Fintech Takes: Super Bowl Edition

Feb 11, 2026

Jane Barratt, Chief Advocacy Officer at MX and former advertising reviewer, returns to weigh in on Super Bowl ads and their ties to data privacy, open banking, and AI. She hands out ad awards, explains why many financial brands skipped the game, considers AI-driven ads inside tools, and outlines the competitive risks for smaller banks amid shifting open banking rules.

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INSIGHT

Banks Skipped The Big Consumer Stage

Major national banks and big fintechs largely skipped consumer Super Bowl buys, leaving financial-ad space open to crypto and niche players.
Their absence signals either defensive budget cuts or strategic restraint amid economic uncertainty.

INSIGHT

Ad Cuts Signal Economic Caution

Advertising spend is a leading recession indicator because marketing gets cut first, which can worsen downturns and create opportunities for share gains.
The Super Bowl lineup felt like a signal that consumer spending and marketing budgets may be tightening.

INSIGHT

Anthropic Warned Against Ad-Driven AI

Anthropic's ads positioned the company as resisting ad-driven AI and highlighted risks of chatbots inserting sponsored, irrelevant financing or payday links.
The spots aim to differentiate Claude by warning users about potential monetization tactics in other AI products.

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Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast, where I’m welcoming back Jane Barratt, Chief Advocacy Officer at MX, to talk about Super Bowl commercials and advertising ( and how it overlaps with data privacy, data ownership, open banking, and AI).

Fun fact: Jane had a previous career in advertising. What I didn’t know is that Jane used to go on live television and review ads from the Super Bowl the day after.

In this episode, recorded the day after Super Bowl LIX (déjà vu vu for Jane), we hand out the inaugural Fintech Takes Super Bowl Ad Awards.

Then we pivot to what the commercials (including those that were conspicuously absent) reveal about consumer sentiment, what happens when ads start showing up inside AI tools, and more.

We also dig into where U.S. open banking stands after a year of regulatory turbulence around the CFPB’s Section 1033 rule.

Highlights include:

Why Levi's won Best Use of Money and Coinbase won Biggest Waste of Money

Why almost no major banks and fintech companies, or consumer financial brands showed up (and what that missing marketing spend signals about the economy)

Why ads inside AI tools are fundamentally different from ads on Instagram or Google

Why the biggest banks keep investing in open banking even with the CFPB’s Section 1033 rule still unresolved, and why smaller banks that don’t invest in data-sharing risk asset flight to trillion-dollar institutions

This episode is brought to you by Plaid.

Plaid helps lenders approve more creditworthy borrowers without taking on more risk, combining real-time cash flow data with behavioral insights. It’s a fast, familiar experience people trust, and that actually converts. Learn more at www.plaid.com/ftt

Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/

And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.

Follow Jane:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janebarratt/

Follow Alex Johnson:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson
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