Updated February 09, 2025 at 23:26 PM ET
In an unsettled time, the most effective commercial messages are all about reassurance, togetherness and entertainment.
So that may help explain why — at a time when every fresh news alert seems to deliver a new seismic jolt about the world — the ads featured in this year's Super Bowl mostly touch on safe subjects we traditionally expect in Big Game commercials:
Nostalgia. Comedy. Celebrities. Patriotism. And poignant humanism.
"Those ads that really respond to human connection and humanness are going to rise to the top," says Abigail Posner, director of Google's U.S. Creative Works, who tracks how clips of Super Bowl ads perform on YouTube and are featured on the streaming service's YouTube AdBlitz hub.
"Because we're in a moment of great challenges and unknowns, and also with the influx of technology, there's that fear," Posner adds. "So when we go back to what we are all about, we're about love, we're about family. We're about challenging ourselves … I think that always touches us."
With ad space topping out at $8 million per 30 seconds for time in a broadcast that was the most-watched single telecast on U.S. TV last year, Super Bowl ads are also a gigantic business aimed at boosting the biggest companies, films, celebrities and products on the planet.
Which means this year, there's lots of ads designed to put a human, down-to-earth face on major technology products (Google Pixel's Gemini A.I.), pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer and Novartis), fast food conglomerates (Little Caesars and Doritos) and even gambling (Bet MGM and FanDuel).
And T-Mobile announced a partnership with Elon Musk's Starlink satellite company touted as "the first and only space-based mobile network in the US that automatically connects to your phone in areas no cellular network reaches."
There was a surprising lack of movie and TV ads unconnected to host broadcast Fox and its sister platforms like Fox Nation and Tubi. And Fox repeated several in-house ads, including promos for the Daytona 500 and The Masked Singer.
It also seemed that many more ad campaigns rolled out their spots in advance, counting on an advance media push. And in a cultural moment when some have disdained socially conscious terms like "woke" and the NFL removed the lettering "end racism" from the field's end zones, it makes a certain kind of disappointing sense that advertisers have toned down the messaging. Instead, they've dialed up the slapstick humor, sentiment and absurdist situations, while dialing back earnest takes about turbulent social issues.
With all that in mind — and noting some analyses are based on advanced versions of ads released before the game started — here's the 2025 edition of my look at what worked and what flopped on the biggest advertising showcase in modern media.
Best use of a celebrity conspiracy theory: Uber Eats "A Century of Cravings."
It's always entertaining to watch a famous face embrace their reputation for being crazy. So this ad, which positions Matthew McConaughey as a Mad Men-type NFL executive insisting football is just a "conspiracy to make us hungry" — then playing all these people through the past century who made it happen, including Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka — offers just the right kind of absurdist crazy that makes a Super Bowl ad pop. Toss in cameos from Kevin Bacon, Martha Stewart, Hot Ones host Sean Evans — eating wings, of course — and Barbie director Greta Gerwig and you wind up with an ad that entertains, whether you're a tinfoil hat-wearing member of the online broligarchy or someone who just likes laughing at them.
Best use of a self-deprecating celebrity, Part 2: Dunkin's "The Bean Method."
Will people who don't follow show business know that Succession star Jeremy Strong has a well-publicized devotion for using incredibly extreme methods to research the characters he plays? Tough to know. But this TV nerd certainly loved seeing him rise from a vat of steaming coffee grounds to tell Ben and Casey Affleck, "I'm just trying to find the character" in their ad for Boston-based Dunkin' (the spot which aired during the Big Game also featured a mostly mute former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, playing to type). It might be tough for all three actors to star in an ad playing off the idea that average people see them as dimwitted, overly confident goofballs. But I'm sure the paycheck and status of headlining a talked-about Big Game ad will soothe their existential pain.
Best use of a Ford to sell a Jeep (and a generalized sense of togetherness), Jeep's "Owner's Manual."
Much as I love Harrison Ford, this ad featuring his gruff delivery of bromides which sounds profound until you actually consider what he's saying — "You don't have to like someone to wave at 'em" — was a little disappointing. The spot positions Ford as a down-to-earth sage delivering simple wisdom while driving his Jeep through a rural environment. But at a time when political differences are fracturing so many institutions in society, homespun sayings from a multi-millionaire actor reminding us "there are real heroes in the world, but not the ones in movies" feels a bit too obvious, vague and patronizing. To be honest, I expected a bit more from the guy who beat the Nazis and Darth Vader.
Best nod to Gen X culture: Instacart's "We're Here."
This plays like an attack of the killer mascots, as beloved product ambassadors like the Pillsbury Doughboy, Mr. Clean, The Jolly Green Giant, The Kool-Aid man and the Old Spice Guy race through the streets to get to a home, only to disappear inside the grocery bag delivered by — you guessed it. Besides tugging the nostalgia heartstrings for Gen X-ers old enough to remember all these hallowed fictional pitchmen, it's the most exciting depiction of food delivery I've seen since the Kool-Aid Man crashed through a brick wall on my Saturday morning cartoons.
Saddest nod to Gen X culture: Hellmann's "When Sally Met Hellmanns."
I won't get into whether Hellmann's is even a decent mayonnaise — ugh — but this ad featuring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan re-creating the diner scene from their classic film When Harry Met Sally turns on nostalgia so forced, it's like they filmed it with the actors on lockdown. Kudos to Crystal for serving up punchlines like a pro as Ryan makes orgasmic sounds — this time, not to show her clueless guy friend that women can realistically fake him out during sex, but to indicate actual enjoyment of a mayonnaised sandwich? Not only does this new ad kind of miss the point of the original scene, but its new iteration is predictable as a Fast and Furious sequel — right down to tapping Gen Z-age actress Sydney Sweeney to deliver the punchline originally dropped by director Rob Reiner's mother, Estelle.
Best use of a Goggins to sell TWO real products: GoDaddy's "Act Like You Know."
When velvet-voiced character actor Walton Goggins faces the camera to tell you actors like him "can make you believe we know what we're doing. When in fact we do not," you do, in fact, believe him. The Goggins mystique is so powerful that when he talks about using GoDaddy Airo AI to design a website for his Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses company — yes, I may have swooned a little when his drawl confidently announced, "If your goggles ain't Goggins, they don't belong on your noggin" — your only real question is, why didn't I know about this very real product before now? (yes, it really does exist — a super slick way for ski glasses to score an $8 million Super Bowl ad.)
Worst use of a Damon to sell TWO characters: Stella Artois' "David & Dave: The Other David."
Besides giving David Beckham's dad a great line — "If there's two Davids, one has to be 'other David'" — this ad positing that dreamy soccer star Beckham's previously unknown American twin brother would be Matt Damon doesn't make much sense (Damon is actually five years older and, these days, a little beefier than Beckham). It would have been so much more fun to have somebody like Danny McBride or Shane Gillis show up as the cartoony American Dave Beckham. Perhaps a fear of offense kept Stella from really going for the killer cross-cultural joke.
Best pandering to conspiratorial cynicism, Hims' "Sick of the System."
Telehealth startup Hims and Hers kicked up a serious controversy with this ad, which denigrates an unnamed weight loss establishment that "was built to keep us sick and stuck," without highlighting that its own weight loss drugs haven't gone through the typical government approval process. Citing a number from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says 74% of us are overweight, just before presenting its products as the future of health care, may appeal to those disillusioned with conventional methods of weight loss. But, as with any advertisement, there are aspects of a larger story that may not get as much attention.
Best personalization of a mega corporation: Google Pixel's "Dream Job."
Typically, an AI, which sounds like a real person coaching you through a hypothetical job interview, might give off serious vibes like HAL 9000 (the killer computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey). But Google's ad features a father talking about his work experience to the Gemini Live AI chatbot — "I show up every day, no matter what" — while imagery reveals he's talking about raising his daughter. It adds up to an emotive, touching spot that emphasizes how people can use technology to perform better, rather than depicting a giant corporation offering software that encourages you to depend on them more as every year passes — seeing AI less as a job killer and more like a job search enabler. Hmmm.
Best personalization of a mega corporation, Part 2: Pfizer's "Knock Out."
Pharmaceutical companies don't have the best reputation these days. So a commercial featuring a young cancer survivor in boxing gloves and trunks, striding through the streets in a ticker tape parade before he runs into his mother's arms, is just the sort of heartwarming association a company that made over $63 billion in revenue last year selling medications likely needs. Scoring it all to the rap hit "Mama Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J, whose wife Simone Smith is a cancer survivor, adds an extra layer of poignancy and contemporary cool.
Weirdest use of a Seal: Mountain Dew's "Kiss From a Lime."
There are a lot of commercials that unfold like they were developed during a particularly potent ayahuasca trip. But this spot, featuring the pop star Seal's face superimposed on a computer-generated seal, singing one of his hits slightly tweaked to fit the commercial's title, feels like the embodiment of an idea that might have sounded good while shooting the breeze in a tent at Burning Man, but seems particularly unsettling in the harsh light of Super Bowl Sunday.
Weirdest use of facial hair: Pringles' "The Call of the Mustaches."
No snarky lines, just a description of the actual ad: Adam Brody blows into an empty Pringles can (which features a guy with a bushy mustache as the mascot), creating a ram's horn-like sound that causes facial hair to fly off the lips of men across the world, including actor Nick Offerman, NFL coach Andy Reid and NBA star James Harden. The errant bits of hair fly across the world — to the tune of the old Batman TV show theme, of course, sung as "mustache" — to pick up cans of Pringles and bring them to Brody, only to smack against the window of the apartment where his party is. The only joke here is that someone older than 10 thought this idea was worth spending $8 million-plus to air in the Super Bowl (OK, maybe ONE snarky line).
Weirdest use of facial hair, Part 2: Little Caesars' "Whoa."
Eugene Levy has the most formidable eyebrows in the business. So it makes a certain kind of sense that the pizza company would create an ad starring Levy that features his eyebrows floating off his face after he eats their Crazy Puffs. The eyebrows terrorize a jogger, land briefly on a baby's face and draw the worship of assorted caterpillars before returning to their rightful space on the talented character actor's brow. I'm going to assume this is a case of not-so-great minds thinking alike, rather than the same ad agency cloning the same tired joke for both the Pringles flying mustache and Little Caesars flying eyebrows spots.
Best anti-commercial commercial: Angel Soft's "Potty-tunity."
Admitting that there's never a good time to hit the restroom during the Super Bowl is a novel premise for an ad. But the toilet paper company took it a step further, urging viewers to step away from the TV during their commercial just before halftime in what might be the most expensive bathroom break in TV history. But if people actually take their advice, how will they know what product to buy the next time they need to restock the bathroom?
Best soft pedaling of a socially conscious message: Dove's "These Legs: A Dove Big Game Film."
The simplicity of this ad is what works, featuring a rambunctiously cute, smiling little girl running down the street as text onscreen delivers a stark message: "1 in 2 girls who quit sports are criticized for their body type. Let's change the way we talk to our girls." Emphasizing how children have to be taught to dislike their bodies with an image that is heartwarming and direct — that's advocacy at its most effective.
Best way to take your mind off the last two minutes of the game: Fetch's "The Big Reward."
Consumer rewards app Fetch seems to be gambling that this game will be a snoozer in the final minutes like most Super Bowls, announcing it will give away $10,000 every second for the last 120 seconds of regulation game time. Potential participants sign up by accessing the app when told to open it, which will surely upset some football fans if the game goes down to the wire. Much as viewers love to multitask, the last two minutes of a hotly contested Super Bowl might be the one moment when people are not particularly interested in a second screen experience.
Copyright 2025 NPR
