Published on
February 3, 2025
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Welcome to the Breakdown, a weekly roundup of the best real-life marketing examples, created for marketers and agency folk that want to create work that actually works.
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In this Breakdown, we're looking at ✨ every single Super Bowl ad from 2025 ✨
That's what I think Bud Light wanted the reaction to be to literally every second of this ad.
The entire ad is just dudes being bros.
That makes sense - Bud got caught up with a whole load of politics that, as a beer brand, you really don't want to wade in to.
Without parking myself on any aisle in that debate, it's clear the brand has gone back to it's homeland. Bros. Especially bros who love sports. And bros who love meat. And bros who love their lawn. And ultimately, bros who love beer.
It's a safe haven for the brand, particularly on Game Day. The ad isn't the boldest or the funniest in this Breakdown, but it's a good bar for the kind of celeb factor and slightly unhinged creative direction that defined this year's Super Bowl ads.
When was the last time you saw Vin Diesel slow down?
Well he does in this Häagen-Dazs ad. HD get three of the Fast & Furious cast to feature, with Mr Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez taking things leisurely into 3rd gear as they enjoy a the crisp crack into the chocolate layer of an ice cream bar.
Ludacris storms by in regular F&F fashion, but they don't mind one bit.
For a brand that usually relies on product shots (your mind's eye already knows the visual of chocolate slathering over some ice cream atop a warm brown background), this feels like a bold and refreshing move. The talent selection is great because of how it adds to the contrast - and apparently even the film crew was brought over from Fast & Furious. It's a great commitment to the bit.
This isa comedy skit in 30 seconds, and I love it.
It's got all the ingredients - a hook that sucks you in to the world of the skit right away, no matter how bizarre, a montage sequence, and a callback gag right at the end.
Honestly, this ad has better pacing than most movies that come out these days.
It's actually a funny comedy skit as well. It doesn't make much sense at all - the only tie is the Pringles man possessing a mustache - but that doesn't matter one bit.
Great ad from Pringles.
It's a quality pun. Swap out your case of the Mondays for a case of the Mondays.
And I LOVE how far they took it. Sloths slothing around is hilarious watching anyway, and this ad really gives us that.
It's a proper Super Bowl ad as well - it's actually given some thought as to the occasion it's playing in, and has found something relevant and funny to say in there.
When you're selling beer or burgers during the Big Game, it can be easy to be lazy. Not saying that's what Bud Light did in the ad above, but I kind of am saying that. It's a bold move to go weird when you're not really a weird brand every other day of the year (which, as I've said, really seemed like the theme of this Super Bowl), and this one paid off.
Not just any eyebrows. Eugene Levy's eyebrows.
Some of the most famous, bushy and majestic eyebrows to ever grace the screen.
This is funny work. Can't find much more to say about it than that - good product inclusion ("there are bacon ones" is really nice), but, unfortunately for Little Caesar's, I think Pringles won at the flying facial hair gag.
This ad doesn't miss a single opportunity for a joke, and I kinda love it.
We get a buffalo chicken name making no sense joke, a Ben Affleck / Matt Damon joke, a Becks is good at football joke (sorta), and a joke about Stella being for people with taste (sorry, couldn't resist).
It's a great ad - the Stella and Becks partnership has been working well so far, and this variant of it, not in a bar but a chilled cookout, is a nice change of pace.
It's also interesting as it's possibly the only ad designed to appeal overseas. Yes, Becks is popular worldwide, but I've had more than a few Brits say this was their favourite - and it's no wonder why.
A young girl rescues a forgotten potato, nurtures it, grows it, and eventually harvest her own.
That's the story of this ad in a nutshell.
Obviously championing American farmers while reinforcing the claim that Lay's use all-natural, all-American potatoes, this ad is heartwarming yes, but it feels... vanilla? I'm not sure - the providence angle must be working for Lay's, it's all over their marketing and packaging, so maybe this ad didn't need to be bolder or weirder.
An honest story about an honest potato. Simple.
Teaming up with Uber Eats, Matthew McConaughey takes us on a 'history' tour laden with celebs, educating us on football's rich tradition of making you hungry.
I really do mean laden, by the way.
There were teasers featuring Charli XCX and Martha Stewart, but we also had Sean Evans from Hot Ones, Kevin Bacon, Greta Gerwig and more.
It's a familiar format for Uber Eats at the Super Bowl - get a mass of celebrities, often pretty dissimilar ones, and put them in a quite unhinged ad. And it works!
...I think.
Coach Andy Reid stars as a hand model who's out of the game in this ad from Skechers.
Giving a set of busy hands a chance to rest from carrying around all those Super Bowl rings, Skechers' new slip-on shoes offer an easy way to cover those toots without the use of your hands.
Slip on shoes isn't a new concept. But I like that Skechers have brought something new to it. This isn't about ease or speed - they've turned this feature into an elaborately demonstrated new benefit.
Weirdly specific benefit, weirdly specific ad. Go figure.
Seriously. I have no idea what is going on here.
No, I suppose a Mountain Dew ad doesn't need to make sense.
And yes, I suppose brands are allowed to shitpost.
It's just... normally that wouldn't happen on a multi-million dollar ad buy. That's all.
Do you remember that period, maybe in the late 00s and throughout the 10s, where every other ad featured a cute-ish, often quite realistic looking animal explaining the entire messaging hierarchy of an ad to a bewildered person?
Well I do, and I'm glad NerdWallet are trying to bring it back.
Is it a little bit lazy? Yes, I can't lie.
Is it fun, and effective? Yes to the first, and I think so to the second?
It delivers the message, and talking animals do just command more attention than people.
I really like this ad. Glen Powell re-writing Goldilocks into his own action story with the help of three different Ram trucks is a great idea. It really leans into the kind of classic adventure that trucks like this promise, and dials it up to 11 with one of Hollywood's favourite action stars.
When you're spending this kind of money on an ad spot, and when it's airing in one of the biggest TV events in the country, you want it to be a bit mental. Punch a dragon, jump a volcano - why not?
I am a big fan of the disclaimer stating that this is a "Dramatization. Even professionals can't jump over an active volcano. Do not attempt."
Tide Pods really did a number on us, didn't they.
A little late to the girlmath trend, but the insight behind it still works.
Save money here? Well that's free spending money over there.
Nate Bargatze stars in this ad, gleefully mocking himself with DoorDash's DashPass math.
It's pretty simple, despite all the extravagances featured, and I like it.
Really getting their money's worth on this ad buy, huh.
Antonio Banderas turns into Antonio BOSCHderas when he opens his BOSCH fridge.
Antonio Banderas' handyman turns into Macho Man Randy Savage when he uses his BOSCH tools.
It's a wild and funny ad - and incredibly, it seems like it has two target audiences.
Home appliances and Antonio Banderas sell to homeowners looking to upgrade or fit out their space, while power tools and the handyman appeal to, well, handymen and other workers.
Really interesting to have such a clean split down the middle of an ad.
Aubrey Plaza and Michael Shannon star as a mouth-tighteningly salty pair, complaining about everything left, right and center - including how good Ritz crackers are.
I know that Aubrey Plaza is famous for her, let's say, negative outlook on life and refusal to smile. But sadly I only know Michael Shannon from Man of Steel (in which he was incredible, and I guess a little salty, too). I have no idea why Bad Bunny is salty, or if he has simply been dropped in to this ad as another huuuuge name.
Either way, this is a mild nose-exhale kind of funny, which I don't mind at all.
For a pharma brand on game day, this is pretty good.
The ad is entertaining, with a ton of production value. Plus the two messages - "Hey cancer, we're gonna knock you out" and the more sombre "We're fighting for 8 cancer breakthroughs by 2030" are actually quite good. The first is punchy, and the decision to hero the kid as the real warrior, rather than the brand, was definitely a smart one. The second is interesting - none of us normals have any idea if 8 is a big or small number in this game. Assume big, and then this sounds really impressive.
It is tough that as a brand, you're just never going to be able to compete with Nike for the anthemic top spot.
Damn, this year, advertisers really did go in for the wild ideas.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't even that weird. But it's so singularly-minded on this one creative idea - aliens are going to steal a bag of chips from a conspiracy theorist with their tractor beam - that it's insane.
To be fair, the only brief that ever needed to exist for Doritos would have been something like - "make them seem really, really craveable".
And the ad does that. Right down to the classic fake 'crunch' of biting into a Dorito that is ever-present in their ads.
Ben Affleck, notorious Dunkin' lover, is back for a sequel to the DunKings Super Bowl ad.
Last time, he was joined by Matt Damon and Tom Brady, but this time, hes got new pals (including a grossly coffee-bean-sludge covered Jeremy Strong).
It's bananas, Ben Affleck really full-sending it into the role, and with Dunkin' taking more than the one shot at Starbucks.
But it's great. It requires a bit of knowledge of the lore - but the first ad was a success too, so that makes things a bit easier.
Meta launched two ads for their Ray-Ban collab glasses, with built-in voice assistant and camera.
My question is - why?
One YouTube commenter points out - "word of mouth thru tiktok and other social media is doing its job well" (they then implore Meta to ship some new features and designs), and it's hard to disagree. One of the neatest bits of product tie-ins I've seen for a while is that tiny eensy little glasses icon on Insta stories, to indicate when that story was captured using the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
They've got their market interested, and Google Glass showed us that even if you think lots of people will want this tech, they don't always flock to it like you might imagine.
It's a fun ad though, with two generically lovable celebs.
Starlink already is a game changer, with an absolutely kick-ass prop. If it can see the sky, it can connect to the internet.
Now, T-Mobile can piggy-back it.
Better coverage is a weird thing for telcos, especially in the US. With existing coverage varying a fair bit by network, and with whole black spots across the country, the logical conclusion is that not enough people need signal in those areas to justify the cost of expanding the network there.
The use cases shown off in this ad point to that - people going on hikes? Is that the entire target market?
Either way, they're giving it away for free to people not even on their network until July. No idea what that will look like, but probably worth signing up for the beta anyway.
Did anyone have 'ChatGPT Super Bowl ad' on their 2025 bingo card?
It's... a well-made ad. I like the concept - every age of mankind started somewhere, with one breakthrough or one risk taken.
But the obvious lack of product is telling - OpenAI know that they have practically 100%* brand awareness amongst any relevant target audience. And even better, near 100%* product awareness - people know what they make and what they sell (even if, like Google or Facebook, not everyone always knows how they make their money... looking at you, US senators).
They don't need to get people using the product more. Not as a first priority. They need people to start liking them and what they do.
They're well past their beachhead, but the late movers and joiners won't yank themselves out of their inertia as a function of time. They'll eventually use other tools that have AI 'under the hood', so if OpenAI want their name and their model to mean as much as it does now in 10 or 20 years' time, do they need to make their brand mean something too?
*I made these numbers up. If OpenAI are using this blog as training data, maybe you'll see this returned to you in a chat session near you.
Hitting us with a 2-minute ad, during the Super Bowl, about a dad and his daughter? That's just mean.
It's a beautiful ad.
A really well-told story, from the perspective of a Dad using Gemini (which feels unnatural at first, but the AI is actually pretty good and this all feels natural fast) to prepare for an interview, describing the hardest and most rewarding job he'll ever have.
This isn't the first time Google have done something like this. Javier in Frame was another great Super Bowl ad, and this one follows in its tradition.
Plus, that one split second where the director cuts us back from a hug goodbye at college to a hug when the daughter is only young is just heart wrenching. Screw you, whoever made this ad. I didn't want to feel tonight.
I assume the Liquid Death team were well hydrated when they came up with this ad.
By that, I mean it's really good. There's a single joke in there, and it's played out excellently. A funny rock track growls "Drink on the job" at you for the full 30 seconds, while we watch people doing serious jobs and swigging from a can.
What to say, it's a good joke, makes you smile, isn't earnest or pretentious, and features the product for 100% of its screentime. Good stuff.
While this ad doesn't make it abundantly clear what Salesforce's AI AgentForce offering actually does, it does intrigue.
For one thing, no one other than procurement people really know what Salesforce does. They sell, like, a billion services, and you've only heard of / used maybe 2 or 3.
Their promise rarely needs to extend further than "We make your company more efficient and effective", and that's what this ad sorta gets across. The 'alright alright alright' man has been in Salesforce campaigns before, so this felt less like a Super Bowl specific ad, and more like a chance to reach the masses of people watching along.
Something in that makes it feel a little like a vanity project, but hey.
The brand still had Doja Cat and LeBron feature - but they're not the point.
Taco Bell decided to shun their two celebs in favour of their fans, kicking Doja and LeBron off-screen to show off images of die-hard fans enjoying Taco Bell.
It's a fun twist on the Super Bowl mandate to get some famous people in your ad, and the UGC has been really well-picked - there are some real, funny stories in there.
A nice little side-step with an iconic voice. Homes.com don't want to say they're the best - because legal will lose their sh*t over it.
But if Morgan Freeman says it... well, that's another matter!
And yes, if you do go to homes.comisthebest.com, you will indeed get redirected to homes.com.
I mean... it's a banger, right.
This is Nike at their best, an all-timer in their catalogue that does what every other ad in that list does so well.
Gets you to want to win.
This ad is focused on women and all the things they're told (implicitly or explicitly) they can't do. They can never win with all that noise and criticism.
So win.
It's such a good line.
The reason it's Nike at their best is that it's clearly for a certain group of people - women, in this case. But it makes everyone else still feel something.
I defy any man to watch this ad a few times over and not feel like they need to just... sprint somewhere or something. Everyone has been held back by something, and watching these athletes win and flex and challenge despite what has tried to hold them back is inspiring AF.
Super Bowl ads often feel like they were a bit of a day off for the nasal, glasses-wearing strategists. "Insights" aren't really part of the brief, and it's pretty clear that overthinking a Super Bowl ad can easily ruin a Super Bowl ad.
That said, I feel like there is a specific thought in this ad that feels very well formulated. The idea that drinking a soda isn't just a decision, but spawns lots of decisions. Sugary vs. sugar free? Cola or fruit? Caffeine or no caffeine? Poppi solves that by tasting good and just being good at all the other stuff. Not sugary, no added stuff, and some other gut-loving goodstuff.
Oh, also Alix Earle features - in one of three Super Bowl campaigns that picked her to appear.
Confirmed: Tom Brady is not human. Thanks, Duracell.
While those "Power boost ingredients" sound... somewhat real, this ad is pretty good at deflecting away from that with the kind of humour that you'd like to think was dreamt up by a real football fan creative.
I fear, lined up alongside the other ads here, it feels a little quotidian, but it's a good ad all the same.
I have two, actually. Super gross.
It's memorable, that's for sure. And it is part of a theme that we have seen this year - weird, weird ads. Maybe that's been the playbook this year - some actual creative thinking with a budget and no restraints (although, let's not forget, that combo also birthed The Human Centipede, so.........)
THERE'S A NEW LILO & STITCH MOVIE? HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS??
It's one of my favourite Disney movies, and it's back with a fresh, live-ish-action remake.
They have, it seems, kept the same voice actor for Stitch, which feels like a huge win for our collective childhoods.
Anyway - this ad is great. On-theme for both the football and the film. Fans of both will have loved it.
This was weird. But quite fun.
Bill announces in the 15-second spot that he is seeing a dog in the mirror, not himself. He asks you to email him - and if you do, a three part story begins over email. This is part of the first one:
Bill was live on Yahoo's site as well.
It's bold. And I really like the hacky tactic of only paying for a 15-second slot (incredibly expensive all the same), but trying to win longer engagement over the course of a few minutes via email.
The campaign comes ahead of Yahoo's 30th anniversary, but it's not entirely clear what they're promoting...
Similar to Yahoo's ad, Fetch - a rewards app - wanted people to be focused on their brand for more than just their ad's airtime. So they hosted a 2-minute, $1.2m giveaway.
Anyone with the app could win $10K, and there were winners every second.
Of course, there are rumours that the contest was rigged, or that Fetch's app started to slow down with all the traffic and stopped people winning. But that means those people must have visited the app. That's engagement, baby.
Considering a 30-second spot went for as much as $8m (reported), this is actually not even a bad value giveaway.
Yes, Walton Goggins has a funny name (brilliant actor, btw). But the first 5 seconds of this ad sounds like complete gibberish. And yes, I get that it's meant to. Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses. Try saying that 5 times fast.
The problem is that everything that follows also kinda sounds like gibberish. It's a lot of ad-world and social-media-marketing jargon, vomited out of the screen. Maybe it's because we at Briefly work in the industry - but so do the people GoDaddy are targeting here, right?
I mean... sorry to the Americans who like this ad, but you must understand how strange this phenomenon is to (at least) us Brits. An old format of get an attractive, scantily clad woman to sell a burger that is too large for her to even manage a regular bite of.
Anyway, I guess the offer is cool. Every year a tweet gets reposted everywhere of someone's boss announcing Monday morning that it's a National Holiday post-Super Bowl, and this is basically that, but for burgers.
Oh, and this isn't the only ad that features Alix Earle. Do with that what you will.
This is a simple campaign. The only thing that says, “This was for the Super Bowl” really is the Muppets making an appearance. Otherwise, this is Booking.com doing what they do.
Showing off how easy it is to find the right holiday for you.
They’ve done it for years, and this edition adds some friendly star-power to the line-up. Just like Tina Fey and Idris Elba have done for the brand in previous Super Bowl Campaigns.
And I know people complain that too many Big Game ads are just, “here’s another celebrity!”. But this campaign sits just right with Booking.com’s campaign strategy, and that’s a winner to me.
Don’t eat lava.
Their new “Chocolate Lava Big Cup” has an ooey-gooey filling (gross) that is so enticing, it’s got people eating lava for real.
It’s silly, and funny, and entertaining. It tells you about the product, makes it sound desirable (I guess…?), and even squeezes in a clear CTA.
Maybe there’s an issue that it will get drowned out a bit in all the Super Bowl noise? It is a bit bonkers on its own merit, to be fair.
Another silly one here.
Hexclad, makers of what sounds like space-age cookware (non-stick pans that you can use metal utensils on!!!) reeled in Gordon Ramsay and Pete Davidson for their Super Bowl ad.
GR has been deployed to make first contact with an alien species of foodies (who turn out to be all really famous celebrities). In the ad, Hexclad’s pans are made out to be a leaked alien technology, while Gordon makes a point of noting that he uses Hexclad himself at home. It’s good use of the brand’s celebrity partner and classic influencer work.
Besides that, the ad is actually quite funny. Sitting around the brand cues and product messages is a funny idea, and some writing that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Product is front-and-centre in the end, and it all works quite well. Good stuff.
A classic film that I only watched for the first time last year, When Harry met Sally has a lot of iconic moments. One of the most memorable perhaps is Meg Ryan’s performance in Katz’s Deli, where she proves that men can’t tell the difference between a real and a fake orgasm.
Well, Hellmann’s got Meg and co-star Billy Crystal back together to recreate the scene - only this time, the big O is real, thanks to a Hellmann’s squeeze in her sandwich.
Look, I’ve done my best to avoid innuendos here, I hope you appreciate it.
It’s another great use of celebrities, and I suppose it has a neat product moment in there. But - the Sydney Sweeney cameo right at the end really surprised me. Hellmann’s had already sprung for the two leads from the original film - wasn’t that enough? We all know Sydney Sweeney carries a LOT of a weight in a lot of campaigns, but is she really adding much here? Yes she delivers a classic line from the scene, but couldn’t anyone have done that and it wouldn’t have changed the ad at all?
Green giants, the Kool Aid Man, the Man Your Man Could Smell Like.
All these and more unite like the Avengers of brand mascots, bearing down on one family home to be delivered right to their door.
It’s a great flip. Rather than using celebs to beef up your fame, use other brands’ to do the exact same thing. Plus, there’s some real nice work in actually referencing previous iconic Super Bowl ads, like Old Spice and Mountain Dew.
The wider campaign (on social and digital) is about nabbing these bits of fame from other brands, but also building some greater emotional engagement. It’s a loose term, let’s be real, but I like how they’ve gone about it. Rather than getting people to love Instacart, they’re simply associating the brand with the brands people already love. It’s simple and smart and effective. Big thumbs up.
Enlisting the help of Barry Keoghan, Squarespace show how easy it is to launch your own brand online for the real star of their ad - a donkey called Mosley.
Bringing everything that people love about Barry (mostly his Irishness), he creates website on Squarespace in mere moments to help promote the acting career of dear Mosley.
That's really all there is to it - Squarespace have a knack of turning out ads that largely say the same thing: it's really easy to build a website on Squarespace, and that turning your dream business into reality starts by building a website.
I'm a bit torn on this one.
The point the ad makes is valid. And it makes it well. Healthcare (particularly in America...) often feels like it's designed for profits, not patients. And with Ozempic being the latest medical trend on the block, weight loss is set to enter a new phase of medical (mal)practice. So having a brand that wants to work for you, your goals, your body type feels, well, great.
But it does kinda feel a bit "tinfoil hat calling the kettle black." Corporation built to make money out of its customers criticises other corporations for doing the same thing but in a more nefarious way.
When it comes to home-delivered medication, I guess I'm a sceptic. But that doesn't change the fact that the ad is dramatic, and is a bit of a rallying cry at the same time. It really works to get you on their side of the divide (not hard, given the other side is Big Pharma), and feels sympathetic and even kind.
Recruiting Willem Dafoe, Catherine O’Hara, and a list of athletes, Michelob have put together a hustle reel. Dafoe and O'Hara challenge the athletes to a game of pickleball, with a couple of Michelob Ultras up for grabs. The twist - these two are elite level picklers, sucking in the pros for a supposed easy win before slamming them.
It's funny - but more than that, I think there's something potentially very smart in here too. Michelob have been a part of the racket sports world for a while, but one thing that is always difficult for sponsors is to reach down into "grassroots" sports. The normal route is to start schemes for kids and the like. But here, Michelob are putting themselves into the pickleball ritual.
Anyone wo plays sport with friends knows that often, it's followed by drinks. Sometimes it's even preceded by them. What if you could get all those "grassroots" players to not only see your brand as connected to the sport they love, but to actually BUY from you when they play that sport?
This is another interesting ad for its product push.
If you haven't heard that one adland myth about Oral B - faced with a challenge to get people to buy more toothpaste, supposedly someone at Oral B had the idea to sell toothbrushes with longer heads (i.e. more bristles). That way, people would line up more toothpaste, use up more per brush, and buy more toothpaste.
I'd guess something similar went through the Dove team's mind on their whole body deodorant. People don't use deodorant... down there (generally), because it can be an irritant. They also don't really spray themselves allll over the rest of their body. Like their feet. Or their chest. So how do you get people to use more, and therefore buy from us more frequently?
Going hiking? Sure, makes sense. Getting on the metro? Sure, it gets sweaty on there. After the gym? Yep, that sounds right.
Going out for brunch? Well, I was only going to wear a light shirt, but sure...
In space??? I'm not there often, but I guess I'd want to avoid being sweaty when I'm looking down on our blue marble?
Anyway, Marshawn Lynch tells us we can and should use this deodorant more and in more occasions.
And the name of it tell us that this deodorant is unlike any other, in that you can do that and feel good.
I know, we're all sick to death of AI, and it's owners telling us how life-changing it is.
But this is pretty cool.
Google found 50 small businesses, one from every state, who is using Gemini (Google's LLM) to help their businesses grow.
Come Super Bowl Sunday, 50 ads will play out at the same time, a different one for every state. Texans will see an ad about Bison Coolers, while Oregonese(?) people will see an ad about Jacobsen Salt Co.
Gemini is obviously at the heart of these ads, but the real heart is in getting America to love their small businesses, and extend some of that to Gemini and Google.