Weekly "Focus" and the Super Bowl of Commercials

Would you pay US$7-8 million to run a 30-second commercial during this Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles? That’s what the advertisers are spending to capture the attention of viewers – last year 123 million people in the US tuned in to watch the game. This year’s advertisers include Anheuser Busch for Bud Light and Stella Artois, Molson Coors for Coors Light, Uber, and Unilever for Hellmann’s mayonnaise (starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan). Even Open AI is reported to be getting in on the action launching their first ever commercial for Chat GPT (wonder if it will be AI generated). After the Super Bowl, the next major advertising event will be the Academy Awards on March 2^nd – last year a 30-second commercial went for US$2.2 million.

 

	Price Return 2025	Dividend Yield
Anheuser-Busch (BUD)	+0.7%	1.3%
Molson Coors (TAP)	-5.2%	3.2%
Uber Technologies* (UBER)	+16.0%	0.0%
Unilever (UL)	+2.4%	3.2%

Source: FactSet, Values as of February 6, 2025

 

This week’s "Focus" from our economics team is attached.

 

Have a great weekend,

 

Brad

Senior Portfolio Manager and Senior Investment Advisor