• by Sarah Mahoney , 2 hours ago

TurboTax is going old-school this tax season, opening bricks-and-mortar stores and putting a very worried Adrien Brody* on the biggest TV stage in America. But instead of the emotional turmoil Brody yearns to deliver — screaming, handwringing, maybe some tears — he learns that TurboTax doesn’t do drama. It just does taxes.

Created by R/GA, the spot fits neatly into the company’s ongoing “Now This Is Taxes” campaign and marks the Intuit brand's shake-up in how customers connect with TurboTax experts. The company recently cut the ribbon on a new flagship in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, part of a broader push that includes 20 TurboTax stores and nearly 600 “Expert Offices” nationwide. The goal is to turn what has long been a digital relationship into a hybrid one, blending AI tools with in-person help for people who still break into a sweat at the word “audit.”

“We want to provide a true modern antidote to what happens in tax filing elsewhere,” said Trevor Kelly, vice president of marketing for Intuit’s consumer group. “We’re able to do that with this unparalleled combination of AI fueling our product experience, and what we call ‘HI,’ or human intelligence — the human expertise we have.”

Those experts, Kelly added, are the brand’s “true differentiator,” making Brody — “probably the best dramatic actor in the world right now” — an unusually literal casting choice.

While this marks TurboTax’s 13th appearance at the Super Bowl, the rollout looks different this year. The 45-second spot is scheduled to run just before halftime, with a two-minute version also running in cinemas. Other versions are set to run across digital, streaming and NFL programming, including pregame.

“Obviously, the large viewership that day is critical,” Kelly said, “but with all the other pieces and parts, we feel very confident that consumers will see that we provide a painless, stress-less, drama-less approach to taxes.”

Kelly says tax-prep customers tend to fall into three camps: true DIY filers who want a fast, tech-enabled experience; a growing middle group that prefers to mostly do it themselves but with light, on-demand expert help (often via text); and full-service customers who want an expert to handle everything, delivered digitally or in person.

In stores or online, customers can still file on their own, choose a “do it with me” option for lighter guidance, or hand everything over. “You can go in, have that human connection, and continue it,” Kelly said. “Or you can go about your day, get updates through the app, and still have a really strong experience.”

Already the dominant player in DIY tax filing, TurboTax is also making share inroads in the assisted category, which includes H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt and legions of CPAs. That push comes as shifting tax rules are likely to drive demand for reassurance this filing season.

Kelly describes the new stores as closer to Apple than H&R Block: bright spaces where customers can start a return in the app, hand it off to an expert in a private office, and track progress on their phones. “We have an incredible digital product,” he said. “But we know customers want connection — and they want it locally. That’s what we’re reinventing this year.”

With a long filing season ahead, TurboTax is betting that a little Hollywood drama — and a lot more physical real estate — will help its hybrid approach feel less like software and more like a service.

*An earlier version misspelled the actor's name.