Key Takeaways:
If Super Bowl LX proved anything beyond the expected gridiron drama, it's that American culture’s biggest night had a huge Latino heartbeat. Bad Bunny’s historic performance—the first Super Bowl halftime show performed entirely in Spanish—wasn’t just a set of songs, flashy outfits, and guest appearances; it was a declaration of joy, identity, and cultural pride that echoed across living rooms from Santa Clara to San Juan, and beyond. From dancers waving the flags of many North, Central, and South American nations to the closing message “Together we are America,” the big game drew a lot of attention, and beauty brands (including eos, e.l.f. Cosmetics, and Tree Hut) made the most of the exposure by tapping into that culture.
Creators led the way in 2026 off the back of their 2025 success. According to data from CreatorIQ, creator-fronted Super Bowl commercials in 2025 consistently outperformed celebrity-led campaigns across key social metrics, driving notable year-over-year EMV (earned media value) growth. In an era when post-game conversation matters as much as airtime, creators aren’t just appearing in ads; they’re extending the brands’ shelf life.
For beauty and grooming brands, that shift intersects with a broader cultural recalibration playing out on football’s biggest stage, and brands are increasingly rewarded for campaigns that reflect real communities rather than borrowed clout. The takeaway from this year’s Super Bowl ads is less about spectacle and more about resonance: performance now follows creators who bring built-in audiences, cultural fluency, and measurable returns long after the final whistle. BeautyMatter outlines the brands that won Super Bowl LX.
Primetime
Tree Hut: Making its debut Super Bowl appearance with a creator-led campaign, Tree Hut showcased “Uncontain Yourself” during the big game. Streamed nationally on Peacock and regional broadcasting in the brand’s core markets (Dallas–Fort Worth, NYC, LA, Chicago, and Miami) the spot starred seven creators from its online community: Paul Fino, Lanie Kristin, Olivia DeJarnett, Courtney Quinn, Valeria Stephanie, Emily Lula May, and Lisi German.
The ad focuses on the rejection of the “clean girl” aesthetic, and begins with the creators applying unbranded bodycare in unison as a voiceover says “Get ready with me, use my easy clean girl routine.” As the ritual continues, the camera pans to one participant who’s had had enough of following along, pulling out her Tree Hut Raspberry Fizz Sugar Scrub and aggressively throwing it at a speaker to silence the chant. Following the rebellion, the crowd's Pantone Cloud Dancer white robes turn into a rainbow of clothing as Tree Hut products begin to explode onto bodies in a sea of color, encouraging a celebration that shifts the mood from robotic to revolutionary. On February 8 the campaign had 100M social views, 500K+ engagements, and 100 organic community posts.
eos: The fragrance brand returned to the Super Bowl for its second appearance, this time in collaboration with Netflix’s Is It Cake? host Mikey Day. The ad tapped into the group and beauty trend, which has seen a +172.4% rise in gourmand fragrance year over year across platforms.
The ad begins in a studio taping of Is It Cake? as Day asks participants which object on set they believe to be cake. The camera then pans out as one says, “I picked the boom operator, she just really smells like pistachio cake.” The operator looks concerned, nervously explaining that it’s just her Crème de Pistachio Cashmere Body Mist, but the crowd is not convinced, and Day approaches her with a knife, prompting her to run off set. The video ends with the tagline “These scents eat,” tapping into Gen Z language to emphasize that the fragrances are highly rated. To commemorate the game, eos dropped a bundle of eight new scents with matching sweatsuits that read “I’m not cake but baby I’m a snack.”
e.l.f. Cosmetics: For its third consecutive year of Super Bowl success, e.l.f. Cosmetics returned this time with a telenovela-inspired campaign celebrating positivity and inclusivity, highlighting the brand's Latino community who represent 18% of buying households, 29% higher than the cosmetics category average.
The ad spot stars comedic superstar Melissa McCarthy, actor Nicholas Gonzalez, and telenovela actor Itatí Cantoral. Inspired by the cultural buzz of the Super Bowl halftime show, the “e.l.f.enovela” titled “Melisa” begins with McCarthy’s character waking up in a hospital bed to find she has only one day to learn Spanish before the Bad Bunny show. e.l.f.’s Glow Reviver Lip Oil becomes her unlikely savior. Each time the doctor applies the product, McCarthy’s Spanish improves until she’s fluent enough to enjoy a reggaeton celebration.
Continuing the momentum outside of the big game night, the telenovela series is set to launch new episodic content later in February. Additionally, the brand has partnered with Duolingo to offer an exclusive complimentary Super Duolingo subscription to all e.l.f. Beauty Squad loyalty members, allowing them to learn Spanish without the ads.
Byoma: Showcasing “The Byoma Shorttime Show” as its debut ad spot, the brand highlighted its newest product, the Bio-Collagen Radiance Facial Mask. Focusing on the viral discourse around a reported height requirement to join Bad Bunny onstage in the halftime performance, Byoma leaned into the conversation, asking: What if shorter is actually better?
The campaign's cast included creators Juhm, Dylan Kevitch, Lisa German, Micky Gordon, and Kristyn Hoffman, whose applications to be in the halftime show had all been rejected due to their being too short. Instead of letting this get them down, the cast throws their own “shorttime show” with the brand’s face mask, demonstrating “the shortest mask” to glass skin, and emphasizing that shorter really is better.
The campaign, which was new Global President Tara Loftis’ first for Byoma, was shot on an iPhone17, and created in two weeks with ad agency /prompt. and director duo Tusk. Alongside the ad, the campaign will continue on TikTok and other social cutdowns, extending the cultural moment across platforms.
Dove: Continuing to champion the message that women have a place in sports, Dove presented “The Game Is Ours” during Super Bowl LX, marking its third return to the game. The 30-second spot highlighted girls’ body-image struggles alongside the contrast of joy in sport, building on the brand’s long-standing Dove Self-Esteem Project, which has provided free, evidence-based body confidence resources since 2004.
The video clip shows a high school girl worrying about her appearance, looking at herself in a mirror before a game, superimposed with the statistic “One in two girls quit sport by age 14 due to low body confidence.” She then claps, starting a playful choreographed chant with other players, ending with the tagline “but our joy is louder.” The campaign as a whole features the expanded Body Confident Sport Collective, including legendary basketball player and coach Dawn Staley, as well as a continued partnership with former college field hockey player Kylie Kelce, a longtime Dove partner and mom of four girls, helping amplify the brand’s mission to keep girls confident in sports.
Manscaped: For its first Super Bowl appearance, Manscaped hair removal brand aired an ad on NBC just before kickoff. Directed by the Perlorian Brothers and produced by MJZ, the “Little Mermaid meets Meat Loaf” clip features unwanted hair as a chorus of melodramatic, puppet-like monsters sing an emotional power ballad as they mourn their untimely demise. The clip portrays the sentiment that “you won’t miss your hair, but it might miss you,” and that Manscaped is there for all removal needs.
While the “Mancare Your Way” campaign launched at the Super Bowl, its reach will extend beyond game day. The marketing effort will play out across a yearlong stream of brand moments and content, extending Manscaped's social content, creator partnerships, and cultural touch points. To amplify its message, Manscaped is set to partner with creators including @pokemonmasterzo, comedian Stavros Halkias, and pro hockey player Quinn Hughes.
Social-Only Campaigns
With a 30-second Super Bowl spot now costing roughly $7 million before production, some brands skipped the TV ad arms race altogether this year, redirecting budgets into creator-led social campaigns designed to drive EMV, engagement, and post-game momentum.
NYX Professional Makeup: Opting for a social-first campaign instead of an ad spot like in previous years, NYX Professional Makeup created a Get Ready With Me anthem to celebrate Latinidad. The brand worked with a diverse group of Latina creators ahead of the big game with a custom sound that invited creators and fans alike to tap into pregame rituals—getting ready with friends, blasting music, and showing up loud and unapologetically. Creators included Natalie Aguilars, Angela Aguilars, Karen Gonzalez, Cierra Ramirez, Camila Ramon, Victoria Villarroel, Iris Beilin, and Daviana Mercedes Camacho.
“This campaign feels so personal to me! Growing up in Venezuela, music has always helped me stay connected to my Latin roots and express myself. I’m honored to celebrate that bond and the unity it brings to our culture,” Villarroel said in a statement.
To bring the campaign off-screen, NYX Professional Makeup hosted a citywide pregame sampling activation in LA on the day of the Super Bowl. Branded NYX cars traveled across neighborhoods with custom merch, products, and Latin music. The campaign was created to underscore the brand's commitment to showing up authentically for culture.
It’s a 10: The haircare brand transformed its signature “10” into a game-day moment. The intention was that when the total of the two teams’ scores added up to 10 at the end of a quarter, the brand would send up to one million free haircare essentials to subscribers nationwide. Fans were invited to sign up ahead of the game on the Super Bowl’s landing page, building anticipation for the event before and during the show.
No quarter ended with a total score of 10, but the risk still paid off, with the campaign receiving 19M impressions. To give back to those who signed up, until February 28 participants can get 25% off their next It’s a 10 haircare purchase, along with free shipping over $35 and a free gift.
Ulta Beauty: Building on the momentum of its Super Bowl debut last year, Ulta Beauty returned to the big game with an expanded, more immersive presence designed to embed beauty and wellness into the cultural heartbeat of the moment. After last year’s creator-led campaign—anchored in community, self-expression, and a headline-making halftime collaboration—Ulta doubled down on a content-first approach that met audiences across every touchpoint of Super Bowl weekend.
For Super Bowl LX, the brand activated before, during, and beyond game day. The strategy launched with a shoppable Big Game Beauty Buying Guide, extended into real-world experiences through a creator- and athlete-powered Game Face HQ at TikTok’s Clubhouse in San Francisco, and reached its peak with a high-glam cameo from Cardi B during Bad Bunny’s historic halftime performance. Together, the activation created a cohesive, surround-sound presence that positioned beauty and wellness as essential game-day rituals. At its core, the campaign championed confidence, inviting fans to “quarterback” their own self-assurance through products and routines designed for moments that matter.
As Super Bowl LX made clear, the future of beauty marketing on the world’s biggest stage isn’t defined by who shouts the loudest, but by who shows up with meaning. Whether through creator-led storytelling, culturally fluent humor or purpose-driven platforms that extend well beyond game day, the brands that broke through did so by tapping into real conversations, and real communities. From Latinidad and self-expression to body confidence and joy, this year’s Super Bowl proved that when beauty aligns cultural relevance with measurable impact, the wins last far longer than a 30-second spot.
