Super Bowl 2025 Ads Smashing it
The winner of the 2025 Super Bowl was pretty obvious within a quarter of the game (sorry, Chiefs fans), but who won and lost when it came to the advertisements during the big game? The Opinium AdVantage team dug into just that by surveying nearly 2,500 Americans to see what they thought about 30 of this year’s ads, and Super Bowl 2025 didn’t disappoint. The average rating score of the ads was 8/10 meaning the ads will have grabbed attention, driven brand appeal and increased purchase intent. From the hilarious to the heartwarming, the surprising to the downright strange, we’ve got the live look in.
More than one way to win the Super Bowl
It’s often the Celeb hook ups that grab the BIG attention and column space written about Superbowl ads, however our insights show that in the end, its the real people that really really matter.
Lays’ touching ad about their American-grown potatoes really hit home with viewers, blowing other ads out of the water on being relevant to consumers, and it had strong brand impact and purchase intents. The idea of being made in America is likely driving appeal with this ad, as it over-indexes on eliciting pride from Americans vs. other ads. Lay’s prove you don’t need the big celebs or crazy humor to be worthy of Super Bowl ad status – connecting with US viewers emotionally goes a long way.
Hellman’s took a completely different route, drawing on humor and the nostalgia of When Harry Met Sally, using stars Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal to do so. Contrary to Lay’s, this ad has it all: the stars, the callback to an iconic scene in film, the humor, and it didn’t hurt that Ryan and Crystal teased it in the weeks leading up to the game. This ad rates highly for being funny, enjoyment, purchase intent, and memorability.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t also talk about who lost the Super Bowl ad race, and that was Nestle’s Coffee Mate. They took a bit of a risk using a tongue as their main character, and it was a licking that never got ticking!! The ad consistently rates poorly across all metrics, and most Americans don’t feel it’s up to Super Bowl ad standards. When asked what emotions the ad elicits, disgust rises to the top, coming up 5x more than average.
Which Celeb’s delivered?
As always there was a slew of celebrity appearances in this year’s Super Bowl ad collection. So, how’d they do?
Andy Reid, who showed up in Skechers’ ad for their hands-free shoes, got top marks for being likeable and friendly (65% and 62% respectively, vs. average scores of 53% and 44%), but had pretty low recognition, despite being one of the head coaches of the big game (54% said they knew who he was, compared to the average score of 73% for the celebrities tested).
Caitlin Clark, who was one of the female athletes featured in Nike’s striking ad about the strength of female athletics, was broadly seen as aspirational, with 56% of Americans rating her as such, vs. 13% on average across celebrities. 82% of viewers felt she was suitable for the ad, one of the highest ratings across brands.
Matthew McConaughey was a favorite cameo, likely lifting Uber Eats’ overall ad ratings. He had the highest ratings for being suitable for the ad and tied Andy Reid for the highest likeability score (65%).
DoorDash Casting Nate Bargatze, who at only 30% recognition, didn’t have the stopping power to garner attention, highlighted the importance of personality choice. He was on the lower end for likeability and over-indexed on viewers finding him annoying. The creative rated lowly across metrics, and while we can’t say for certain it’s because their celebrity spokesperson didn’t land with folks, it certainly didn’t help.
Girl Power at the Forefront
Female empowerment was a theme across this year’s Super Bowl ads, with even the NFL promoting female flag football in one of their spots. The brands that highlighted women this year were Dove, Nike, and Novartis, and for the most part, Americans were on board with this messaging:
- With an overall score of 9.3 out of 10, the Dove ad came in 5th place of the 30 ads tested. It gets a 10 out of 10 on Feel Factor, with Americans especially associating it with happiness, inspiration, and hope.
- Coming in 7th place overall is the Nike execution, with an overall score of 9.1. In addition to Clark’s high association with aspiration (see above), the ad itself has the highest scores for being inspirational.
- Finally, Novartis, whose ad featuring Wanda Sykes raises attention to breast cancer, has a lower overall score of 6.9/10, as it has lower Standout and Brand Impact. However, It does rate a 9.5 / 10 for Emotion, bringing out a range of emotions for Americans – significantly over-indexing on hope, but it’s also under-indexing on happiness.
Battle of the Beer Brands
As is tradition, there were several beer brands that took up Super Bowl ad time this year. We took a look at the ads from Coors Light, Bud Light, Budweiser, Michelob ULTRA and Stella Artois to see if Americans had a favorite.
Bud Light’s party-centered ad with Post Malone and Shane Gillis edges out on top across key metrics. Really strong Brand Impact and Purchase Intent were a key strength. The creative was also felt to be a lot more relevant to consumers than other ads, and has the highest brand linkage (though Budweiser’s is right behind it). The celebrities featured in this ad are likely giving it a boost as well, with higher recognition than the other two beer ads with celebrities (Stella and ULTRA).
A great year with a mixed bag of content
Brand and agency creative teams have really delivered for this years Super Bowl with a heady mix of fun, emotion and celebrity laden content. With the spectre of AI challenging the creative process this year really shows that creativity isn’t dead and viewers will respond to engaging story telling or just down right 30 seconds of fun if delivered in a compelling and interesting way.
Allie Davenport, Associate Director, Opinium New York
