Poop, Pee, and Pubes: Brands Can’t Stop Going to the Bathroom During the Super Bowl

An unlikely motif has emerged among this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads: bathroom humor.

Liquid I.V. has leaned fully into the bit. In the lead-up to the game, the hydration brand released two restroom-based teaser ads, one featuring K-pop vocalist EJAE belting Phil Collins’ 1984 power ballad “Against All Odds” from a bathroom stall. The other follows a janitor who pauses mid-cleaning, puzzled, as the same song echoes from an empty toilet.

The Super Bowl spot itself escalates the premise into a full-blown chorus: a montage of toilets, stalls and bathroom fixtures singing “Against All Odds” in unison. The joke lands on a visual gag—asking viewers to literally “take a look” at what’s in the bowl—as a way to prompt people to check their hydration levels.

Men’s grooming brand Manscaped was also in on the potty joke, with its Super Bowl pregame ad featuring anthropomorphic clumps of hair trapped in a shower drain, crooning a mournful ballad about their brief, doomed relationships with their former bodies.

Even cereal brands are heading to the bathroom. WK Kellogg Co‘s Raisin Bran’s ad talks about digestion and gut health—territory that’s long been difficult to advertise without veering into discomfort.

Taken together, the ads suggest that when it comes to wellness, digestion, and hydration, advertisers are increasingly willing to go where polite marketing once refused.

It’s not the first time advertisers have used the Super Bowl to make bathroom jokes. Last year, for instance, Angel Soft encouraged viewers to step away from the screen and take a bathroom break during its ad.

But this year, this immature and sometimes mildly gross form of humor is increasingly common. And according to creative leaders and brand marketers, that’s not an accident.

“You’re trying to break through the most noisy creative environment you’re ever going to be in, at a time when people’s attention spans are devastatingly short,” said Steve Slivka, chief creative officer at Manifest, who has worked on multiple Super Bowl ads for brands like Cadillac and Slim Jim. “At the same time, you’re navigating one of the most polarized cultural moments we’ve been in.”

And at some level, bathroom humor strikes that balance of being universally funny and understood. “As evolved as I think I am, there’s no defense for singing toilets,” Slivka continued. “You’re going to have a reaction to it. That’s just true.”

Relieving the pressure

Absurdist humor has historically resurfaced in moments of heightened social and political tension, a. Slivka pointed to to Dadaism, a movement that emerged during World War I as a rejection of logic and order.

“It was fighting an absurd time in history with absurdity,” he said. “I think that’s very much where we are right now. The work reflects that, but in a way that sidesteps polarizing issues and goes back to something very human.”

That “human” reaction—surprise, discomfort, laughter—is precisely what brands are betting on as they try to stand out without alienating large swaths of the country.

Still, comedy can be risky—especially when it comes to bathroom jokes. “There’s a line you can’t cross where it becomes crass or starts to destroy the brand equities you’ve worked so hard to build,” Slivka said. “Some people might laugh, some might not—but it can’t be a detriment.”

Weird for a reason

Liquid I.V., for its part, considered its bathroom-centric ad carefully. CMO Stacey Andrade-Wells said the surreal setup is anchored in a specific behavioral insight and aims to spark awareness around dehydration by leaning into a surprisingly common habit.

“Fifty-nine percent of Americans are looking at their pee before they flush,” she said. “That’s an opportunity to drive conversation about a sign of dehydration, inspire dialog, and ultimately change people’s behaviors.”

While an ad with singing toilets is a silly and a little gross, the key is using absurdity to get a point across about the product that will encourage people to want to try it.

“If you’re using absurdity just for the purposes of absurdity, you might get a little bit of conversation,” Andrade-Wells said. “But ultimately, you’re not going to land what you want, which is for people to remember the brand and try it out.”

With its Raisin Bran ad, WK Kellogg Co is also using potty humor to spotlight a taboo topic—gut health and fiber consumption—a conversation the brand believes it has earned the right to be a part of.

“Our feeling is that we’ll bring some humor and humanity to a topic that can be awkward,” said Doug VandeVelde, chief growth officer, WK Kellogg Co. “Not lecture people, but deliver something that will spark an a-ha moment.”

The challenge, Slivka agreed, isn’t coming up with an outrageous idea; it’s determining whether a brand has earned the right to go there.

“It’s easy to ask, ‘What do we do to get noticed?’” he said. “The harder thing is staying honest about whether it actually makes sense for the brand.”