Emma Stone Loses Her Identity and Mind in Squarespace Super Bowl Film
Squarespace has launched its full Super Bowl ad, reuniting Academy Award-winning actor Emma Stone with director and long-time collaborator, Yorgos Lanthimos (via Superprime Films).
Created in-house, 'Unavailable' is shot on black-and-white analogue film and follows Emma as she tries to register emmastone.com — only to discover that the domain is already taken. With each of her failed attempts, the suspense -- and the actor's fury -- increases as she discovers a piece of her digital identity belongs to someone else.
After burning and violently breaking several laptops -- set to a soundtrack from another of Yorgos' pals, Jerskin Fendrix -- the call to action is simple: 'Get your domain before you lose it'.
The melodramatic horror is Squarespace's twelfth Super Bowl appearance, and it marks Emma Stone's Big Game debut -- as well as another creative collaboration between her and Yorgos, following their work together on 'The Favourite', 'Poor Things' and, most recently 'Bugonia'. The Greek auteur has also directed Grubhub's Super Bowl spot this year, made with Anomaly.
The spot is airing as a 30-second cutdown between the first and second quarter of the Super Bowl on February 8th.
Speaking to LBB, Squarespace's group creative director Mathieu Zarbatany says that the film was written specifically with Emma Stone in mind. “There are very few who could pull off such a raw and emotional performance that captures frustration, urgency, and vulnerability. It became even more interesting when we discovered she didn’t own her namesake domain, which gave her a genuine personal connection to the story.”
After Squarespace shared the concept with Emma, she was the person who brought it to Yorgos Lanthimos, during the ‘Bugonia’ press tour. By the time the brand formally sent Yorgos “a pretty developed script and a clear idea of the visual world”, he was already on board.
“In many ways the core vision stayed intact – from the brutalist mansion to the endless loop of hope and despair, to the burning laptops,” says Mathieu. “But once Yorgos brought his perspective to it, everything instantly felt more expansive and heightened. He took what was on the page and made it feel stranger, richer and more memorable. And yes, putting the house staff on roller skates was entirely his idea and we thought it was brilliant.”
After years of focusing on the website building part of its business, Squarespace decided to go to the Big Game with its Domains business this year – a shift that “unlocked new creative territory” for the creatives. “The idea of an A list celebrity realising they didn’t own their own domain felt instantly relatable and surprisingly fertile.
“Losing your domain name is obviously a big deal,” he continues. “It’s a form of identity theft. But we wanted to treat it as something far more catastrophic than that. The humour came from taking something inherently dumb and inflating it until it felt monumental and tragic.”
Mathieu shares that, on set, the Squarespace creatives witnessed Yorgos and Emma bringing this to life first-hand. “Every time Emma stepped into a scene it was genuinely jaw dropping. The way she switches it on is a masterclass. She fully disappears into the role and gives everything on every take. When we first saw the performance come together it was one of those moments where you just know you’re witnessing something special. Seriously, not one bad take."
The shoot took place over two days on stages at Warner Bros Leavesden just outside of London. The space was constructed almost entirely as a real environment, complete with four walls and a ceiling, all built to scale. “Even the fireplace was fully functional,” says Mathieu. “Every detail was thoughtfully considered and the entire set took 12 days to build, which added an incredible sense of realism to the production. That level of craftsmanship also gave us complete freedom to move the camera in any direction without needing to rely on set extensions in post production.”
The set was designed by Oscar winning production designer James Price, a frequent Yorgos collaborator known for his work on ‘Poor Things’, ‘Bugonia’, and ‘The Iron Claw’. And as beautiful as the finished product is, Mathieu shares the production did raise a certain challenge. “Shooting on this very particular black and white film stock requires an extraordinary amount of light. The set itself was really hot and almost blinding at times. We had to put a lot of trust in the process, knowing that the final image on film would be exactly right.”
Squarespace has long been the standard-bearer for cinematic Super Bowl spots, and given the cost of simply showing up, the team feels a responsibility to make every moment count each year. “Everything starts with a clear and simple idea rooted in a strong strategic insight,” says Mathieu. “From there we lean into craft, especially cinematic storytelling, which has always been core to our DNA as a brand. The Super Bowl allows us to think beyond a single execution and build a fully realised campaign that feels cohesive and ambitious.”
The website building brand has previously teamed up with the likes of director Martin Scorsese, and actors Adam Driver and Zendaya. “And that track record definitely helps open doors,” he adds.
“What draws people in is that we look for partners who are unconventional and creatively aligned, not just famous faces. We never use a celebrity for the sake of it. They’re always central to the idea and the storytelling, never a random spokesperson. At the same time, we’re intentional about working with talent that audiences immediately recognise. That balance is core to how we work and why these collaborations have been successful.”
Now twelve years in, Mathieu admits that it’s both daunting and motivating for the small in-house team to have the pressure of outdoing themselves each year. “What I always remind the team is to pace themselves. One day you might be sitting on the strongest idea in the room and the next day that same idea can be gone for reasons you cannot control.”
The full ad follows a teaser campaign, which revealed the actor-director duo with a suspenseful clip and filmic posters, after initially just sharing a mysterious greyscale image of the lonely house on the rock.
The campaign is also built to extend long beyond the Super Bowl broadcast itself, with a poster series and additional films to keep the story going. "We like to think about our Super Bowl campaigns the way you would a movie release," says Matheiu. "Not as a single moment, but as a rollout that unfolds and builds excitement."
Last year's Big Game campaign saw the brand team up with actor Barry Keoghan for 'A Tale as Old as Websites', directed by Biscuit's Steve Rogers.
The campaign also included additional content for digital channels, including a short film released ahead of the Big Game.
Keep up with everything Super Bowl LX here.
