The Philadelphia Eagles secured the championship in Sunday’s Super Bowl 59, but there were also several winners — and plenty of losers — in the lineup of star-studded commercials that aired during the broadcast. The best Super Bowl LIX ads delivered strong messages, either through humor or drama, while the worst commercials left some viewers befuddled, experts said.
There’s a lot on the line for Super Bowl advertisers, with a few ad spots selling for a record $8 million and even $8 million-plus for 30 seconds. Last year, a 30-second spot sold for about $7 million. Advertisers also spend additional millions on creating their ads, often hiring well-known actors or celebrities to appear in their spots.
Super Bowl commercials that score can pay off for a company through new customers and a stronger brand image, but ads that fumble can tarnish a business’s marketing message and even turn off consumers. Most ads were in development during last fall’s U.S. presidential election race, so avoiding controversy was even more of a priority than usual, said Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management who co-runs its annual Super Bowl ad ranking.
The finalized crop of commercials feature a lot of simple humor, nostalgia and few creative risks, he said. But even that approach can backfire.
“That’s the challenge this year. Everybody wants to be safe, but you also want to be interesting,” Calkins said. “Safe advertising isn’t the advertising you notice or remember.”
This year’s crop of ads included some that dropped the ball, according to Northwestern marketing professor Derek Rucker, who co-runs the Kellogg ad review with Calkins.
Worst Super Bowl commercial: Coffee Mate
One of this year’s worst ads was the spot from Coffee Mate, Kellogg’s ad review found. That spot featured two men sitting on the couch when one of them puts Coffee Mate’s cold foam on his drink. His tongue then leaps out of his mouth and dances along to music and fireworks.
“The brand showcased dancing tongues, which included jumping out of a person’s mouth,” Rucker told CBS MoneyWatch in an email.
The spot was distracting and the brand’s message got lost as a result, he said.
Worst Super Bowl commercial: Tubi
Another commercial that was voted as one of this year’s worst by the panel was the Tubi ad, Rucker said. That spot, for the Tubi streaming service, featured people with fleshy hat-like appendages, with the main character born with a cowboy-shaped head. The ad was “good old-fashioned nightmare fuel,” according to Collider.
Worst Super Bowl commercial: ChatGPT
ChatGPT’s ad was also a low-rated ad, according to Northwestern’s ad panel. Its spot showed the evolution of human tech through black-and-white pixelated images, but the business school gave it poor marks because it didn’t show viewers anything new. The ad cost $14 million to air in the first half, according to tech publication The Verge.
“It’s understandable given that, with the amount of money invested in the spot, the audience really was given very little new information about ChatGPT. It’s almost as if it simply showed up the party not knowing what to do,” Rucker said.
Best Super Bowl commercial: Michelob Ultra
This spot features actors Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara as they hustle younger players out of their Michelob Ultra beers by wagering that they can beat them at pickleball. “Play you for an Ultra?” O’Hara asks at the end of the commercial.
“Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara appeared together and showcased their hustle— and hustling— for Michelob Ultra. It’s got just the right balance between brand and celebrity, and it resonated with our panel,” Rucker said.
Best Super Bowl commercial: Google
The Google ad featured a dad preparing for a job interview, who turns to Google’s Gemini AI app to help him craft a description of the most challenging job he’s had — being a dad.
“Google once again impressed our panel with a spot that showcased both the functionality of its phone and added its own emotional twist,” Rucker said.
Full ratings for Super Bowl 59 ads
Below is the full list of Super Bowl commercial ratings from the Kellogg panel, which rates the commercials on their marketing effectiveness.
A-rated Super Bowl commercials
- Breast Cancer Awareness
- Michelob Ultra
- Google Pixel 9
- Nike
- T-mobile
- Lays
- Hellmann’s
- Instacart
- Liquid Death
B-rated Super Bowl commercials
- NFL
- Dove
- Turbo Tax
- Poppi
- Booking.com
- Pfizer
- Duracell
- Reese’s
- Stella Attois
- Little Cesar
- Ritz
- Angel Soft
- Doritos
- Nerds
- Uber Eats
- Mountain Dew
C-rated Super Bowl commercials
- Disney+
- Ram
- Bud Light
- Jeep
- Homes.com
- Meta/Ray-Ban
- Hims and Hers
- Budweiser
- Coors Light
- Ramp.com
- Haagen-Dazs
- Bosch
- Fetch
- Taco Bell
- MSC Cruises
- GoDaddy
- Stand up to all hate
- Nerdwallet
- Dunkin’
- Pringles
- NYU Health Care
- Cirkul
- Agentforce
- Weather Tech
D-rated Super Bowl commercials
- Red Bull
- Doordash
- Fanduel
- He Gets Us
- Hexclad Cookware
- ChatGPT
- Rocket Mortgage
- Totinos Pizza Rolls
- Coffee Mate
- Tubi
- Squarespace
contributed to this report.
