THE AD: The Brutalist actor Adrien Brody delivers dramatic flair in spades in a rollicking 45-second spot from TurboTax. “The Expert” represents the brand’s 13th consecutive Big Game appearance.
Brody plays himself trying to master a tortuously challenging film role as a TurboTax expert. As a naturally intense thespian, he’s inclined to take it too far. The Oscar winner wants moody shots in the rain musing on “death and taxes” and monologues about the pain and suffering of tax filing.
The TurboTax team does everything it can to get him to chill out, because, well, with TurboTax, taxes are supposed to be pain-free. Produced by indie agency R/GA, the campaign extends the brand’s ongoing “Now This is Taxes” messaging platform, rolled out in 2024.
MY TAKE: “The Expert” wins on star power and lols. Brody’s onscreen gravitas draws attention on its own, but the strategic decision to cast him as a tongue-in-cheek version of himself pushing up against a too-chill role packs a real punch. And the message doesn’t get lost in the fun: TurboTax is the drama-free, anti-Brody.
For the tax service brand, the approach represents a notable departure from its more explicitly product- and sales-focused campaigns of the past. In its Super Bowl spots from both 2023 and 2024, the brand promoted sweepstakes opportunities and lots of onscreen text. (Though its 2025 spot with actor and writer Issa Rae more imaginative.)
This year’s ad homes in on storytelling, boiling it all down to a simple throughline that sticks the landing—all without the overtly commercial frills or shots of the TurboTax app pulled up on a cell phone.
In the ADWEEK newsroom this year, TurboTax’s ad has been consistently named as a favorite.
