ESPN’s new March Madness advert pokes enjoyable at medication commercials

The finish of February means the beginning of a school sports activities favourite: the 2026 NCAA March Madness basketball match.

With March Madness comes the notorious bracket that individuals fill out to attempt to guess which groups will make the run via the match to the championship. Filling out brackets has grow to be synonymous with March Madness, and this 12 months, ESPN is poking enjoyable on the depth the match can spark in individuals.

Advertisement

A brand new ESPN advert launched Feb. 23 marries the thought of March Madness bracket obsession, or what they name “Bracketbrain,” with the pharmaceutical ads people often see on television which have lengthy warnings of potential unwanted effects. The satirical advert claims there’s just one alleviation for individuals affected by Bracketbrain: ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, a approach to fill out and handle your bracket via March Madness’s run.

Watch the brand new advert beneath.

Watch ESPN’s newest March Madness industrial

In the advert, the “patients” appear to see the define of brackets of their day-to-day lives, together with of their meals, the route they take whereas climbing, and the way in which they crammed out a Scantron sheet whereas taking a take a look at. These are all clear signs of Bracketbrain to ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi, who seems within the advert as the pinnacle of ESPN’s Department of Bracketology.

Advertisement

“When the calendar hits March, filling out brackets is all anyone can think about,” Seth Ader, ESPN’s vice chairman of name advertising and marketing stated in a information launch. “With the Bracketbrain campaign, we’re shining a light on this great time of year, diagnosing the behavior, and reminding fans that ESPN Tournament Challenge is the place to celebrate their obsession.”

March Madness: NCAA match high 16 seeds have tough day simply hours after reveal

What to know: 2026 March Madness schedule, venues, dates for males’s NCAA match

When does March Madness begin?

The advert launched forward of the 2026 NCAA males’s and girls’s tournaments, that are each set to start out in mid-March.

Advertisement

Games will begin within the males’s match on March 17, whereas the ladies’s match will start a day afterward March 18.

Selection Sunday, the day when it’s revealed which groups are chosen for the NCAA match and their seeding placements within the match brackets, will happen on Sunday, March 15 for each the lads’s and girls’s tournaments.

Kate Perez covers nationwide traits and breaking information for USA TODAY. You can attain her at [email protected] or on X @katecperez_.

This article initially appeared on USA TODAY: ESPN March Madness bracket ad spoofs medicine commercials. Watch it.