How The Pokémon Company kicked off its 30th anniversary with a star‑studded Super Bowl ad, a global “What’s Your Favorite?” campaign hub, and what it all hints at for future game reveals in 2026.
Pokémon is turning 30, and The Pokémon Company has decided that nostalgia alone is not enough. Instead, it opened the year with one of its most mainstream pushes ever: a glossy Super Bowl LX commercial and a global “What’s Your Favorite?” campaign that invites fans and celebrities alike to pick a partner.
This is more than a cute brand moment. It is a carefully staged opening act for a year of marketing that almost certainly leads into new game announcements and platform moves later in 2026.
Breaking down the “What’s Your Favorite?” Super Bowl ad
The 30th anniversary spot, simply titled “What’s Your Favorite?”, ran during Super Bowl LX and plays like a reel of cultural touchpoints built around one deceptively simple question. Rather than leading with Pikachu or a specific game, the ad leads with people.
Trevor Noah appears first, framing the “favorite” question like a universal icebreaker. From there the commercial cuts between celebrities in different spaces, each teasing a favorite without immediately naming it. The editing is tight and playful, always leaving just enough mystery before the reveal.
Lady Gaga anchors the ad. Her segment builds toward the punchline: her favorite is Jigglypuff, naturally, and the spot climaxes with Gaga in a recording studio, trading lines with a fully CG Jigglypuff as it sings its classic lullaby. The duet leans straight into Jigglypuff’s identity as a performer and the sequence is clearly designed as the memeable, shareable centerpiece of the whole push.
Other cameos fill out a broad demographic spread. BLACKPINK’s Jisoo, Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc, Barcelona phenom Lamine Yamal, actor Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and musician Young Miko all chime in with their own picks, spanning regions and interests in a way that mirrors Pokémon’s global reach. The specific monsters they choose matter less than the premise: everyone has a favorite, and that favorite says something about you.
The ad closes by turning the question back on the audience, inviting viewers at home to answer “What’s your favorite?” themselves. That line is not just a thematic button, it is the connective tissue between the TV spot and a larger digital campaign.
Inside the 30th anniversary website
Right after the Super Bowl, The Pokémon Company flipped the switch on its official 30th anniversary website. Rather than acting as a static museum of the past three decades, the hub is built to feed into and extend the “What’s Your Favorite?” concept.
Front and center is the Super Bowl commercial itself, framed as the opening chapter in a “yearlong celebration.” The site highlights that this is meant to span the entire ecosystem, from video games and the anime to trading cards and mobile titles. It positions the question of “favorite” as the lens through which to revisit Pokémon history, not just as a one‑off ad slogan.
One of the main early hooks is a tie‑in with Pokémon GO. The anniversary site and Pokémon.com coverage point players toward a new “What’s Your Favorite?” feature in GO, encouraging them to showcase favorites through AR photos and social filters. The goal is clear: turn passive viewers of a Super Bowl commercial into active participants who post their own answers on social platforms.
The anniversary hub also promises rotating spotlights and events across the year, teasing future announcements without detailing them yet. Historically, Pokémon anniversary sites have been used as staging grounds for game reveals, TCG product announcements, and anime projects. Here, the copy leans hard on language like “a year packed full of fan‑focused celebrations,” signaling that the Super Bowl is just the kickoff.
Celebrity appeal as the core of the campaign
Pokémon has used celebrity tie‑ins before, but the 30th anniversary push scales that strategy up and sharpens its intent. The casting list reads like a deliberate attempt to hit different fandoms and regions: K‑pop, Western comedy, European motorsport, Latin music, global football.
Lady Gaga’s presence in particular is telling. Pairing one of the world’s most recognizable pop stars with Jigglypuff is a brand alignment that practically writes its own headlines. It instantly positions the campaign in mainstream entertainment press, not just gaming outlets, and it turns Jigglypuff into the unofficial mascot of the anniversary in a way that reaches far beyond traditional fans.
Trevor Noah and Jisoo serve a similar function, each drawing in distinct audiences that might not otherwise engage with Pokémon news. Including rising sports figures like Lamine Yamal and established names like Charles Leclerc connects the brand to live, appointment‑viewing culture, which fits the Super Bowl stage perfectly.
Crucially, the celebrities are not just billboard faces. In the ad they are framed as genuine fans, people who have their own history with the series and their own favorites. That matches how Pokémon functions socially: everyone has that one partner they are attached to, whether it is a starter from childhood or a competitive MVP from a recent generation. The spot takes that real fan behavior and reflects it back at the mass audience through celebrity avatars.
From a marketing perspective, this spreads the campaign well beyond the confines of Pokémon’s usual February announcements. Each star’s social channels become another vector for the “What’s Your Favorite?” question, effectively turning the ad into a global conversation starter.
What this level of marketing hints at for 2026 game reveals
A Super Bowl commercial is expensive, and The Pokémon Company does not treat this kind of spend as a one‑off stunt. The scale and timing of “What’s Your Favorite?” make it very unlikely that this is just about nostalgia merch and mobile events.
Looking back at earlier milestones offers clues. For the 20th anniversary, The Pokémon Company rolled out Virtual Console releases of the original Game Boy titles on 3DS around Pokémon Day, then used that momentum to set the stage for Sun and Moon. The 25th anniversary leaned heavily into music crossovers and a digital concert series while still anchoring the year around core‑series announcements.
Here, the 30th anniversary beats are lining up in a similar way. The Super Bowl ad plants Pokémon squarely in the broader pop‑culture conversation right as the year begins. The new website frames 2026 as a continuous celebration, not a single date. Official press materials describe this as a “massive, yearlong campaign,” and already highlight new features in Pokémon GO and family events that will roll out over time.
That structure is ideal for seeding multiple game‑related reveals across the calendar.
First, classic content feels almost inevitable. With Game Boy and Game Boy Advance already represented on Nintendo Switch Online, fans and media are openly speculating about legacy Pokémon titles finally hitting the service. The anniversary marketing’s emphasis on favorites from across generations naturally supports that kind of drop, and a February Pokémon Day presentation would be a logical venue to announce it.
Second, a campaign this loud is a strong platform for the next mainline announcement. Whether The Pokémon Company is ready to show a full new generation, a follow‑up to Scarlet and Violet, or something more experimental, the “What’s Your Favorite?” question gives them a thematic bridge. A new region or gameplay shake‑up can be presented as a fresh way to discover your next favorite partner, and the anniversary framing softens the reveal for casual audiences who are just tuning back in because of the Super Bowl buzz.
Finally, the cross‑media nature of the campaign suggests that tie‑ins across the anime, TCG, and mobile titles will be paced throughout the year. Expect Pokémon GO, the mainline Switch titles, and possibly side projects to keep feeding the anniversary site with new reasons to come back. In that sense, the Super Bowl ad is less a destination and more a trailer for a year of rollouts.
For now, the big question The Pokémon Company is asking is simple: “What’s your favorite?” The more interesting question for fans is what future announcements this unprecedented level of mainstream marketing is quietly setting up behind the scenes.