Written by Sophie Babic

The big game ad blitz

The Super Bowl has taken over everyone’s feeds this week, and not just because of the game. Bad Bunny’s halftime performance smashed viewership records, leaning into the themes of unity and love.

Beyond the music, this year’s ads sparked just as much conversation.

While the celebrity cameos appeared as strong as ever, the tone of the ads shifted this year, offering an emotional escape for viewers. Brands like Uber Eats, Pepsi and Pringles leaned into exaggerated humour, while relating to core values.

According to Sprout Social, Pepsi’s ad was the most mentioned across social platforms. “The Choice,” cheekily used Coca-Cola’s iconic polar bear mascot in a blind taste test where the bear picks Pepsi Zero Sugar over Coke, poking fun at its long-running competitor.

The ad also performed well across industry rankings, landing seventh with System1, earning an A from the Kellogg School  panel of students, and securing the #3 spot on USA Today’s AdMeter, taken from a live audience poll during the broadcast.

Balancing out the comedy were ads that tapped into warmth and community. message of empowerment and Lay’s father-daughter duo offered a softer emotional counterweight to the high energy humour elsewhere.

OpenAI launches platform to manage AI across businesses

The creator of ChatGPT has announced its latest product, Frontier, a new program designed to help organisations build, deploy and manage AI agents across their organisation.

These agents can perform tasks, process information, or support workflows, making AI use more consistent and integrated. According to OpenAI, Frontier aims to close what it calls the “AI opportunity gap” within large companies. This refers to the widening divide between what AI models can do and how businesses actually use them.

Many companies have trialled individual AI tools, but often instruct agents to complete just one task. The new hub’s aim is to make it easier to scale AI across different teams and processes, while maintaining oversight and control from leadership.

Gaming safety concerns

The Australian Government has officially put the popular gaming platform Roblox on notice, following reports of child grooming and exposure to graphic material.

Communications Minister Anika Wells has demanded an urgent meeting with the company, labelling the persistence of harmful content as “untenable” for Australian families.

Despite Roblox introducing mandatory age checks and restricted chat features in late 2025, reports suggest children are still being targeted by predators and exposed to user-generated content involving sexual violence and self-harm. Minister Wells has now formally requested that the Australian Classification Board reassess the platform’s PG rating, which has remained unchanged since 2018.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant confirmed her office will now “directly test” Roblox’s safety claims. If the platform is found to be in breach of the Online Safety Act, it could face fines of up to $49.5 million.

Winter games medal mishaps

The Winter Olympics are officially underway, having kicked off on Friday, 6 February in Milan. Australians Tess Coady and Mela Stalker narrowly missed the podium in the snowboard big air final, while Holly Harris and Jason Chan made history as the first Aussies in 12 years to compete in Olympic ice dancing.

But the headlines haven’t just been about performances (and don’t get us started on that World Anti-Doping Agency enquiry). Organisers are currently investigating reports that several Milano Cortina medals have broken, with at least four athletes’ awards falling apart in the first three days of competition. Andrea Francisi, chief operations officer for the organising committee, confirmed the team is urgently working on a solution.

Athletes, at least, are taking it in their stride. On her broken medal, United States skier Breezy Johnson joked; “I don’t know if I have very many Olympic records, but I might have the shortest-lived Olympic medal record.”