Rihanna's baby bump takes centre stage at the Super Bowl

Rihanna's Super Bowl set lasted just shy of 13 minutes. But the image of the expectant pop star cradling her belly in a red silk Loewe catsuit as she descended from the heavens on a plastic platform is likely to live long in the pantheon of Instagramera pregnancy reveals.

Even before she had changed into a puffer coat with built-in gloves by Alaia, the performance had become more than a half-time set. Here was a woman, returning to work for the first time since having a baby, converting this entertainment into a tightly controlled but highly visible moment. Rihanna made more than just a fashion statement. She took ownership of her body, and she did it in real-time.

"Not many women have shapeshifted quite as successfully as Rihanna," says Mark Borkowski, a PR consultant and author. "But when it comes to motherhood, it's something that empowers celebrities in the eyes of the public because it makes them seem more human, especially when so many of them have spent their career having to preserve themselves into the photogenic ideal."

It helps, too, that the pop star's pregnancy was revealed at the Super Bowl, an event watched by more than 200 million people, making it as much a lucrative billboard for brands as it is a sporting event. One fast-fashion brand paid $14m (£11.5m) for two adverts to be aired during the event.