Starbucks is skipping an in-game Super Bowl spot again this year. However, as it did in 2025, the coffee giant will make its presence felt pre- and post-match with a beautiful film that’s equal parts Italian cinema and Olympic spectacle.
Highlighting its role as the official coffee of Team U.S.A., “The Coffee Run” from creative agency Anomaly LA, will debut during the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games on February 6 on NBC.
A 60-second version of the spot will also feature before and after the Seahawks-Patriots showdown on Super Bowl Sunday.
“Our vision is to be visible, relevant, and loved everywhere,” Starbucks chief brand officer (CBO) Tressie Lieberman told ADWEEK. “And I think that the greatest stage is the Super Bowl. So coming back is just a natural way to continue the narrative around our coffee, craft, and connection. And we’re breaking through with something that feels fresh.”
Filmed on location at a real Starbucks in the Austrian town of Hall in Tirol, an hour outside of Italy, the ad follows a day in the life of a delivery driver making repeated coffee runs to the peak of a ski slope.
Along the way, he furnishes Team U.S.A Olympic and Paralympic athletes, including Amber Glenn, Elana Meyers Taylor, Oksana Masters, and Aaron Pike, with much-needed hot beverages. The commercial also stars a real Starbucks barista, who greets the driver with a smile each time he comes in from the cold.
The art direction by duo Julian & Quentin was inspired by Italian cinema of the 1960s and ’70s. The pair put the footage through a “film-out process,” transferring it to physical film and back to introduce texture, grain, and imperfection to the scenes that can’t be replicated digitally.
Despite the vintage Italian feel, the ad nods to the U.S. brand’s roots, choosing “South American Getaway” from American composer Burt Bacharach as its soundtrack.
Back to Starbucks
Lieberman said “The Coffee Run” will be supported by a social media push, partnerships with Olympians, and via the Starbucks app, which now counts over 35 million members globally.
Starbucks’ Big Game-adjacent marketing blitz follows its 2025 “Hello Again,” ad, a campaign which aired around the broadcast to reintroduce the business as a “third space” where people can connect and gather.
