Anthropic spent millions on Super Bowl ads to roast OpenAI

Everyone knows Super Bowl commercials are expensive, bombastic, and designed to be talked about. What we didn’texpect was an AI startup using the biggest ad stage of the year to throw shade at a rival’s advertising strategy.

That’s exactly what Anthropic has done. The company bought Super Bowl airtime to broadcast a simple message: “Ads are coming to AI, but not to Claude.” Its ads depict a chatbot spitting product pitches mid-conversation, ending with a clear contrast to its own ad-free promise.

Even ads these days aren’t what they used to be.

Video: Can I get a six pack quickly?, uploaded by Anthropic and Claude on YouTube

On paper, it’s witty positioning. In practice, it’s a symbolic escalation of the AI narrative war, from technical features and safety debate to brand virtue signaling.

The feud isn’t about tech, it’s about identity ...