The Empty Garage: Why Detroit and Its Rivals Are Steering Clear of Super Bowl LX Advertising

For decades, the Super Bowl has served as the automotive industry’s grandest stage — a place where carmakers unveiled splashy new models, deployed celebrity spokespeople, and waged multimillion-dollar battles for consumer attention during the most-watched television event of the year. But as Super Bowl LX approaches on February 8, 2026, the roar of engines in the ad breaks has gone conspicuously quiet. The major automakers are, by and large, sitting this one out.

General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, and several other marquee brands have confirmed they will not be purchasing advertising time during the big game, a striking departure from a tradition that once saw the automotive sector dominate the commercial lineup. The retreat comes at a moment of profound uncertainty for the global auto industry, which is grappling with tariff volatility, a complicated transition to electric vehicles, and shifting consumer sentiment that has made the calculus of a $7 million-plus, 30-second spot harder to justify than ever before.

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$7 Million Question: Is the Super Bowl Still Worth It for Automakers?

As CNBC reported, the cost of a 30-second Super Bowl advertisement has climbed to roughly $7 million to $8 million for the 2026 broadcast, a figure that represents only the starting point of total campaign expenditures. When production costs, celebrity endorsements, digital extensions, and pre-game teasers are factored in, a single Super Bowl campaign can easily exceed $20 million. For an industry under intense margin pressure, that is a staggering outlay for 30 seconds of airtime — no matter how large the audience.

General Motors, which had been one of the most reliable Super Bowl advertisers in recent years, confirmed it would not be running ads during the game. The automaker had made headlines in previous years with high-profile EV-themed spots featuring celebrities like Will Ferrell and had used the platform to promote its Ultium battery platform. Toyota, which had similarly leveraged the Super Bowl to build brand awareness around its electrification efforts, also confirmed its absence. Volkswagen, a brand whose Super Bowl ads have become cultural touchstones — from the iconic 2011 “The Force” Darth Vader spot to more recent efforts — likewise will not be present in the 2026 ad lineup.

Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Chill on Marketing Budgets

The decision by multiple automakers to pull back from Super Bowl advertising is not happening in a vacuum. The U.S. auto industry is navigating one of its most turbulent periods in years, driven in large part by trade policy uncertainty. Tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts — particularly those affecting vehicles and components from Mexico, Canada, and Asia — have created a volatile pricing environment that makes long-term planning extraordinarily difficult. Automakers are reluctant to spend aggressively on marketing when they cannot be certain what their vehicles will cost consumers in the coming months.

The tariff situation has been especially disruptive for companies with complex global supply chains. Even domestically assembled vehicles rely heavily on parts sourced from abroad, meaning that tariff increases ripple through the entire production process. For companies like GM and Toyota, which operate massive manufacturing footprints spanning multiple countries, the financial exposure is significant. In this environment, marketing budgets are among the first line items to face scrutiny, and a Super Bowl ad — however prestigious — is a discretionary expense that is difficult to defend when the core business faces headwinds.

The EV Transition Adds Another Layer of Complexity

Beyond tariffs, the broader electric vehicle transition has introduced its own set of challenges that are influencing advertising strategy. The initial wave of consumer enthusiasm for EVs has cooled somewhat, with adoption rates plateauing in certain segments and inventory of unsold electric models piling up on dealer lots. Automakers that had invested heavily in Super Bowl campaigns to promote their EV lineups are now recalibrating their messaging, uncertain whether a mass-market audience is the right target for vehicles that still represent a relatively small share of overall sales.

GM’s decision is particularly notable given its aggressive EV marketing push in recent years. The company had used Super Bowl ads to position itself as a leader in the electric future, but the reality on the ground has been more complicated. Sales of models like the Chevrolet Equinox EV and the Cadillac Lyriq have been growing but remain modest relative to the company’s traditional internal combustion engine portfolio. Spending $20 million or more on a Super Bowl campaign to promote EVs when consumer demand remains uneven is a harder sell internally than it was two or three years ago.

Who Is Filling the Void?

The automakers’ retreat has opened the door for other industries to claim more of the Super Bowl’s coveted ad inventory. Technology companies, food and beverage brands, streaming services, and cryptocurrency platforms have all been expanding their presence during the big game in recent years, and the 2026 edition is expected to continue that trend. The Super Bowl’s audience — estimated at over 120 million viewers for recent broadcasts — remains one of the few truly mass-market advertising opportunities in an increasingly fragmented media environment, making it attractive to brands looking for broad cultural impact.

Still, the absence of automakers is felt acutely. Car commercials have been a defining feature of Super Bowl broadcasts for generations, and some of the most memorable ads in the game’s history have come from the automotive sector. Chrysler’s 2011 “Imported from Detroit” ad featuring Eminem, Volkswagen’s “The Force,” and numerous Audi and BMW spots have become part of the cultural fabric of the event. Their absence leaves a void that is both symbolic and substantive — a signal that the industry’s priorities and financial realities have shifted in fundamental ways.

A Broader Rethinking of Automotive Marketing

Industry analysts say the Super Bowl pullback is part of a larger rethinking of how automakers allocate their marketing dollars. The rise of digital advertising, social media, and targeted campaigns has given brands more efficient ways to reach specific consumer segments without the enormous cost of a Super Bowl buy. Younger consumers, in particular, are more likely to encounter automotive marketing through YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other digital platforms than through a traditional television broadcast.

That said, the Super Bowl offers something that digital channels cannot easily replicate: a shared cultural moment. The water-cooler effect of a great Super Bowl ad — the way it enters the national conversation and generates earned media coverage worth multiples of the original ad spend — is a unique value proposition. For automakers sitting on the sidelines, the risk is that competitors or other industries will capture that cultural real estate instead, building brand equity in ways that are difficult to quantify but undeniably powerful.

What History Tells Us About Automaker Retreats

This is not the first time the auto industry has pulled back from Super Bowl advertising during periods of economic stress. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, several major automakers — including GM and Chrysler, both of which were heading toward government-backed bankruptcies — dropped out of the Super Bowl ad lineup. The retreat was seen at the time as both a cost-cutting measure and a public relations necessity; spending lavishly on advertising while accepting taxpayer bailouts would have been politically untenable.

The current pullback, while driven by different circumstances, carries echoes of that earlier period. Automakers are not facing an existential financial crisis of the same magnitude, but the combination of tariff uncertainty, the costly EV transition, and softening demand in key segments has created a climate of caution that permeates decision-making at the highest levels. As CNBC noted, the absence of GM, Toyota, and Volkswagen from the 2026 Super Bowl is a reflection of an industry in transition — one that is conserving resources and hedging its bets as it navigates a period of exceptional unpredictability.

The Road Ahead for Super Bowl Advertising and the Auto Industry

Whether the automakers’ absence from Super Bowl LX proves to be a one-year anomaly or the beginning of a longer-term trend remains to be seen. Much will depend on how the tariff situation evolves, whether EV demand accelerates or continues to plateau, and how the broader economic environment shapes consumer confidence and spending. If conditions stabilize, the lure of the Super Bowl’s massive audience and cultural cachet could draw automakers back to the game in future years.

For now, however, the empty seats at advertising’s biggest table tell a story that extends far beyond marketing strategy. They speak to an industry wrestling with forces largely beyond its control — geopolitical tensions, technological disruption, and a consumer base whose preferences are evolving faster than the companies that serve them can adapt. The Super Bowl will go on, and the ads will still captivate. But for the first time in a long while, the cars won’t be doing the talking.