Crazy Puffs and Celebrities Expected to Star in 30-Second Spot
Little Caesars has reserved its first Super Bowl ad since 2020. The ad will run during the third quarter of the Sunday, Feb. 9, football extravaganza.
Ad Age reported that the pizza brand hinted that the new ad will promote Crazy Puffs, which are cups of pizza dough filled with pepperoni or cheese, along with sauce, and topped with garlic butter. The ad will feature “eyebrow-raising talent that transcends sports,” the brand stated in a news release announcing the Super Bowl 2025 ad buy.
Celebs on Tap
Greg Hamilton, chief marketing officer for Little Caesars, confirmed that celebrities would appear in the Super Bowl commercial but wouldn’t name names, according to the report by Ad Age. Little Caesars ads recently have featured NFL players Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Detroit Lions, Justin Jefferson of the Minnesota Vikings and George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers. Using high-profile athletes and other celebrities has been a go-to tactic for many Super Bowl advertisers.
Little Caesars has been the official pizza sponsor of the NFL after dethroning Pizza Hut in 2022. But Hamilton said the ad is unrelated to that marketing deal. “We see the Super Bowl as distinct and different from our sponsorship. It’s such a massive and engaged audience” at the Super Bowl, he said. “This year, Crazy Puffs will be the feature and we’ll have a bit of news on that product line.” Hamilton added that Crazy Puffs win fans because “they can be a snack, a meal for yourself, a side to a pizza,” Ad Age quoted him as saying. That flexibility feeds demand for the product, he said.
Crazy Puffs Go Viral
The menu item is already an internet sensation for Little Caesars, which Nation’s Restaurant News ranked at No. 21 among its top 500 brands for 2024, with $4.5 billion in 2023 sales. The pizza chain has generated social media buzz by holding P.U.F.F.Y. Fest (“People United for Foodreviews Yeah!”), Ad Age said.
Adding to the online hoopla were food influencers such as Alexis Frost (who helped fajita quesadillas make it to Chipotle’s menu), whom Little Caesars enlisted to generate content about Crazy Puffs. Ad Age also noted that Crazy Puffs benefited from the praise in an organic video post by food influencer Jordan Howlett; the post has racked up some 9 million views.
Other Little Caesars Ads
The pizza brand has a history of memorable, creative commercials. Little Caesars’ 1993 ad depicted an airliner tethered to Earth by the mozzarella on its Cheeser Cheeser pizza, with a hilariously detrimental outcome — a lipstick disaster — for a passenger on the plane.
The pizza brand’s 2020 Super Bowl ad revolved around the idea that pizza delivery was the best innovation since sliced bread. In that ad, Little Caesars’ delivery of online pizza orders led to the downfall of the company Sliced Bread Inc., and its worried executive, portrayed by actor-comedian Rainn Wilson, lost his job in the process. Frank Todaro directed that ad and will helm the ad for Super Bowl LIX, too.
More on Super Bowl Ads
Little Caesars is the 11th food brand to confirm a Super Bowl 2025 ad buy, Ad Age said. The Taco Bell franchise also plans to advertise during this year’s championship game. In its ad, fans will enjoy a few seconds of fame. Customers had auditioned for the ad in December by posing for cameras at certain Taco Bell drive-throughs.
Various media outlets, including NBC Sports, reported that Fox was charging $7 million to run a 30-second ad during Super Bowl 2025. Sports Business Journal reported that all of the 59 available Super Bowl ad positions were reserved by early November.
