Super Bowl Updates—michelob Ultra Is A Winner, Google Goes Local (and National) And Mcconaughey Is Everywhere

Ad Age is counting down to Super Bowl LIX. In the days leading up to the game, which will air on Fox on Feb. 9, Ad Age will bring you breaking news, analysis and first looks at the high-stakes Big Game commercials—all in our Super Bowl newsletter. Sign up right here to get them via email.

A humor eruption

Four more brands released Super Bowl ads today—and there is not a serious one in the bunch. Comedy has ruled Big Game advertising in recent years and the trend seems even more pronounced this year, at least based on the ads we’ve seen so far. Reese’s is leaning into absurdist humor again with a spot that plugs its new Chocolate Lava Big Cup with an ad that uses, you guessed it, a volcano. Tim Nudd has more on the ad, including how the brand chose from 200 initial ideas from agency Erich & Kallman.

Other ads released today are from Booking.com, which hired some Muppets; Bud Light, which puts Post Malone, Shane Gillis and Peyton Manning at a suburban party full of dad jokes; and direct-to-consumer cookware brand HexClad, whose debut Big Game effort includes Gordon Ramsay and Pete Davidson, who plays an alien. Other spots released this week include Instacart, which is using a cast of brand mascots; and Hellmann’s, which remade a scene from ‘When Harry Met Sally…” 

Even a very serious non-profit seems poised to go a bit more lighthearted this year: The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism teased its ad with a video showing Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg butting heads.

To keep track of all the advertisers running national spots in the game, bookmark Ad Age’s regularly updated Super Bowl ad chart. And for all the latest teasers, check out Ad Age’s Creativity’s daily roundups and sign up for the Creativity Weekly newsletter.

Playing it safe

Comedy is usually the safe choice, especially these days, when nearly everything gets politicized. But safe does not always equal success. Market research and data analytics company MarketCast analyzed the last 12 years of Super Bowl ads and found that ads are getting less likable over time. The most “most liked” ads aired between 2012 and 2015. “During this period, ad creative took a lot of risks—they played off gender stereotypes, were more naughty and sarcastic,” MarketCast concludes in its study. Read more in this week’s edition of Ad Age Datacenter Weekly.

Who’s winning so far?

There will be no shortage of Super Bowl ad rankings and metrics in the coming days, especially the day after the game, when we’ll be drowning in hot takes. To get an early read on who might be winning so far, Ad Age reached out to global creative effectiveness platform Daivid, whose leaders include longtime ad researcher Peter Daboll. 

Daivid, which uses AI to analyze videos and images on a mass scale to assess a range of viewer emotions, found that Michelob Ultra’s pickleball-themed ad with Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara from Wieden+Kennedy so far has generated the highest levels of attention, positive emotions and brand recall. Another Anheuser-Busch InBev brand is also doing well—Budweiser’s Clydesdales spot from FCB New York has generated the most positive emotions among six ads out so far, although Daivid’s testing dinged it for a “rather slow start.”

The ad generating the most intense negative emotions is Hims&Hers, whose anti-obesity spot “evokes strong negative emotions throughout, starting with embarrassment, fear,” according to Daivid. Even when the weight-loss drugs are promoted, the ad “does not alleviate negative emotions but instead introduces anxiety, anger, and awkwardness, possibly from the idea of needing medical help for weight loss,” according to the testing.

Going local

Google is among the brands confirming national ad buys this week. We are now up to 50 confirmed Super Bowl advertisers, including Salesforce, which today stated it would run two spots, with at least one starring Matthew McConaughey, who is already in Uber Eats’ ad. Google is also set to air 50 regional spots in 50 states to promote small businesses that use its AI for work. Garett Sloane has more on the tech giant’s plans.

Get behind-the-scenes details from Big Game advertisers at Ad Age’s live-streamed Super Bowl Playbook event on Feb. 4. Register and learn more at AdAge.com/SuperBowl2025.

Stay tuned

As the game draws near, Ad Age will continue delivering the latest breaking ad news, trends and analysis. Below, a sample of some of our other coverage this week:

How the NFL is using creators to attract a more global audience

Super Bowl commercial prices hit $8 million for the first time

Inside the NFL’s gaming strategy and how it’s bringing a virtual tailgate to the Super Bowl

Which social media platform will you use Super Bowl Sunday? Take our poll.

This week in Super Bowl history

Super Bowl XXVII was played on this day in 1993 when the Cowboys destroyed the Bills at the Rose Bowl, 52-17. ABC carried the game, charging about $850,00 for 30-second ads.

During the ad breaks, Gillette and BBDO continued the brand’s “The Best a Man Can Get” theme, which debuted in 1989’s Super Bowl XXIII. In 2019, the brand marked the tagline’s 30th anniversary in a markedly different campaign that tackled bullying, sexism and #MeToo, laying responsibility on men to be better. It was praised by celebrities such as Chrissy Teigen, Rainn Wilson and Arianna Huffington—but others, including Piers Morgan, derided it as insulting to men. The uproar was, in a sense, a preview of the brand-focused culture wars that accelerated in the years to come, affecting everything from Bud Light to Target. 

For a complete look at Big Game commercial history, check out Ad Age’s Super Bowl ad archive.