Anthropic used the Super Bowl to take a shot at OpenAI, and it worked. The company dropped a series of ads early; one, titled “Violation,” pulled in 5 million views on X in under 48 hours. The tagline: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
It was a direct jab at OpenAI, which recently announced it would begin testing ads on ChatGPT. That news caused a stir online, given that Sam Altman once called ads “a last resort for us as a business model.”
The irony is that AI companies have been pouring money into traditional advertising while publicly positioning themselves as skeptical of the ad business model. Last year Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Perplexity collectively spent more than $330 million on broadcast TV ads for their AI offerings, up 43% from the year before.
They’ve still got a ways to go. Only 17% of American adults think AI’s impact on the country will be positive over the next two decades.
Prof G Markets wrote about Anthropic’s excellent marketing back in October. Check it out here.
Sam Altman put out a pathetic, 400-word tweet trying to argue that the ad isn’t accurate, that they’re not going to surreptitiously insert ads while you’re doing therapy. Maybe that’s true. But no one cares.
Anthropic’s ad was good. They nailed the voice of ChatGPT — that awkward, monotonous, sycophantic voice everyone has gotten sick of. They have their finger on the pulse.
To me this ad has parallels to the 1984 Apple ad, regarded as one of the greatest commercials of all time. It aired during the Super Bowl and took a direct shot at IBM, suggesting they were Big Brother trying to control the world while Apple would liberate you. Was it all technically true? Not exactly. But it resonated. That’s exactly what Anthropic has done.
I said a few months ago that Anthropic’s going to be the heavyweight champion of AI in 2026. This is the moment everyone realized it’s actually happening.
This is the moment that Anthropic begins its valuation ascent past OpenAI.
In my course on brand strategy, I teach something called laddering. You say we are this and the competition is that. You find points that pass three hurdles: differentiation, relevance, and sustainability.
Anthropic’s differentiation is clear: no ads. It’s relevant because the number one use case for AI is therapy. People are revealing their most intimate questions and concerns. The thought that OpenAI is going to take all your personal information and start saying, “You seem to be suffering from depression; have you thought about Lexapro?” It’s frightening.
I’m totally blown away by Anthropic’s execution. They registered 10x the ROI on this Super Bowl commercial before it even ran.
Altman’s response was a mistake. When you’re the market leader, you don’t reference the competition. You never talk about them. Hertz never referenced Avis. Coke never referenced Pepsi. If he’d been asked about it, he should have said, “I’ve seen it. It’s a great ad. Good for them.” Anything beyond that looks defensive.
This is a seminal moment. When we look back on this, this will be seen as a big moment in the AI wars.