Why cookware brand HexClad is sitting out of the Super Bowl for a broader field
By Kimeko McCoy • January 12, 2026 •
Ivy Liu
Any advertisers who want in on this year’s Super Bowl better be ready to cough up $8 million — and that’s just for the 30-second unit on NBCU itself. As one of the last bastions of monocultural moments in the U.S., demand for the Big Game has skyrocketed and inventory sold out last September.
“It’s a bet — like, a large financial bet,” said Kerry McKibbin, president and partner at Mischief @ No Fixed Address, an independent creative advertising agency, adding, “So many CMOs’ budgets are strapped. It’s a calculated or strategic bet for them.”
Some advertisers like HexClad cookware brand, are sitting this Super Bowl out. Aside from sharing recipes and past imagery for a small retention and social campaign, HexClad won’t activate around the Big Game this year, said Matt Duckor, head of content at HexClad.
Sitting on the sidelines
Last year, the direct-to-consumer brand rolled out its first-ever Super Bowl ad featuring celebrity heavy hitters Pete Davidson and Gordon Ramsay. The play made headlines in Page Six and The Hollywood Reporter.
HexClad isn’t alone. Avocados From Mexico pulled out of an eight-year run of Super Bowl spots, opting instead for a digital strategy around the Big Game for the past three years. Not to mention, car brands started pumping the brakes on Super Bowl ads last year — in part thanks to tariffs and manufacturing costs.
Diversifying sports marketing
Instead, HexClad has its sights on tentpole moments outside of America’s biggest sports spectacle.
“Now, we want to diversify this year into other big stages and really continue that playbook and being memorable and surprising in places that people might not expect to see us,” Duckor told Digiday, without revealing specifics.
This year, HexClad will place streaming ads on platforms, like Amazon Prime, Netflix with ads, Hulu with ads, in addition to traditional broadcast buys, Duckor said without disclosing specific spend figures. In 2025, the brand made an eight-figure investment into television overall, producing seven in-house commercial spots for broadcast and connected TV, per Duckor.
Duckor noted that the streaming wars has lowered the barrier to entry. That includes Amazon, which has been positioning NBA rights and live sports as a boon for its broader ad business, as Digiday reported.
“Some of these major companies have consolidated those sports rights and made it really easy as a direct-to-consumer brand to buy into sports that was previously unthinkable,” he said.
Mounting monocultural moments
Ad costs continue to rise without budgets to support increased costs. The Super Bowl price tag has increased, up to $8 million from $7 million it cost for a 30-second spot in Super Bowl 2024. There’s also the World Cup and Winter Olympics this year, two other massive marketing opportunities for advertisers to consider.
“As CMOs with their limited funds deciding where to invest, most marketers can’t do everything, so they’re going to have to be picky and choosy,” McKibbin at Mischief said.
It’s why Avocados From Mexico will once again be on the sidelines of this year’s Super Bowl. According to Alvaro Luque, CEO and president of Avocados From Mexico, the brand has shifted efforts to focus on sports more holistically. The food brand is putting more dollars in college football and considering expanding its ad presence into things like college basketball.
“The Super Bowl, even though it’s still growing, has less of a runway for us than the whole football season that runs from August up to January,” Luque said.
That’s not to say HexClad and Avocados From Mexico won’t return to the Big Game. There’s a time and place, if you ask Luque or Duckor, depending on the brand’s ad goals and reason for showing up. “This is part of the cycle of how brands treat the Super Bowl,” Duckor said.
