What do you remember from Super Bowl Sunday? Were you eagerly waiting for touchdowns? Or were you part of the 18 percent who only watched the game to be entertained by the ads? For marketers and many others, we tend to keep only one eye tuned onto the game because we really only want to watch the ads.
According to USA Today, "For one day a year, people can't wait to cozy up on the couch and watch commercials during the Super Bowl. For some, it's a nice sideshow to the big game. For others, it's the main event. In a world where everything is an ad, we do our best to escape them, unless it's the Super Bowl. Companies spend a fortune for just 30 seconds of our time, hoping to capture a market. It might just be the one day a year where the public isn't buried in their phones, channel-surfing, or doing a variety of other things at once."
For Super Bowl 1 in 1967, a 30-second Super Bowl ad cost $37,500 (which was more than the cost of the average house!) - and with inflation, that is about $350,000 in 2025 dollars. For Super Bowl 60, that same 30-second ad cost $8 million with some premium spots costing $10 million, according to Mike Marshall, head of global advertising for NBCUniversal.
According to Aimee Picchi, associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, "Super Bowl ads command a premium because the game is typically the most-watched media event of the year. That gives brands a chance to reach more consumers at one time than anywhere else, and many companies use the opportunity to trot out new products or introduce a new slogan. There's another reason why brands are so willing to pay up: About 3 in 4 people say they are actually excited to watch the ads during the Super Bowl."
According to Sean Muller, CEO of advertising research firm iSpot, "Advertisers are seeing the Super Bowl as an opportunity to catch a break from concerns about the economy and polarized political views. They really want to get people to not worry for a few hours. I think that's why humor has made such a surge."
An interesting note about the Super Bowl and branding. Ever wonder why the logos include Roman numerals? According to CBS Sports, "For nearly 60 years, the Super Bowl has become a central part of American culture well beyond the sphere of pro football and is one of the select few mainstream events still using Roman numerals, a system that has largely been forgotten. Although the numeral system of Ancient Rome began to fall out of use in favor of Arabic numerals around the 14th century, there are still a few instances in which Roman numerals are commonly used: on clock faces, to identify lineages -- particularly for royalty and other important figures -- and to denote each edition of the Super Bowl. The use of Roman numerals for each Super Bowl dates back to the fifth Super Bowl, with the league adopting the use of the system to avoid confusion over the year the game is associated with. The Super Bowl is always played in the year following a chronologically recorded season, so while this Super Bowl is being played in 2026, the game itself will determine the champion of the 2025 NFL season. In addition, the idea to use Roman numerals for the Super Bowl is also credited to Kansas City Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, who believed that their use would add an element of grandeur to the NFL's biggest game. Hunt, of course, is credited with coining the term Super Bowl."
According to AdAge's Amani Duncan, "When Cambridge Dictionary declared "parasocial" the word of the year last year, it captured a defining characteristic of consumer expectations: connection drives commerce. People want intimacy. They expect brands to feel like people, behave like peers, and communicate like someone who's read the channels they're in. You can't do that by holding growth audiences at arm's length. To build trust with these communities, a winning approach is to have a genuine and sustained posture to understand the experiences, habits, and perspectives that shape how these growth audiences move through the world. Today's growth audiences, who are younger, more diverse, and will continue to represent trillions in spending power, are driving culture. Economists see it, anthropologists agree, and consumers following behavioral patterns confirm it. They're reshaping aesthetics, values, and expectations at a pace that legacy marketing playbooks were never designed to match.
Here's the good news: we're in the middle of a once-in-a-generation reset that rewards the brands willing to get closer, listen harder, and step fully into the conversation. It requires showing up with enough humility and curiosity to be shaped by the communities you hope to serve. Because the brands that will win the next decades won't be the ones with the biggest budgets (although that never hurts). They'll be the ones who treated this as a real strategic assignment, engaging consistently, and understanding the communities' shaping taste and buying behavior. That's why the mandate for business leaders everywhere is simple: if you haven't won the trust and loyalty of growth audiences by 2030, you haven't built a business to last."
With that commentary in mind, it's worth repeating this timeless quote from Landor Associates: "Here are three tips to help you, your dad, or even your football-crazed grandma decide which brands scored a touchdown with their commercials: Is the ad on-brand? Will you remember the brand tomorrow? And, does the ad speak to the times?"
While there was no ad similar to Apple's 1984 ad; no ad that was as memorable as Budweiser's post-9/11 ad from 2002 with the kneeling Clydesdales; no animated Coca Cola polar bears; and no Tweet clever enough to rival Oreo's "dunking in the dark" from 2013's "Blackout Bowl" at the Superdome in New Orleans; some ads did stand out to me, and without further ado, here they are:
BUDWEISER - "American Icons": Whenever the Clydesdale horses appear in an ad, the ad tugs at the heartstrings. This ad was no exception. A young foal found an eaglet, a baby eagle, and during the span of the ad, helped it to learn how to fly. The ad's imagery was impressive - and the ad was the best of this year's crop of ads.
PEPSI - "The Choice": At the Super Bowl time of year, a polar bear is synonymous with Coca-Cola. So once the viewer sees a polar bear, Coca-Cola immediately comes to mind. However, not so fast. In this humorous ad, the polar bear is happy once he drinks from a PEPSI can!
LAY'S POTATO CHIPS - "Last Harvest": A father celebrates retirement as a farmer and gives his farm to his daughter. The ad celebrates family and American farming.
MINIONS & MONSTERS: A day before the Super Bowl, there was a post on Twitter/X with the message "getting super close." (Note the use of the word "super.") Then, there was a brief ad during the big game mentioning that the new Minions film would arrive in theaters on July 1st - and invited viewers to watch the trailer. So, this Minions fan immediately visited Twitter/X to watch the film's trailer. Looks like fun! This was an excellent combination of TV advertising with social media.
While there weren't more memorable ads, during the game, there were numerous "on brand" posts on Twitter/X. Here are some, in case you missed them:
* Krispy Kreme shared a dozen specially-decorated doughnuts with the message: "$2 original glazed dozen when you buy any dozen. A winning play for your gameday spread. Don't fumble this sweet deal."
* Encyclopaedia Britannica shared a fun fact: "Behind only Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest food consumption day in the U.S. Bon appetit."
* Encyclopaedia Britannica also shared an interesting infographic: "Time to update your Super Bowl stats, everyone."
* Merriam-Webster shared a funny post: "snacks - noun - a light meal: food eaten between regular meals."
* Peeps Brand shared a number of posts throughout the game with cute graphics: "The Big Game goes small."
* Avocados from Mexico shared a number of posts throughout the game with memorable graphics: "The real championship was all the guac we ate along the way." (That one was my favorite.)
* Avocados from Mexico responded to Pepsi on Twitter/X: "@Pepsi Find someone that looks at you like your polar bear stares at guac."
* Dr Pepper featured a cute graphic of several bears drinking Dr Pepper rather than Pepsi: "Just wait til that Polar Bear tries a Dr Pepper."
* Ty Inc. shared a post with some of its toys plus the message: "Who's ready for some football? Time for play."
* Library of Congress shared an amusing post: "WHO is excited for Superb Owl weekend? These owls from the Library's Japanese prints and drawings collection don't seem that thrilled, actually, although it's sure to be a hoot. They're enthusiastic about Bad Bunny, but they may not understand that he's a man, not a delicious small mammal."
A few timeless words from Jacques de Cock, a faculty member at the London School of Marketing: "The Super Bowl is a phenomenon unsurpassed in the world. It is one of the few national social events, which is also why social media traffic during the game is so high...What is also remarkable is that advertising is not viewed as something to skip but is seen by 77 percent of viewers as part of the entertainment, and therefore, more watched and engaged with than any other television advertising during the year."
Today, the official countdown begins for Super Bowl LXI, scheduled for February 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in my hometown of Los Angeles. This will be the 9th time that the Los Angeles area has hosted the Super Bowl, commemorating 60 years since the first title game in 1967.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, "The Super Bowl has never been on Valentine's Day. The closest the game has ever come to Valentine's Day was in 2022, when Super Bowl LVI was played on February 13th. So why is Super Bowl 61 being played on Valentine's Day? It's all thanks to the NFL's expanded season. In 2021, the NFL announced that all 32 clubs would play 17 games. While the Super Bowl is not held on the same day every year, it was held in January from 1967 through 2003. It shifted to the first Sunday of February from 2004 to 2022. It has since been the second Sunday of February due to the expanded season. However, there has been discussion of adding an 18th game to the season, which would push the big game to mid-February. According to USA TODAY, another game will require amending the league’s collective bargaining agreement, yet will also expand the revenue-sharing pie for owners and players."
No matter how many games are played during next year's regular season and playoffs, will we see an ad or two that will go down as the best of all time during Super Bowl LXI? We'll have to wait and see.
Image credit: Budweiser, Pepsi, and Illumination (Minions).
To read any of my previous Super Bowl ad review posts (I've written them annually since 2012!), search #DebbieLaskeysBlog using the term "super bowl" to access all the links.
To learn more about eagles, check out this link:
https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/learn/faq/
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