Topline
Budweiser’s “First Delivery” commercial starring a Clydesdale was rated the best Super Bowl 2025 commercial – the first time since 2015 that Budweiser took top honors in USA Today’s Ad Meter poll.
Key Facts
More than 160,000 viewer voted the nostalgic Budweiser “First Delivery” commercial their favorite in the Super Bowl 2025.
Number two ranked Lay’s went for the heart with a little girl who lovingly grows a potato seedling into a perfect potato suited to make a perfect Lay’s potato chip.
Michelob Ultra’s number three spot encouraged seniors, featuring Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara challenging pro-athletes to play pickleball for Ultra beers and the senior couple shut the pros down.
Honorable Mentions
Rounding out the top ten Super Bowl 2025 commercials were David Beckham and Matt Damon for Anheuser-Busch brand Stella Artois at number four. Two NFL spots encouraging girls to play sports took number five and six. Bud Light’s backyard mayhem in “Big Men on Cul-De-Sac” was number seven. Matthew McConaughey for Uber Eats with cameos by Kevin Bacon, Martha Stewart and Greta Gerwig ranked number eight. At number nine was Hellmann’s “When Sally Met Hellmann’s” with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reprising their famous deli scene. Pfizer’s breast cancer message ranked number ten.
Background
USA Today has polled the public to rate their favorite Super Bowl ads since 1989. Anheuser-Busch took the most top honors since then, now holding 15 number one spots after this year’s poll. Pepsi has held top position six times, but the brand was a no-show this year. Dorito’s has scored three number one ratings and this year its “Abduction (For The Bold)” spot ranked number 11.
Most Cringeworthy
Near the bottom of this year’s ranking was Coffee Mate’s “Foam Diva,” rated 55 out of the 57 commercials in the running. Playing off the idea that the Coffee Mate foam tickles the tongue, it used CGI to make the unnamed actor’s tongue jump out of his mouth and dance around. Uck! Other flying body parts in this year’s commercials were mustaches taking off for Pringle’s (number 21) and Eugene Levy’s eyebrows flying off his face to land as a mustache for Little Caesars (number 22). And perhaps the creepiest one, though it could have, should have been lovely, was from Pepsico’s Mountain Dew where the “Kiss from a Rose” Grammy-winner Seal’s face is transposed onto the body of a seal. A remix of his lyrical hit song, “Kiss from a Lime,” plays in the background. Seal does make a real-life appearance at the end of the commercial but it’s hard to get the cryptid image of him out of mind. That ad came in at number 24.
Senior Moments
Besides Dafoe and O’Hara for Michelob Ultra, seniors got equal time in this year’s commercials. Harrison Ford spoke out for the freedom of driving a Jeep with a little jab at the competing car brand that bears his name, rated number 12. Morgan Freeman spoke up for Homes.com at number 40. And my personal senior-moment favorite was from Weathertech car liners. A group of “golden girls” take off in their classic Lincoln convertible for wild adventures to the soundtrack of “Born to Be Wild.” It only scored at number 20, but to my mind, should have been higher.
Nike Returns To The Super Bowl After 27-Year Hiatus
Nike showed up at the Super Bowl for the first time since 1998 with an inspiring message for female athletes. WNBA star Caitlin Clark, Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles, tennis champ Aryna Sabalenka, track-and-field standout Sha’Carri Richardson, along with other elite Nike female athletes encouraged women and girls to “Just Do It” and win. In an extended 60-second commercial to the soundtrack of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and rapper Doechii doing the voiceover, he concludes, “Whatever you do, you can’t win. So Win.” However, Nike was late to the big game show and didn’t make USA Today’s Ad Metter.
Further Reading
Nike Is Betting a Big Super Bowl Ad With Caitlin Clark, Rapper Doechii Can Help Reclaim Its Dominance (Wall Street Journal, 2/9/2025)