Issa Rae Hates Saving Paper Receipts in TurboTax Super Bowl Teaser

Earlier this month, TurboTax commissioned Talker Research to get some data on how much Gen Z Americans know about income tax filing.

The upshot: They don’t know much.

Nearly 1 in 5 (17%) of the youngsters thought that they could deduct pretty much anything as a business expense; 13% were sure that they didn’t have to declare income so long as it was paid in cash; and 20% thought that students are exempt from taxes completely.

Ignorance on this scale isn’t just eyebrow-raising—it also helps explain TurboTax’s advertising angle in Super Bowl LIX. The tax-prep giant gave America a sneak peek at its forthcoming effort with a teaser, released today.

In the 15-second drama, Issa Rae takes a carboard box erupting with receipts out of her car. She joins a sorry procession of other zombielike Americans battling high winds on their way to—presumably—the local tax-preparation franchise. (Note to H&R Block: this looks like a shot at you guys.)

Seven seconds in, Rae breaks the fourth wall and addresses the camera: “It’s 2025,” she carps, “this is taxes?”

Well, yeah, it is—for about half of us, anyway. An IRS study from 2021 found that 53% of American seek the help of a tax professional for their yearly filings.

But those numbers are changing quickly. The Talker Research figures revealed that nearly a quarter (23%) of Gen Zers file their own taxes. They also hate the process. A separate survey by Cash App found that 54% of young filers admitted that the tax-filing process has brought them to tears.

See an opportunity here? TurboTax has. In late December, the company took the wraps off a new campaign called “Now This is Taxes”—a line that Rae poses as an interrogative in the Super Bowl teaser.

With a creative assist from R/GA, TurboTax kicked off the effort with six spots spotlighting its new AI-enabled tool that allows filers to access a “TurboTax expert [who] does everything for you.” In ideal circumstances, taxpayers can even get the whole miserable process over with inside of two hours.

Quoting a company statement, the campaign “draws a stark line between the time-consuming, manual, and expensive old way of filing taxes without TurboTax, and TurboTax’s modern, convenient, and stress-free offerings.”

Speaking to ADWEEK in December, Intuit VP of consumer marketing Trevor Kelley explained that the Super Bowl—which this year will be 88 days before April 15^th—is a “pivotal point in the tax year.”

“We want some of that bold advertising swagger that comes with the Super Bowl,” Kelley said, “so this is a great opportunity for this campaign.”