Universal Destinations and Experiences’ 2026 Super Bowl spot aims to transform guests and how they experience the Florida parks.
Dubbed “Lil’ Bro,” the 60-second in-house Super Bowl LX ad will air on Peacock and NBC just before the Feb. 8 NFL Halftime Show, showcasing Universal Orlando Resort as a week-long vacation destination of four parks, 11 hotels, the entertainment complex Universal CityWalk Orlando, and more.
“We were inspired by the transformative moments that can happen at the resort,” says Alice Norsworthy, President, Global Marketing, Universal Destinations & Experiences, about this year’s spot. “People are stepping away from the stress and pressure of the world and immersing themselves in the stories and characters they love. As they do that, they connect in real life with the people they care about. So we put those two things together — the transformation of our destination and the transformative experience you can have in our parks.”
Developed in partnership with Lucky Generals and directed by Ben Quinn at Superprime, “Lil’ Bro” features a sibling rivalry that begins with tossing a football and ends in the parks, with a kind of role reversal that sparks playful connection and emotional growth. “[The younger brother] gets that little patronizing head rub at the beginning, but by the end, this is his moment. He isn’t the little man anymore. He’s the man,” says Lucky Generals founder Danny Brooke-Taylor of the ad, which primarily features experiences inside Epic Universe and Volcano Bay.
For UDX’s president of global marketing, the story taps into how the Florida resort’s parks, entertainment, dining, and hotels can affect guests no matter their age and in ways that aren’t just once-in-a-lifetime but for a lifetime. To that end, Norsworthy and Brooke-Taylor tell The Hollywood Reporter they leaned into authenticity when delivering their distinctive promise of immersion, adventure, and memory-making across UDX’s destinations and experiences. “This isn’t a transactional thing. It isn’t airbrushed. It’s just honest and real. Be with the people you love, and feel something here at these four parks across a week,” Brooke-Taylor adds.
That focus on authenticity also means the ad is absent any A-List star power, despite Universal Orlando Resort’s connection to a storied film studio. Instead, the commercial centers on two young boys as they tap into universal stories. Says Brooke-Taylor: “These aren’t just shots of people on coasters or people enjoying the food or a water park. It’s about what happens when you connect and re-engage. You come here and be human again.”
“Our guests are celebrities, so we wanted to showcase the real, authentic experiences that they can have,” adds Norsworthy. “We think the resort is a catalyst for helping you discover the best version of yourself.”
In a small evolution from UOR’s movie and thrill-centric marketing history — in which one early 90s commercial promises the parks will hurl you, rock you, love you, and put you in the middle of the action and adventure you see on the screen — much of the featured studio IP serves as a backdrop in the ad versus its central character. According to the duo, in this campaign, the parks that once promised guests could “ride the movies” have channeled part of their appreciation for cinema into the spots’ visual style, while filming on location at UOR’s various attractions and hotels.
“We were always conscious that if we were going to have the Universal logo appear at the end of this, it needed to live up to the experiences of that brand,” says Brooke-Taylor. “So if you freeze frame [the ad] at any point, yes, it is cinematic, but it isn’t a borrowed story. These are our stories. I’m a big fan of finding the human truth in an experience and then making that a beautiful thing to watch and engage with. We don’t need to shoot that on a phone and make it gritty or action-packed. Let’s find the truth that we all recognize and then capture that with the real craft we all know through the movies.”
“Lil’ Bro” marks the second release in UDX’s new Orlando Resort campaign, “This Changes Everything.” The five-part series of 30- to 60-second commercials will continue to roll out over the next month across owned channels and in collaboration with trade and media partners. That includes February sporting events such as the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and NBA All-Star Weekend, and, later this year, the 2026 World Cup in July. Norsworthy says tying components of the campaign to the massive and diverse audiences of major sporting events is an opportunity to use “a big moment to tell something very personal.”
UDX has not confirmed the cost of its in-house ad, which follows last year’s promotion of the opening of Epic Universe on Fox. While some late 30-second linear ad buys for Super Bowl 60 reached over $10 million, given that Universal Resorts is a corporate sibling of NBC and Peacock, it is possible it is part of the block of ads that the Super Bowl broadcaster gives itself.
The first campaign spot debuted back in January, a minute-long anthem soundtracked to M83’s “Outra” that features an amalgamation of the four other yet-to-be-released ads, “Blended,” “Smile,” and “Super Fan.” Footage captures family and friend groups experiencing the Cabana Bay Beach Resort and the Helios Grand, Universal Studios Florida’s Transformers 3D and Islands of Adventure’s Velocicoaster, as well as character experiences in Epic Universe’s Darkmoor and How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk.
Like “Lil’ Bro,” the spots center a unique set of guests, their collective journey, and a key moment that transforms both their vacation and them. In “Smile,” a mother-daughter duo illustrates how the parks can encourage people to reconnect with one another as they shed their fear and insecurity, and simply embrace joy and who they are. “This is a story of a girl who has braces and doesn’t smile because she’s conscious of how her teeth look. That is the kind of story that’s about any of us,” says Brooke-Taylor. “In the spot, her transformational moment is that she doesn’t need to conceal her feelings. She can scream with joy and laugh and hug her mom, and all the tension between them from her always keeping her lips [sealed] is gone.”
Similar to last year’s Epic Universe campaign, which included word-of-mouth social marketing tied to pre-opening park previews and a national portal tour, “This Changes Everything” will also launch additional components. “What you’ll see is different lengths of stories being told, and as you did last year, you’ll also see people telling their own version of how they experienced the park,” says Norsworthy. Debuting throughout the year, the first component will launch in February with an X partnership focused on transformative moments during major sporting events, followed by additional content collaborations with platforms like Twitch and TikTok.
According to the UDX global marketing executive, this newest campaign has longevity, even as UOR undergoes a series of expansions. That includes Epic Universe additions, the 2027 arrival of the newly announced Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift coaster, and an additional unannounced attraction set to replace the current Fast & Furious – Supercharged simulator ride. “[The campaign’s] rooted in a basic truth about who we are and why we matter. And that will continue to evolve as we provide new and exciting things to showcase, but I think you’ll see us continue to tell stories in this way, at least for the foreseeable future.”
That strategy will extend beyond UOR, touching UDX’s larger slate of destinations and experiences. That includes the second iteration of Universal Studios Hollywood’s FanFest, and its own spin on Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift, set to open this summer as part of the 25th anniversary of the Fast & Furious franchise. The park’s first high-speed outdoor rollercoaster will get its own 30-second Super Bowl spot, narrated by franchise star and producer Vin Diesel.
Other 2026 UDX offerings include Universal Theme Parks: The Exhibition at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute and the opening of the first Universal Kids Resort in Frisco, Texas. “The truth of what we bring is consistent in whatever any of our experiences are, whether it’s the location-based entertainment or our theme parks. Certainly, those moments of finding yourself, maybe even challenging yourself to do things, and connecting with the people you care about,” Norsworthy says. “With the [Frisco] park, it was made with younger kids in mind, so it is a park that makes those kinds of emotions and those kinds of transformational moments happen for the little ones. They can have the same type of experiences tailor-made for them.”
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