Vodka can be used to make everything from espresso martinis to Moscow Mules. A Super Bowl advertiser hopes to make $500,000 from people using this drink.
After using AI to create a 30-second commercial at Super Bowl LX, Svedka Vodka will turn to fans and followers and ask them to create the brand’s next Big Game extravaganza. Entrants who are 21 years of age or older must create a 15-second ad for a new cocktail offering, Svedka Vodka Water, and submit it to biggamecontest.svedka.com between November 2, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. ET and December 1 of this year at 11:59 p.m. ET.
“We expect to get a lot of applications,” says Sara Saunders, group president and chief marketing officer of Sazerac, which distributes Svedka, Buffalo Trace and 1792, among other spirits, during a recent interview. “I think the dollar value will attract a healthy amount.” He says that in this process, the company expects to initiate new discussions about Svedka, which it acquired in 2024. The AI ad revived Svedka’s former “fembot” adverrusbg character and got people talking about whether AI should replace the creativity of Madison Avenue.
Saunders says sales are particularly on the rise as digital backlash over the use of AI emerges in online forums. Svedka “demonstrated very strong double-digit growth over the last nine months in a declining category in a declining industry.”
The executive says it’s no wonder the company moved early to secure 30 seconds of Super Bowl ad time from Disney, which will air Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2007. The company is selling its half-minute ad inventory for about $8 million or more, according to people familiar with the discussions. Sazerac also plans to run a second 15-second ad in the grilling classic for another product that Saunders declined to specify.
Svedka’s promotional activities are actually starting now, although the winning ad won’t be seen until closer to launch time. The company enlisted Andy Cohen to help evaluate the ads. Saunders says Cohen knows how to work at a time when consumers feel free to post even hurtful comments.
“How do you approach arguments and abusive tweets with a better person than Andy Cohen? He lives in it. He thrives in it,” he says. To kick off the company’s Super Bowl competition, Svedka will release a video in which Cohen talks to the fembot about some of the reactions to his latest ad, “addressing some of the polarization. We felt like it was really appropriate to have that dialogue with him,” says Saunders.
In an interview, Cohen says he keeps to himself. “Look, I’m used to hearing a lot of audience feedback from a lot of different directions and getting people involved,” he says. “I think it’s very genius and very organic that they brought me here for this.” Cohen’s turn with Svedka comes after she appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for Nerds candies earlier this year.
In a different era, ads created by independent consumers were known as “user-generated ads” and raised questions when PepsiCo’s Doritos proposed using them in the Super Bowl. In 2007, PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay snack division solicited the work of amateur filmmakers and ad agency creative hopefuls through its “Crash The Super Bowl” contest. For nearly a decade, the concepts submitted for consideration turned out to be some of the most popular commercials airing during NFL extravaganza. At the time, the idea was almost unheard of: How could some amateurs using their own equipment create an ad as compelling as something produced by world-class marketers like Bud Light or Coca-Cola?
In fact, Doritos found it difficult to give up the idea. The company revived the competition in 2025.
In 2026, creating content has never been easier thanks to artificial intelligence and digital production tools. If user-generated Doritos ads made a splash in the last decade, imagine what’s possible today.
Executives at Sazerac know that advertising can be done through AI or low-budget techniques. On the other hand, some submissions may seem almost cinematic or show artistic ambition. The company wants advertising. The company will provide participants with free access to a digital toolkit containing creative assets, including images of Svedka Vodka Juice; This means no one will need to purchase the beverage can to create an application.
It’s weeks away before interest in the Super Bowl starts to pick up, but Svedka will need all the time he can get. He must review the ads, make sure they meet Disney standards, and hopefully announce his selection by mid-December. “It’s a sprint,” says Saunders.
Contestants will be told that the ads should be centered around Svedka Vodka Juice, and the company will suggest they use fembots. “We don’t mandate this,” the manager says.
Cohen suggests that creators may want to keep the Super Bowl audience in mind. A Super Bowl commercial is “the most mass thing you can do. There is no more mass entertainment than the Big Game and everything around it.”