The Tremendous Bowl is a magical time and place for manufacturers. A uncommon and temporary three-or-so hour second when folks wish to see commercials. Each marketer’s Xanadu.
What defines an excellent Tremendous Bowl advert is clearly subjective, it doesn’t matter what the Advert Meters, and any variety of different measurement tech tells you. Hell, even your own brain might be lying to you. The true scorecard is exclusive to every model and what it considers the worth of up to $40 million or more in investment around the game.
My standards for a superb Tremendous Bowl advert stays comparatively easy: Is it enjoyable or emotional in a method that’s each entertaining and memorable? A straightforward query to ask, however as annually proves, rather more troublesome to reply.
Earlier than I get into my prime 5 listing, listed below are the honorable mentions.
The espresso wars come to the Tremendous Bowl! I’m a fan of Dunkin’s work with Ben Affleck, created by Artists Fairness Promoting (the advert arm of Affleck and Matt Damon-founded Artists Fairness). This 12 months’s spot was a humorous tackle the espresso wars, utilizing a part-Warriors, part-Anchorman dynamic to proceed the adventures of the DunKings.
I additionally actually favored Starbucks’ “Hello Again,” by Anomaly, which aimed to remind us why we liked the brand within the first place. Nevertheless, the spot might be used as a case research in how essential the correct tune might be, as a result of this advert wouldn’t hit practically as laborious with out AC/DC’s basic “Thunderstruck.”
After 27 years, it’s about time we noticed one other Nike business within the Tremendous Bowl. “Hare Jordan” is arguably a Prime 10 all-time Tremendous Bowl business, so getting the swoosh again feels proper. Now in “So Win,” the model used Led Zeppelin and a murderers’ row of feminine superstars to stylishly proceed its swing again to the ultra-competitive angle Nike was constructed on.
My admiration for what FanDuel has created with “Kick of Destiny” is well-documented, and continues this 12 months. Whereas the primary occasion isn’t technically an in-game advert—this 12 months cleverly embedding itself throughout the Fox pregame present—it stays one of many best-ever Tremendous Bowl model concepts.
Talking of all-time huge recreation model concepts, another shout-out to Doritos for bringing back “Crash The Super Bowl” after an eight-year hiatus. The spots have been enjoyable, humorous, and the competition stays a benchmark in fan participation.
And lastly, a shout-out to the manufacturers that determined to go full emosh and really pulled it off with spectacular outcomes. The NFL’s “Somebody,” Lay’s “Little Farmer,” and Google’s “Dream Job” all struck a pleasant stability for the manufacturers and the second.
OK, now on to my prime 5 advertisements of the 2025 Tremendous Bowl.
Stella Artois “David & Dave: The Different David”
It’s a premise that might be defined in a single line: David Beckham finds out he has a secret American twin named Dave. That is Artists Fairness Promoting’s first Tremendous Bowl spot for a model that’s not Dunkin’, and right here we now have the corporate’s different co-founder Damon in a starring function.
I spoke to execs on the company for a narrative popping out later this week, and so they instructed me the temporary from the model was to shift Stella’s picture within the U.S. as an upscale beer to extra of a top quality on a regular basis beer. Enter Dave Beckham. We’ve seen David pitch for the model loads of occasions, in advertisements, on Hot Ones, and past, however right here we get to see a funnier facet of the soccer legend.
Mountain Dew “Kiss From A Lime”
Mountain Dew has long-been one of many extra experimental Tremendous Bowl advertisers. In 2021, it enlisted John Cena to challenge viewers with a contest to be the primary particular person to tweet the right variety of Mountain Dew Main Melon bottles that appeared within the advert for an opportunity to win $1 million. In 2018, it partnered with sibling model Doritos for a surreal rap battle between Peter Dinklange and Morgan Freeman. And naturally, 2016 gifted us the basic “Puppymonkeybaby.”
This 12 months the model went all in on the large recreation model of unhinged. Seal as a seal? Directed by Taika Waititi, not solely is that this absurdity bullseye in keeping with the soda’s id relating to the Tremendous Bowl, it delivers an on-brand ear-worm care of a 1994 love ballad. What’s to not like? (It’s nonetheless in your head, isn’t it?)
Uber Eats “A Century of Cravings”
Uber Eats made a comparatively late choice in September to fully change its Tremendous Bowl plans—a planning course of that sometimes begins in July. A spot starring Matthew McConaughey, by which he floated a conspiracy principle that the perform of all sports activities is to behave as a catalyst for us to eat extra meals, acquired an excellent response. May they proceed that within the huge recreation? Brief reply: yep.
Right here it goes deeper. Not deep like finger-rolling a booger in your Lincoln deep; simply totally different deep. A decade on, The McConaissance continues to be deep in its business period, and right here the Oscar winner retains the streak alive by giving us a historical past lesson of his earlier conspiracy.
It’s a enjoyable instalment of an general celebrity-soaked advert technique that manages to face out, at the same time as Pringles put up a strong challenge to its multi-celeb method.
“I feel folks now have a clearer understanding of our model and tone as a result of we’re constantly displaying up with a really particular kind of spot that’s touchdown a particular kind of humor,” Uber’s head of selling for North America Georgie Jeffreys, told me last week. “Even when the message modifications, the core tenets of our model are the identical.”
Bud Mild “Huge Males on Cul-De-Sac”
Similar to at a bar, it was an in depth name between this and Bud Mild’s blood rival Coors Mild. Each advertisements are actually humorous and just about precisely what a lightweight beer advert within the Tremendous Bowl ought to goal for.
What places Bud Mild over the road right here is the way it not solely meets the above standards, however does so with stable model consistency. An awesome huge recreation advert that doesn’t really feel like a one-off is commonly a uncommon species. This isn’t the primary time we’ve seen Put up hit the sector for Bud Mild, and the work Gillis has done over the previous 12 months has fully reinvigorated the model’s persona.
Todd Allen, Bud Mild’s senior vp of selling told me that it was a no brainer for the model to maintain the momentum going and proceed to lean into Gillis’ model of humor. “There’s completely no larger stage to ship amusing than the Tremendous Bowl, and once you mix a comedic powerhouse like Shane with Bud Mild, I feel we now have a successful system,” stated Allen.
Liquid Dying “Protected For Work”
I discussed the significance of the correct tune earlier with Starbucks, and right here it applies simply as a lot, however in a very totally different method. As a substitute of counting on a basic tune or new hit banger to faucet into the viewers’s present affinity, Liquid Dying crafted its personal hilarious, pseudo-country jam about consuming on the job.
The cops are consuming, the surgeons are consuming, the pilots are consuming, the court docket judges, the soccer refs, even the varsity bus drivers are all consuming on the job.
Liquid Dying is not any stranger to celebrities. It’s labored with Martha Stewart, Bert Kreischer, Tony Hawk, and extra. However right here, the model shrewdly prevented any huge names realizing full nicely it’s precisely the other of what the vast majority of Tremendous Bowl advertisers would do. The sharp distinction between the parade of superstar pitchfolks and this lack of Hollywood star energy, makes the advert stand out for all the correct causes.
