It’s no surprise, then, that the guru’s true gift is mashing as many avocado references into the script as possible.
“I’m tuning in with the guac!” proclaimed the guru on a recent trial run. “This prediction is coming in with extra jalapenos today. After I give you a prediction, I’ll give you a guac recipe. Stick around. Guac is always a good play!”
From air time to AI
This is Avocados From Mexico’s third AI-powered activation for the Super Bowl. Last year, it invited fans to huddle with an AI-rendered Rob Gronkowski, who shared recipes including his Buffalo Gronkamole. In 2024, it rolled out GuacAImole, which guac recipes based on ingredients or food photos that users uploaded. Together, these two efforts drew 2 million views and raised engagement by double digits.
The last time that the commodity-marketing organization ran a traditional Super Bowl ad was 2023. It was a Garden of Eden sendup starring Anna Faris, who bit into an avocado instead of an apple.
Why the departure? “After the Anna Faris ad, we started shifting our strategy to reinforce the presence of the brand in football in general, not only to one single event,” Luque said. “We shifted funds to try to become a bigger player in the college football arena, and then came back to the Super Bowl through technology.”
He added: “We would still like to go back to the Super Bowl as an advertiser, but using technology and AI has been very good for us.”
Yet for all the potential that AI is bringing to advertising, it’s not without its risks. Consumers laughed but brands shuddered when, in a much-publicized 2024 snafu, Google’s AI Overviews recommended that people “eat at least one small rock per day” and “add about ⅛ cup of non-toxic glue” to pizza sauce “to give it more tackiness.”
Bottini explained that Guac Guru has been trained only to talk about football, and the sole prompt the user gets is entering their name. “Every time we develop AI tech, especially when you’re dealing with celebrities, you have to put barriers and guardrails so [bad] experiences don’t happen,” he said.
