provide a unique window into the business zeitgeist of the moment. And what we saw this year was a desire to play it safe. There were no crypto businesses trying to break through. No edgy controversies. No social messaging. Just lots of nostalgia and a lot of celebrities. Budweiser led the way: Who can object to a Labrador nuzzling a Clydesdale? And Bud Light attempted to power its comeback with an ad about an unambiguously male genie who grants wishes. No harm, no foul.

Still, the night had its creative moments. My favorite ones were:

• Dove soap stayed true to its purpose, with an amusing and moving ad on keeping young girls in sports.  
• Dunkin’ Donuts and Uber Eats tied for the best use of celebrities. 
• Messi in a Michelob Ultra ad was the most fun to watch.  
• Arnold Schwarzenegger taking elocution lessons from Jake from State Farm made me laugh.
• And the NFL’s ad for its global player opportunity program, filmed in Ghana, was a delight. 

Biggest waste of $7 million? The message-free nostalgiarama run by a super PAC supporting Robert Kennedy that simply repeated the Kennedy name over and over. And the GOAT of Superbowl ad celebrities? Tom Brady, who starred in BetMGM’s ad and also played a supporting role to Ben Affleck in the Dunkin’ ad.

Finally, a shout out to Fortune’s partners at Blackbaud EverFi, who power the NFL’s “Character Playbook” education program that was highlighted in two moving spots in the second half.

Other news below.

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

TOP NEWS

Trump’s remarks 'undermine security'

Donald Trump's suggestion that if he were re-elected he would encourage Russia to invade U.S. allies that failed to spend enough on defense "undermines all of our security," NATO’s chief has said. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has rebuked his predecessor’s "appalling and dangerous" comments, while adding that Trump’s giving Russian President Vladimir Putin "a green light for more war and violence." Sky News

U.K. water bosses' bonuses 

There has been much furor over businesses raking in huge profits while polluting the planet. Now, water company executives in the U.K. may have to pay for the environmental damage the firms they run cause. The new legislation could cost bosses who spill sewage in rivers, lakes, and seas their bonus. BBC

Varoufakis thinks capitalism is 'dead'

Meet Yanis Varoufakis, the academic-turned-politician who became Greece’s Finance Minister after the country went bankrupt and then quit six months later, having scolded the leaders negotiating Greece’s bailout. After his short-lived political career, he began looking at the algorithms driving the major winners of post-crash capitalism. “It took me years before I accepted that, before I could say to myself that capitalism is dead,” he told Fortune.

AROUND THE WATERCOOLER

Minneapolis mayor calls remote workers ‘losers’ who sit at home with a ‘nasty cat blanket, diddling on their laptop’ by Sasha Rogelberg

The CEO of Europe’s largest airline is about to trigger a $108 million bonus that British shareholders can’t vote on because of Brexit by Paolo Confino

Elon Musk says he plans to ditch his phone number and only use X for texts and calls by Christiaan Hetzner

Gen Z—not baby boomers—are most afraid of AI because they haven’t experienced any other tech booms, recruitment expert says by Orianna Rosa Royle

Black CEO representation on the Fortune 500 is so bad that this year’s 1.6% is a near-record high by Sunny Nagpaul

Millennials are aging from bright-eyed ‘hustle culture’ workers into exhausted middle managers by Chloe Berger

This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Orianna Rosa Royle.