NBC’s 2026 celebration of its first hundred years kicks off this weekend with a new “NBC100” tagline and promo spots that will launch during the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony and the Super Bowl.
“This is an anniversary for all of us,” NBCUniversal TV & Streaming chief marketing officer Jenny Storms says of the Peacock network’s 100th anniversary tagline, “A Century Together.” “This is an anniversary for everyone that enjoys and watches NBC. We are celebrating them and us together.”
Here’s the “Kinetic” spot that will premiere Friday night during the Olympics:
And this is the “In My Life” promo that will air during the Super Bowl:
The spots open with radio waves, meant to be a nod to NBC’s origins as a radio network established by RCA in November 1926. From there, the promos focus on some of the most well-known phrases and scenes from the TV network’s history — focused mostly on more recent decades.
Storms says before introducing the centennial spots, NBC execs had to first decide how and why the network would tout its anniversary. “I think when any company comes up to a milestone, if you’re going to talk about it publicly to consumers, you ask yourself, ‘why is this something that we would want to share?’ Why would we be sort of outwardly talking about it, other than just saying that you’ve been around for a certain amount of time? I think what’s special about celebrating how long NBC has been around is that it’s about celebrating how long we’ve been with people, and it’s really about the collective us, the collective memories we’ve created in generational viewership.”
That includes the legacy IP both past and present — among them, the origin of “Today” in the 1950s, “Star Trek” from the 1960s, “Saturday Night Live” from the 1970s, “Cheers” for the 1980s, “Friends” and “Seinfeld” and “ER” from the 1990s, “Law & Order” and then this century’s “The Office,” “30 Rock,” “This Is Us,” “The Good Place” and more.
That, of course, leaves a lot of NBC history that didn’t make the spots — a quick montage of “Tonight Show” hosts, for example, omits Jack Paar and Conan O’Brien. A through-the-years morphing of NBC logos missed the “NBC snake” from the 1960s and “NBC trapezoid” from mid 1970s.
But Storms said there will be time to represent more NBC history in future spots. “Keep in mind, this is the beginning, and it provides us an opportunity throughout the entirety of the year, to now go into different parts of our history, whether it is comedy, sports, entertainment, film, and go deeper, depending on time period and who we’re talking to,” she said. “There’s a lot more to come.”
“NBC100” will play a role on events the company has planned for the coming year; besides the Super Bowl and the Olympics, that includes the 100th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, FIFA World Cup on Telemundo, NBA and WNBA, Sunday Night Football, Big Ten, Ryder Cup, U.S. Open Golf Championship, Emmys, MLB, Kentucky Derby and Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks.
Then there’s the planned “NBC100” special set to air later this year.
This weekend’s Winter Olympics opening ceremonies and Super Bowl are part of what NBC has dubbed “Legendary February,” which also includes the NBA All-Star Game. NBCU is utilizing its Feb. 8 double-shot of the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics to promote the premiere of “The ‘Burbs” on Peacock, as well as the upcoming Season 2 of “Ted” (which premieres March 5), NBC drama staples like the “Chicago” and “Law & Order” franchises, its batch of sitcoms, “The Voice: Battle of Champions” (which launches Feb. 23), upcoming Bravo fare and Peacock’s “House of Villains” Season 3.
Meanwhile, “NBC100” isn’t the only internal NBCU promos set to hit the airwaves during the Super Bowl; Telemundo plans a spot promoting its coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, featuring Owen Wilson. The spot will air in the third quarter of the big game, right after Bad Bunny’s halftime show. Here’s a teaser for the full spot:
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