Antony Young rounds up media news from beyond Aotearoa in a regular column for StopPress. This week we take a look at boomer stars in this year’s Super Bowl ads, Nielsen’s TV ratings shake up and why people are opting in to a No Buy 2025.
Boomer stars take over the Super Bowl
While I’m grateful that Sky and TVNZ screened this year’s Super Bowl, it’s always a disappointment to miss out on the US ads that run. According to an AD-ID commissioned survey earlier this year, more than 62% of Americans will have tuned in this year just to view the ads. This year’s Super Bowl included the usual array of beer, fast food and tech firm spots but one trend noticed by Adweek was a wave of brands tapping into 50-plus celebrities. Stars like Eugene Levy, Willem Dafoe, Martha Stewart, and Meg Ryan headlined campaigns, reflecting a shift from using older talent as gimmicks (think Betty White) to something more mainstream.
Marketers see this as a strategic play — leveraging trusted, controversy-free icons with broad appeal, particularly as the 50+ demographic continues to grow in spending power, yet remains underrepresented in advertising. By the way, as an ex-New York media buyer, I can tell you no advertiser is paying $8m rate bandied around this year! The blow out game will have hurt the ratings but the big game still delivered north of 110 million viewers in the US.
Nielsen TV ratings shake up
On the subject of TV ratings, Nielsen’s decision to discontinue its stand-alone panel-based TV ratings marks a seismic shift in the media measurement industry, ending a decades-long standard that has shaped television advertising. The company is pushing its new Big Data + Panel product, which combines traditional panel data with third-party digital metrics, aiming to compete with rising challengers to the industry’s TV currency.
This transition forces advertisers and networks to adapt their pricing models and strategy ahead of the critical upfronts, where TV ad deals are negotiated. While Nielsen remains dominant due to its legacy market share, its hold is weakening — 60% of marketers used an alternative in 2024, and media giants like Disney and Paramount are exploring other measurement tools. This signals the definitive end of an era, with Nielsen facing a crucial test to prove its new methodology can maintain trust and credibility in a rapidly evolving ad landscape.
Nielsen notes these changes affect the US only and don’t relate to Aotearoa.
AI Overhauls Google’s Search Future
Google is doubling down on its AI-first strategy to counter the rising influence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT which is redefining the future of Search. CEO Sundar Pichai outlined this evolution during Google’s earnings call, highlighting AI Overviews as the starting point and unveiling new AI-driven features like Project Astra, a multimodal system that processes live video, and Gemini Deep Research, an AI agent that automates complex research tasks.
Pichai also introduced Project Mariner, which could browse websites on behalf of users, potentially changing how people interact with the web. These AI advancements aim to make Search more like an interactive assistant, allowing users to ask follow-up questions and receive in-depth responses.
Iconic Austin brand returns
Some of us old enough to remember the Austin Morris Minor might appreciate this story. John Stubbs, a British engineer, purchased and registered the rights to the Austin Motor Company name and trademarks for just £170. The brand rights for all the MG, Rover, Austin and numerous other marques were acquired by Nanjing Automobile Group, a Chinese automaker after the collapse of MG Rover in 2015. However, despite their control over the MG brand, Nanjing failed to maintain the trademark registrations for Austin, leaving the historic name unprotected.
Stubbs, driven by a passion to honour the brand’s heritage, plans to modernise the brand for the electric vehicle era. By securing these rights, Stubbs sidestepped the costly and complex process of building a new brand from scratch allowing him to independently revive the Austin name with his first production model, the Austin Arrow EV.
No-buy movement is reshaping consumer habits
As economic pressures in the US persist, the no-buy mindset is a broad cultural shift away from impulsive consumerism toward mindful spending. The no-buy 2025 movement is gaining traction across the U.S, reported by the Wall Street Journal, is being driven by rising household debt, inflation, and a growing desire to curb overconsumption.
Participants, inspired by social media trends, are pledging to limit nonessential purchases, pay down debt, and make better use of what they already own. Rachel Holdsworth, a stay-at-home mom from Indiana, and her husband committed to cutting unnecessary expenses — like hair treatments and impulse buys — to tackle their $10,000 credit card debt. In just one month, they paid off $2,000. The trend extends to areas like fashion, beauty, and home goods, with many setting strict spending limits or delaying purchases to evaluate necessity.
