Now that the beer has been mopped up, the hangovers dissipated, and the trophy taken home to Philadelphia, we give our clear-eyed view on the best ads of the 2025 Super Bowl.
There was nothing particularly standout or stellar this year, nothing that will hold its own in years to come as an exemplar of craft or concept. 2025 felt like more of what we’ve seen in recent years, but perhaps even worse - a standardized parade of celebrities living in a universe of showbiz, starring in increasingly bizarre mash-ups, meta ads about ads and being famous.
The enduring trend for the surreal hit a particularly meaningless note in the Mountain Dew spot, in which musician Seal is an actual seal. As the Baja Blast man exclaims “None of this makes sense!”
Perhaps read as a state of the nation, no boats were rocked, and if anything brands played it safe with less diversity and a majority of nostalgic, male-led stories, with the odd nod towards unity. While 2025 will probably go down as a significant year in history, the 2025 Super Bowl ads will be forgotten.
That’s not to say that there was nothing of quality to be seen. Amid the mediocrity, here is our selection of the least worst 2025 Super Bowl ads.
Uber Eats: A Century of Cravings
The biggest celebrity payday of all must have gone to Matthew McConaughey, who starred in the Salesforce ad and this Uber Eats ad, pitching his conspiracy theory movie concept that sports were invented to sell food to Greta Gerwig. Also featuring Martha Stewart and Kevin Bacon.
ChatGPT: The Intelligence Age
The only ad to dare to (openly) use artificial intelligence this year was a company offering AI services. However, AI use was limited to the early stages, with real artists creating sequences of monochromatic dots animated to show key moments in human development, and OpenAI’s conviction that this new technology is next on the list of human achievements.
Squarespace: A Tale As Old As Websites
Squarespace continued with its line ‘A website makes it real’, transporting us to a Banshees of Inisherin-like Ireland, and Barry Keoghan astride a donkey. Passing through a village, he throws laptops at the rural inhabitants, each one landing screen-open and showing their cottage industries as the beautifully-branded website of a viable business.
Stella Artois: David & Dave: The Other David
An example of the multi-celeb cast that many brands decided to spend their budgets on this year. Over a Stella Artois, the real David Beckham’s parents (played by actors) tell him that he has a twin brother living in the US, called Other David. Cut to Beckham knocking on the door of his long-lost brother, who is actually Matt Damon. This other David calls himself Dave and makes great Buffalo wings, and can kick an American football real far. Beckham explains that he’s a famous footballer - but not Matt Damon famous. More Ben Affleck famous. Bit of an in-joke as it was created and produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's company Artists Equity.
Nike: So Win.
A comeback for Nike, who haven’t advertised in the Super Bowl slot since 1998, this was a well-written, boldly-produced film featuring actual sports stars (female athletes), to a captive audience of men’s sport. Culminating in the line “Whatever you do, you can’t win. So win”, it powerfully highlights the double-standards inherent to women’s sport.
NFL: Flag
Good whether you recognise the famous faces or not, the NFL’s own ad highlights its campaign for girls’ flag football to become a varsity sport across the US. Directed by Peter Berg and starring Pat McAfee, Justin Jefferson and others, it draws on classic high school movie tropes to make its point that young female footballers should be taken as seriously as their male counterparts.
Google Pixel: Dream Job
A well-made, sentimental tale of a man using Google’s Gemini Live, its AI voice assistant to help him rehearse for a job interview. Somehow overcoming the creepiness of the premise, the man movingly describes his most rewarding and challenging job: parenting his daughter.
Coors Light: Slow Mondays
Humanity really needs to analyze its obsession with anthropomorphized creatures, but this sloth-human universe of post big game stupor is a genuinely enjoyable watch, and a fully-realised concept, which were in short supply.
Ray-Ban / Meta: Hey Meta, Who Eats Art?
Firmly in the commentary about celebrity in a show business universe, three Chrises/Krises (Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth and Kris Jenner) have an art crisis after one of them eats a 6.2 million dollar banana. If only they’d all allowed their Meta Ray-Bans to inform them about what was taped to the wall before they got hungry.
