• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Whether it’s nonagenarian William Shatner eating Raisin Bran behind the wheel, Ben Stiller rocking a questionable Italian accent for Instacart, or Hellmann’s Mayonnaise introducing a sequin-spangled pop star named Meal Diamond, this year’s Super Bowl advertisers are slowly pulling back the curtain on their Big Game strategies.

While some brands still prefer to keep their ads under wraps until kickoff, many are opting for a slower, steadier drip this year, releasing teaser clips, images and celebrity breadcrumbs well ahead of the game.

“The Super Bowl is now a distribution strategy, not just a media buy,” writes Nicole Greene, vice president and analyst at Gartner, in a recent analysis of early Game Day activity. With 30-second ads selling for between $7 million and $8 million this year, dozens of advertisers are all hoping their spot will be one of the four or five that dominate post-game chatter. “But the ‘win’ isn’t only what happens during the game,” Greene adds. “It’s how effectively a brand sustains momentum before, during and after — across earned coverage, social conversation and downstream channels like email, retail, apps and loyalty.”

So far, that pregame rollout has leaned heavily on music, celebrities and deliberately unfinished ideas, just enough to spark curiosity without giving the whole thing away.

Hellmann’s, returning to the Super Bowl for a sixth consecutive year, released a 15-second teaser featuring a sequin-clad rock star stacking himself a sandwich, set to a few bars of “Sweet Caroline.” The brand has become a regular Super Bowl presence in recent years, often leaning into playful absurdity to stand out in a crowded food category.

Instacart is also using music as its hook, tapping Ben Stiller alongside singer Benson Boone as two Italian brothers, in a spot directed by Spike Jonze — the filmmaker's first Super Bowl ad in more than 20 years. The brothers try to focus on bananas in “Harmonizing” and “Goals,” but can’t quite stop bickering.

Pringles is taking a similarly musical approach, with a teaser revealing Sabrina Carpenter playing “He loves me, he loves me not” using a flower made entirely of potato chips.

Liquid Death, meanwhile, is keeping things deliberately opaque, releasing a teaser featuring three paper heads bobbing to bossa nova — a setup that offers mood, not message.

Liquid I.V. is also singing, with People unveiling a teaser starring singer Ejae, the voice of Huntr/X’s Rumi in "K-Pop Demon Hunters," belting out Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now).”

People has also been dishing some celebrity-adjacent intrigue around Raisin Bran, which announced weeks ago that it would make filling America’s fiber deficit the focus of its first-ever Super Bowl appearance. The latest tease includes TMZ-style photos of Shatner munching cereal while driving — a carefully staged leak that hints at humor without revealing the spot itself.

Taken together, the early reveals suggest that for many advertisers, this year’s Super Bowl moment now begins weeks before kickoff,  with teasers designed less to explain the ad than to ensure audiences are already paying attention when it finally airs.