Mars admits a New York Times article which took aim at the pop star was "disgusting" - because it sent the wrong message to aspiring musicians. He addressed the attack on his star status during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which aired in America on Monday.
Speaking straight into the camera, Mars said: "If music is what you wanna do ... it doesn't take a fragrance, it's not about the tabloids. It's about you, putting in the work, practicing every day ... Hopefully, one day you write the song the whole world wants to get down to.
"One day, you're gonna have your moment to shine and you're gonna have a lot of people say you can't do it and you're not good enough, but I promise you, if you go out there and you sing and you put your heart and soul into it and you follow your dream, one day you're gonna be sitting next to Ellen DeGeneres, talking about how you broke records and rocked the Super Bowl."
He then celebrated his latest big moment by skipping into the studio audience to the theme from boxing movie Rocky, yelling: "We did it!"
He wrapped up his spot on the show by returning to his seat and joking: "With that being said, I have a new fragrance coming out this fall ..."
At 28, Mars became the youngest artist in Super Bowl history to serve as the sole performer during the half-time show, while he set ratings records after more than 115 million US viewers checked out the Grenade hitmaker's set. The figure was a million more than the record set by Madonna in 2012, and almost five million more than Beyonce lured to TV sets last year.
