Top 8 Winningest Super Bowl Commercials, a Web Word Wars & an AI Prompt to Try
I had seriously low expectations for this year’s Super Bowl, so I was pleasantly surprised that it totally became my highlight of the week for three reasons.
Although prior to the kickoff I was meh on both teams, as soon as the action started I found myself cheering enthusiastically for the Eagles. It was satisfying to see an underdog team trounce the frontrunner so thoroughly, and really—who got hurt? I mean, one of the guys got to go home with Taylor Swift.
The commercials were so funny, or so sad, or so weird. They gave me the full range of feels.
Kendrick Lamar’s half-time show was something so different, refreshing and pure. I watched it with one of my kids dancing on my lap and singing along—in the moment we’re in, it was a happy moment for me.
But before we get to the commercial round-up, I have a technical word wars for anybody out there whose ever worked behind-the-scenes on a big, messy website.
DAM vs. CMS
Top 8 Best Super Bowl Commercials of 2025
Looking back on my standout favorites, I’ll point to two winning commonalities. My top picks were the ones that gave me the feels, mostly laughter, wonder, sadness or puzzlement. Here’s what makes my list.
1. Stella Artois: Dave & David
This lovely gem is essentially a micro-short where David Beckham finds out he has a long-lost twin in the US, Other David, played by Matt Damon. When they meet in America, they connect over wings, crazy kicking ability and—of course, Stella Artois.
Why it works: It has an honest-to-goodness plot line and instantly likeable characters. Personally, I love little side-joke allusions like the Ben Affleck riff at the end. Like most viewers, I dig being in on the inside joke.
The feels: Big belly laughs from this gal.
How it builds the brand: Discerning, yet down-to-Earth, bringing people together from oceans apart.
The wider campaign: Stella Artois appears to be making this iconically elevated brand a little more down-to-earth. It’s super smart to link it to two very popular sports with decidedly blue-collar fan bases.
Matt Damon as David Beckham’s twin, Other David.
2. Coors Light: Slow Monday
As anyone who has watched Zootopia with their kids five million times knows, sloths doing anything is deeply hysterical. This montage-style commercial personifies that sluggish Monday feeling by turning soul cyclers, corporate workers and lawn mowers into glacially-moving sloths.
Why it works: It’s a simple conceit that instantly means something super relatable.
The feels: Muahaahahaaaa
How it builds the brand: Coors Light becomes an empathetic buddy who can ease the rub of Monday with a nice cold beer at the end of the day. It’s the working man’s beer (not a lot of female sloths represented, I gotta say). The opposite of snobby.
The wider campaign: In a seriously genius PR response, Coors Light turned an epic typo (refershment instead of refreshment) on a Times Square billboard into fodder for their Case of the Mondays campaign. They literally blamed the mistake on someone having a case of the Mondays. Which I now question because today’s modern word processors do not allow you to misspell refreshment – mine auto-corrected my intentional mistake).
3. Mountain Dew: Kiss from a Lime
“That’s a good looking seal,” says Seal, sitting in the back of a boat after watching a seal with Seal’s face sing a parody of “Kiss from a Rose.” Completely ridiculous, replete with allusions and fully funny.
Why it works: What sealed the deal for me on this one was Seal’s abundantly gracious ability to poke fun at himself.
The feels: I mean, this was so funny I almost peed myself.
How it builds the brand: I’m a never-drinker of Mountain Dew, but I can appreciate how the brand sticks to a core goal of personifying the flavor of the drink as something refreshing and bold that defies categorization.
The wider campaign: Weird is really their thing, and this couldn’t have been truer to that vibe.
Seal, singing as a seal.
4. Liquid Death: Drink on the Job
This montage-style commercial featuring visuals of people with serious jobs chugging Liquid Death, with a soundtrack of a song I can only assume is called “Drink on the Job” was designed for humorous shock value. And it delivered. A judge threw back, a pilot, a surgeon and even a school bus driver. The slogan at the end read: “Don’t be scared. It’s just water.”
Why it works: The message is simple and direct, yet delivered in a memorable way with iconic imagery that elicits an instant response. Everyone feels a certain way about their pilot drinking on the job, after all.
The feels: Another LOL for me, and also I felt in on the joke since I’ve been following this brand.
How it builds the brand: What a great way to extend its “use cases” from just a non-alcoholic choice at social occasions to … ahem… day drinking. Also love the final killer message in the spot: #deathtoplastic. A bad-to-the-bone brand with a heart.
The wider campaign: Although I’ve never tasted it, I’ve been admiring this brand for years. I mean, it’s worth something like $1.4B and it’s literally water in a can. The total value of this brand is in its design, which says something about us as humans. Is that a good something or a bad something? Not for me to say. If this had been available in my younger days, I would have been the first one in line to buy it at a concert or event as a “cool” looking non-alcoholic option.
5. Novartis: Your Attention, Please
If you watched the Super Bowl with any dudes, you could almost hear their inner 14-year-olds shouting, “Boobies!” when this ad started playing. Even as a woman I was hypnotized. Wanda Sykes certainly had the audience’s attention to deliver the somber message to make sure to get your mammograms, as early detection indeed saves lives. As a forty-something woman, I’m up-to-date on mine—are you? That’s every two years starting at the age of 40, ladies.
Why it works: This is a clever concept that draws in both female and male audiences with humor and empathy. It makes a heavy topic a little lighter, which in my experience equals a more receptive mindset to actually take action.
The feels: As a woman, I had a good chuckle in solidarity with all my fellow females, and I also appreciated treating this subject with appropriate gravity at the end. I know I’m not alone in loving someone who was taken too soon by breast cancer.
How it builds the brand: This ad was produced and paid for by Novartis, a pharmaceutical company that does research on breast cancer and manufactures several breast cancer drugs. I’m not sure if this ad really does much for Novartis from a consumer’s perspective, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
The wider campaign: Honestly, this whole thing is kind of weird, the more I dig. There is a website featuring the creative from the ad with more information about breast cancer awareness. But I had to dig around online to find it. My verdict? They could have done a better job connecting to the associated site, and also running this campaign in additional channels for better understanding and surround-sound.
6. Jeep: Owner’s Manual
This one makes my list precisely because of how conflicted I feel about it. Essentially, it’s a monologue delivered by the one and only Harrison Ford. Lately for me, Harrison the man has been conflated with his curmudgeonly yet exceedingly wise character on Shrinking, Paul. This commercial did nothing to disillusion me of this, and so I hung on Paul’s—er, Harrison’s—every word. Also, side note: It’s pretty impressive how quickly and effortlessly the 82-year-old actor stands up from his chair in the beginning. Mad props, old man.
Why it works: If it had been anyone else, I would find the overtly Americana-ness of it all just a little too much, the Jeep iconography heavy-handed, the transitions from past and present, traditional and modern dizzying. But because of Harrison’s masterful handling, it somehow was compelling and comforting; he made it work.
The feels: Conflicted, yet enthralled.
How it builds the brand: It’s vintage Jeep, which in my personal opinion is 80% branding and 20% product. Also right in line with how the brand is so innately interwoven into the American cultural fabric.
The wider campaign: This commercial gives me a bit of déjà vu, but it doesn’t appear there’s really been anything like it from Jeep. The closest thing is the Clint Eastwood Chrysler Super Bowl commercial from over a decade ago. I imagine we’ll see this commercial in some form or another throughout the remainder of 2025.
7. NFL: Flag 50
This mini movie tells a classic boys vs. girls story where an aggressive jock challenges a sporty girl to a football matchup between her flag football team’s best guy (GIRL) and the team’s star, The Brad.
Why it works: The cinematic storytelling approach helps the viewer quickly like and root for the confident girl to put the macho dumb jocks in their place, and quick. The camera follows the female star in a fashion befitting our biggest NFL icons.
The feels: Heck, yeah!
How it builds the brand: Spotlighting female athleticism in a way that doesn’t just celebrate it, but rather makes it must-watch-TV is a really savvy play by the NFL. It meets the moment where women’s teams are commanding audiences equal in size to men’s teams. Women’s basketball at both the college and professional comes to mind, as well as women’s soccer.
The wider campaign: I had to go on a fairly deep internet search to uncover any real info on this push. Time will tell if it’s lip service to placate 50% of the population, or a real drive with teeth. Not sure if the movement is gaining traction on social media with the suggested hashtags.
8. Dove: These Legs
One continuous shot shows a simple, beautiful subject: a joyful little girl running carefree with a smile glowing across her face. Captions tell the devastating story born out in stark statistics. As the mother of a 3-year-old I can attest to my daughter’s inherent confidence and pride in her strong, healthy body. That’s what makes the second caption all the more terrifying: 1 in 2 girls will quit sports by the age of 14, many due to feeling shamed over their body type.
Why it works: We all know this little girl, and if you’re a woman, you remember all too well the embodied torture of inhabiting a teenage body. If you’re a mother of a daughter, it hits you double.
The feels: Sadness… and hope.
How it builds the brand: I’ve long admired Dove’s dedication to the idea of real beauty, celebrating the gorgeousness of the female form in all its varied glory. For me, at least, there’s the ring of truth and authenticity to Dove’s campaigns precisely because they’ve stuck to their simple, affirming message for so long.
Honorable Mentions
Michelob Ultra: Pickleball
NFL: Somebody
Uber Eats: Century of Cravings
Pringles: Call of the Mustaches
Haagen Dazs: Not So Fast, Not So Furious
TurboTax: Now Taxes Is So Sweet
Want more? See the full list.
Steal My AI Prompt!
In a working session this week, my team added Microsoft CoPilot and ChatGPT into the mix. We were stuck on crafting a headline for one particular slide in a presentation. We knew what we wanted to convey, but hadn’t landed on a concrete turn of phrase. One of my co-workers brandished her phone, saying “Want me to ask ChatGPT?” I countered: “Don’t you want to ask Microsoft CoPilot?” In the last month or so, Microsoft CoPilot chat has been added into our search functionality, but it hasn’t been widely adopted due to lack of training and some initial issues with the functionality (it didn’t work for several weeks!). Right then and there, we did a head-to-head test to see if the two AI options performed comparatively.
For fairness, we both used the same prompt, which I created and share here:
Working on a slide recapping a big personalization marketing project. Please offer 10 different headlines that communicate the idea that the pilot program was actually fairly successful given the constraints and challenges around scope and process.
Here’s what CoPilot generated:
Sure, here are 10 different headlines for your slide:
"Pilot Program Triumphs Despite Scope and Process Challenges"
"Success Amidst Constraints: Personalization Marketing Pilot Delivers"
"Navigating Challenges: A Successful Personalization Marketing Pilot"
"Overcoming Hurdles: Pilot Program Achieves Notable Success"
"Personalization Pilot Proves Effective Despite Limitations"
"Success Story: Personalization Marketing Pilot Surpasses Expectations"
"Pilot Program Yields Positive Results Despite Challenges"
"Turning Constraints into Success: The Personalization Marketing Pilot"
"Achieving Success in a Challenging Pilot Program"
"Personalization Marketing Pilot: A Success Against the Odds"
I hope these help! Do you need any more assistance with your slide?
Here’s the output from ChatGPT:
Pilot Program Shows Promising Results Despite Process Challenges
Success within Limits: Pilot Program Overcomes Key Hurdles
Against the Odds: Pilot Program Delivers Strong Outcomes
Pilot Program Proves Effective, Even with Process Constraints
Encouraging Results: Pilot Program Navigates Challenges Well
Within Constraints, Pilot Program Exceeds Expectations
Pilot Program Finds Success Despite Process Roadblocks
Overcoming Challenges: Pilot Program Yields Positive Impact
Pilot Program Demonstrates Feasibility Amid Constraints
Challenging Conditions, Strong Results: A Look at the Pilot Program
Since the slide contained natural growth imagery, we asked ChatGPT to offer more headlines incorporating metaphors of “growing things.” Here’s what it returned:
Pilot Program Takes Root and Thrives Despite Rocky Soil
Against the Odds, the Pilot Program Sprouts Promising Results
Seeds of Success: Pilot Program Grows Despite Process Challenges
Pilot Program Blooms in a Tough Landscape
Nurturing Progress: Pilot Program Flourishes Despite Constraints
Pilot Program Finds Fertile Ground for Growing Amid Challenges
After we had a good laugh at some of the headlines that took the metaphor too far (rocky soil, fertile ground), we decided that nurturing was a good word.
Here’s the final headline:
Nurturing Progress: Pilot Program Shows Promise Despite Constraints
NOW YOU TRY! Invite AI to your working sessions, and think of your prompts and queries as a back-and-forth conversation.
