Super Bowl 2025 ads as lacklustre as the game, with an overflow of celebrities and very little risk-taking

Source: © Nike Nike In the brand's first Super Bowl advert in three decades, Nike launched its So Win campaign featuring its multiple superstar female athletes and entertainment industry figures

But the game is only one part of what makes the Super Bowl. The halftime show is a highlight and then there are the advertisements, making the event big business for television and media as well.

It is reported that some of this year's plus-minus 80 advert slots (30 seconds) sold for more than $8m each - from $2.95m in 2010.

Celebrities, humour and nostalgia

Entertainment was the major theme of this year’s adverts and campaigns.

Given the US’s current tense political situation, and that most of the adverts were developed together during the recent presidential election race, it is no surprise brands sidestepped any social commentary.

Celebrities, humour and nostalgia were the order of the day.

Minimal risk taking

Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said in Associated Press that this was a complicated Super Bowl for advertisers.

“That’s the challenge this year. Everybody wants to be safe, but you also want to be interesting."

New York Times’ television critic, Mike Hale, wrote, “It was a bad year for ads. More spots than usual depended entirely on the appeal of a relatable celebrity (who was almost certainly male).

"Concepts beat ideas — there was a lot of fussy, overly complicated silliness and not much in the way of simple, effective storytelling or mood setting.”

Super Bowl trends

Celebrities

The trend of using celebrities continued this year with more than enough celebrities featured in Super Bowl adverts this year.

Nike’s advert featured its multiple superstar female athletes and entertainment industry figures. The brand’s first advertisement in three decades.

Other adverts that featured celebrities include UberEats, Dorritos, MSC cruises, Meta, Jeep, Bosch, Taco Bell, Novartis, Coffee Mate, Bud Light, Stella Artois, Dove, FanDuel, and Pringles, amongst others.

Booking.com’s most-watched Super Bowl spot featured Jumm Henson’s Muppets.

It is no surprise that Kendrick Lamar, a halftime performer, got the most mentions online - over 520,000.

Celebrities in the crowd also got mentions, but it was Taylor Swift who was the most mentioned non-performer during this year’s Super Bowl, with over 93,000 mentions during the event.

However, Taylor's, who is dating Kansas City Chiefs player, Travis Kelce, biggest talking point was when she got booed (mainly by Eagles fans) when she appeared on the jumbotron.

The second most mentioned attendee was President Donald Trump, the firting president to attend the Super Bowl. He received cheers and boos.

AI-driven adverts

Several brands used AI-driven adverts, from the obvious, like OpenAI (in its Superbowl debut), Google, showcasing its Gemini chatbot, Meta with its AI-powered smart glasses, and GoDaddy advertised its AI product “Airo”.

Combining AI and celebrities, Meta’s AI advert featured the three “Chrisses” (Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, and Kris Jenner) while Saleforce, promoting Agentforce, starred Matthew McConaughey.

A water bottle Cirkul, did not advertise an AI product, took a stab at AI featured AI in its advert.

From advert to campaign

What was interesting this year was the number of brands that did an entire campaign and not just an advert for the Super Bowl.

The brands that did this include Nike and Doritos.

Consumer participation

Also interesting was that many brands used various methods to get consumer participation from activations, giveaways, and hashtags.

Humour

Humour continues its return. Comedy was used to break through the Super Bowl advert maelstrom.

Social media

Brandwatch reports that this year saw over 2.71 million online mentions from over 540,000 accounts.

With over 13,000 Super Bowl-specific mentions, Nike was the most mentioned advertiser with its new So Win campaign which promotes women’s sports and features female athletes. It is also the brand’s first Super Bowl advert in 27 years and judging by the social media praise for the advert online, it was well received.

Doritos were the second most mentioned brand online. Their advert was a fan-made commercial chosen from its activation, Doritos Crash the Super Bowl where consumers are invited to create their own Doritos ads.

The brand then took it further, giving fans a way to win a year’s worth of the chips every time a team scored a touchdown. The brand, always a fan favourite, through its advert, competition and humour meant its advert this year was well received online.