Bald eagle nesting pairs in the US

As bald eagles have recovered, Super Bowl ad costs have risen, a correlation of 0.987 that is either the most patriotic scatter plot in American history or a coincidence between a conservation triumph and an advertising arms race. The eagle, America's symbol, soars overhead while the Super Bowl, America's secular holiday, charges seven million dollars for half a minute of airtime. The correlation is as American as a chart can get.

Eagle pairs grew from about 9,800 to over 71,000 between 2005 and 2021. Super Bowl ad costs grew from about 2.5 million to over 6.5 million per 30-second spot. Both are smooth upward curves: eagles because conservation works, ad costs because the Super Bowl is one of the last mass-audience events in a fragmented media landscape, making its airtime increasingly scarce and valuable. The shared variable is simply the 2010s being good to both American icons: the bird and the game.

Nine years of eagles and Super Bowl ads is the most inadvertently patriotic correlation in this collection: America's bird recovering while America's game gets more expensive, both trending upward with the confident trajectory of a nation that still believes in comebacks and spectacle. The eagle nests, the ad airs, and both are symbols of a country that invests heavily in the things it cares about. The wingspan is majestic. The price tag is staggering. Both are quintessentially American.