Brand Takeaways from the 2025 Super Bowl Ads
From the consumer AI products to the rise of women’s sports, and more
The Super Bowl continues to top its viewership record, cementing its place as the most-watched TV event of the year. According to Nielsen data, the big game on Sunday attracted an average of 127.7 million viewers across all platforms, surpassing the previous record of 123.7 million last year. Notably, the game was also live streamed on Tubi, Fox’s FAST channel, for free, and delivered about 11% of the total audience or 13.6 million viewers.
The huge viewership, of course, continues to attract brand advertisers to shell out the big bucks for nationwide attention. Leaning into escapism and spectacles, most commercials leaned on humor and celebrities, banking on wacky concepts combined with star power to stand out. In fact, 46% of the game’s ads this year starred more than one famous face, up from 43% last year and more than in any previous Super Bowl, according to iSpot data cited by the Wall Street Journal.
Look beyond the surface, however, there are some interesting trends that reflect the current technology and media landscape that we live in. From the half a dozen spots selling consumer-facing AI products, to the cross-category rise of women’s sports, this year’s collection of Super Bowl ads offers plenty to chew on.
Selling Consumer AI on Vision and Practical Use
OpenAI’s inaugural Super Bowl advertisement aimed to boldly position ChatGPT as the next major leap in innovation, on par with the invention of wheels and the moon landing. The 60-second spot, titled “The Intelligence Age,” employed a black-and-white dots animation to depict humanity’s greatest technological milestones, culminating in the introduction of ChatGPT.
It’s a highly conceptual spot that doesn’t reveal what the ad is about until the last second. Compare it to the Google Pixel Phone spot showcasing Gemini AI use cases for regular users, or the two Salesforce spots featuring celebrities to promote its Agentforce AI, it may seem a bit too opaque and abstract. According to USA Today’s Ad Meter rankings, viewers favored sentimental and celebrity-driven commercials, and OpenAI’s spot ranked near the bottom, suggesting it didn’t resonate as strongly with the audience.
Yet, one could also argue that OpenAI is confident enough in the high consumer awareness of ChatGPT to simply use that brand as a mic-drop moment to end its artistic spot. Unlike Google and Salesforce, which opted to demonstrate specific AI use cases to engage a broad audience, OpenAI assumed that people already understood what ChatGPT was and what it can do. Whether that assumption is true or not remains to be seen. While Google and Salesforce aimed for immediate relatability, OpenAI’s visionary stance is perhaps more appealing to those already engaged in the AI conversation rather than the mainstream Super Bowl audience.
Meta’s Super Bowl campaign for its Ray-Ban smart glasses featured Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, and Kris Jenner in a humorous narrative. But the start is evidently Meta AI, whose multimodal functions — such as identifying artworks and making calls through voice commands — were highlighted in the two spots aired during the game.
Meta’s ad combined celebrity appeal with humor to demystify the AI smart glasses, aiming to make the technology more relatable and engaging. By showcasing the glasses’ AI capabilities in a lighthearted context, Meta aimed to position its product as both innovative and user-friendly. Yet, some viewers might leave the commercial remembering the celebrities and the banana-eating shenanigans more than the product itself.
Women’s Sports Goes Cross-Category
Female empowerment was a recurring theme amongst the Super Bowl commercials this year, with brands like Lay’s and Novartis centering female protagonists in their ads. This trend is particularly evident with the trio of spots highlighting women’s sports, which has been having a moment in terms of viewership growth and cultural buzz.
For starters, Nike debuted its first Super Bowl commercial in 27 years, featuring a star-studded lineup of women athletes including Caitlin Clark, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Jordan Chiles, and aiming to confront challenges women face in sports. The spot quickly became Nike’s most-watched video, amassing over 66 million views on Instagram by the following Monday afternoon.
The NFL also jumped on the trend with a “Leave The Past Behind” spot, which intended to promote the spread of girls’ flag football to more high schools across the country. The spot was overall well-received, aligning with the Super Bowl’s broader themes of empowerment and inclusivity.
Similarly, Dove’s “These Legs” Super Bowl spot received acclaim for its poignant message addressing body image issues among young female athletes. “It all adds up to something that feels very authentic for a brand that has spent over 20 years challenging societal beauty standards,” writes Rebecca Stewart for AdWeek. The ad is part of Dove’s ongoing “Body Confident Sport” initiative, which offers 11 to 17 year-old girls coaching tools to build body confidence and encourage them to stay in sports.
The decision by these three brands to highlight women’s sports during the Super Bowl — historically a male-dominated advertising and viewership space — signals an ongoing cultural shift. With increased visibility and investment in women’s sports leagues, brands are recognizing the growing audience and financial potential of women’s athletics. This trio of Super Bowl spots underscores that the conversation around women in sports is no longer niche — it’s a mainstream, cross-category branding opportunity that resonates with a wide spectrum of consumers.
The Gen Z Brands Have Arrived
Gen Z has become a powerful consumer demographic with growing spending power and a strong influence that drives the cultural conversation, both of which brands are eager to capture. This shift was on full display in this year’s Super Bowl ads, as companies leaned into Gen Z-focused marketing strategies — sometimes successfully, sometimes awkwardly.
One clear indicator of this trend was the presence of brands that primarily cater to younger audiences, such as the prebiotic soda Poppi and the direct-to-consumer healthcare brand hims/hers. These companies, which have built their presence through digital-first marketing and influencer collaborations, took center stage with Super Bowl debuts.
Beyond the Gen Z brands, the humor and style of many ads were distinctly Gen Z-coded. The commercials for Pringles and Little Caesars both featured flying facial hair — an absurdist, meme-friendly concept that aligns with the generation’s appreciation for surreal, offbeat humor. Meanwhile, from Coffeemate’s “dancing tongues” spot to Martha Stewart glide-stepping in a Sketchers spot, to even singer Seal as an actual seal, several campaigns attempted to tap into Gen Z’s love of chronically online humor and cultural mashups. However, reactions were mixed, with many viewers finding these spots more bizarre than effective.
Therein lies a crucial challenge for advertisers: capturing Gen Z’s attention without alienating other demographics. While younger audiences embrace weirdness, irony, and internet-driven humor, older viewers may find these approaches cringeworthy. Brands must strike a balance — tapping into Gen Z’s growing influence while ensuring the brand messaging remains accessible to a broader audience.
Beloved Movie IP Provides Nostalgia & Humor
One way for brands to bridge the intergenerational gap seems to be leaning into beloved movie IP as a shared cultural reference across demographics.
Hellmann’s took a playful approach by riffing on the iconic diner scene from When Harry Met Sally — a classic romcom that holds nostalgic value for older viewers while still being widely recognized by younger audiences thanks to its meme-ified pop culture status. The brand was sure to include both the OG stars of the film while also getting Gen Z star Sydney Sweeney to deliver the iconic final punchline.
Meanwhile, Häagen-Dazs parodied the Fast & Furious franchise, featuring stars from the high-speed action series in a lighthearted, ice cream-fueled twist on the films’ over-the-top stunts.
For those keeping score, that marks two Super Bowl ads inspired by major studio IP, and this year’s Super Bowl had zero spots inspired by TikTok or digital-native content. While brands are eager to connect with Gen Z, they still seem hesitant to build entire Super Bowl campaigns around viral internet culture — perhaps fearing its fleeting nature or limited appeal to older audiences. Instead, they’re opting for established movie references, which makes sense. While digital-native content dominates social media marketing, Super Bowl advertisers prioritize Hollywood nostalgia to appeal to the widest possible audience.
