Svedka is handing over the reins for its next Super Bowl ad to consumers, per a press release. The Sazerac-owned brand is challenging consumers to make a 15-second commercial featuring its ready-to-drink Vodka Water cocktail offering, which launched this summer and is sold in a clear can — what the brand claims is a category-first innovation.
Consumers can submit ads to a microsite until Dec. 1, with the winner receiving a $500,000 prize. The contest comes after the vodka brand faced controversy earlier this year for using artificial intelligence to bring its fembot mascot to life as part of its first Super Bowl ad. Despite the backlash, Sveda has been the top volume growth driver in U.S. spirits in the last year, per Nielsen data cited by the brand.
“We're proud of what we accomplished in 2026, but we heard plenty of people say they could do a better job. And we welcomed the debate,” Sara Saunders, group president and CMO at Sazerac, said in a statement. “We can't wait to see how fans bring the brand's newest innovation to life.”
Svedka is making a digital tool kit available to consumers as they create ads that can be “AI-led, hilariously low-budget, unexpectedly cinematic or creatively ambitious,” per press details.
To launch the contest, Svedka teamed with Andy Cohen for an interview with the Svedbot appearing on YouTube in which the reality TV host notes that the previous ad was called “bold, bizarre and a dystopian nightmare.” Cohen will also help to evaluate the submissions.
Svedka’s 30-second national ad that ran during Super Bowl LX was managed by the brand’s in-house team with production by AI innovation lab Silverside. The spot represented the first national Super Bowl commercial dedicated solely to vodka in over three decades, and featured a brand mascot that had recently returned to advertising after a 12-year hiatus.
That campaign also included a call for user-generated content, with Svedka partnering with actress Victoria Justice to encourage consumers to help choreograph the ad via dance moves posted on Instagram or TikTok.
