HOT TAKE: The Super Bowl's Accidental Truth Bomb

Is it just us, or did this week's Super Bowl LX accidentally broadcast a perfect MRI scan of the current American food system?

In the span of a few commercial breaks, we watched a the playbook of a trillion-dollar industry in three consecutive acts:

ACT 1: The Warning

MAHA Alliance frames ultra-processed food as a health crisis with Mike Tyson eating an apple. A moment of uncomfortable truth right before the kickoff.

ACT 2: The Temptation

Minutes later programming resumes and Pringles, Dunkin'​, and PepsiCo spend $8m each positioning those same UPFs as irresistible. Sabrina Carpenter et al are popping until they can’t stop.

ACT 3: The Absolution

Then came the pivot. Wegovy and Ro arrive with the solution in the form of a pharmaceutical subscription and a dancing Serena Williams.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Strip away the celebrities and the high-budget production, and a fundamental question emerges for food marketers paying attention. If pharma intervention means users eat less processed food, and health messaging is telling everyone to eat less processed food, then is this really the cycle you want to be part of, or do you need to get unstuck?

We know where we’d put our money.