The Monday after the Super Bowl, students will be talking about the commercials. Super Bowl commercials have developed into their own event, complete with enthusiastic fans. Media experts pit the advertising agencies that produced the commercials against each other in an “Advertising Super Bowl.”
For a 30-second Super Bowl commercial this year, companies will pay NBC – the network that will broadcast Super Bowl LX – $8 million dollars. In September 2025, NBC announced that despite the cost, ad spaces were sold out.
This lesson, updated to reflect 2026 ads, created by Allen Cox and Vincent Young for the SIFMA Foundation for Investor Education’s Stock Market Game asks students to analyze the stock prices of companies who buy ad time during the Super Bowl. Did that advertising positively impact stock prices? Is it worth the multimillion dollar price tag?
Activities include:
Looking at the price of two first-time advertisers during last year’s game, students research the 5 day, 1 month, and end of year closing prices of that stock, describing the changes that happened during the year and then explain why the Super Bowl is a good investment for the company.
Choosing two companies from a list of companies that advertised in 2026 and comparing pre and post Super Bowl stock prices.
Using a Super Bowl Ad review rubric to rate the effectiveness of this year’s commercials and researching the stock prices of the companies that had the most effective ads.
Grades 6-8
Grades 9-12
Grades 9-12
Grades 9-12
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