Our Super Bowl 2025 Advertising Roundup

There are plenty of experts out there with various opinions on the Super Bowl ads. I do not count myself among them, so I instead want to share links to a few different review/ranking sites and then explain how I like to use Super Bowl ads as a learning experience in my classes. I do think this year had a lot more weird commercials than usual. It is interesting to read how they play with critics.

Review and rankings

Here are a few sites with analysis, commentary and rankings.

• Billboard “10 Best Super Bowl Commercials in 2025, Ranked”
  • Spoiler: #1 Dunkin, “DunKings 2“
• Yahoo! Sports “Super Bowl commercials 2025: Grading the best, worst, wildest, and weirdest Big Game Ads.” These guys gave out grades, with A’s going to
  • Dunkin, “DunKings 2“
  • Homes.com, “What’s Legal?”
  • DashPass, “DashPass Math“
  • Instacart, “We’re Here”
  • Hellman’s, “When Sally Met Hellman’s”
  • Pringles, “Call of the Mustaches”
  • Nike, “So Win”
• New York Times “The Super Bowl Ads Ranked” which ranks a top 10
  • #1 was ChatGPT The Intelligence Age
• Kellogg School of Management “Novartis Winds at the 2025 Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review.
  • They rank ads using the ADPLAN framework (if that link doesn’t let you read the whole article, you can open it in incognito mode). I really like that this ranking uses a clear set of business criteria.
  • #1 Novartis: Breast Cancer Awareness (might be too risque, watch it before you decide if you and/or your students will be comfortable with the content.
• USAToday AdMeter, the granddaddy of ratings with its 37th rendition.
  • I like to show this to students because it is based on voting by viewers. This is probably the worst criterion to use to rank ads, as it focuses on entertainment value, not whether it achieves the advertisers objectives.
  • #1 Budweiser First Delivery

In-class with the Super Bowl ads

The Super Bowl ads are an opportunity to have fun in the classroom. Most students saw the ads during the game and you have the opportunity to show ads. But how do we make it educational and entertaining. I have a favorite plan that I use in class, one that focuses on objectives. These are covered Chapter 3 for marketing objectives and/or promotion and advertising objectives (see Chapters 13 and 15). It might also be used when you cover marketing research.

I shared my typical approach with ChatGPT, which provided some nice structure to the activity. See below.

In-Class Activity: Evaluating Super Bowl Ads Through Promotion Objectives

• Goal: Show that the most entertaining ad isn’t always the most effective in meeting business goals.
• Benefits: Encourages critical thinking, bridges theory with real-world examples, and emphasizes the importance of strategic objectives in advertising.

Step 1: Warm-Up Discussion. Ask students which Super Bowl ad they liked best. Request reasons for their choices without expressing any personal opinions. Encourage discussion on elements like creativity, storytelling, humor, and emotional appeal. The benefit here is that it develops critical analysis skills by having students articulate what makes an ad appealing from multiple viewpoints.

Step 2: USA Today Admeter Showcase. Display the USA Today Admeter results, which show the viewer-voted rankings for the ads. Compare the students’ favorite ads with the Admeter rankings. Ask if there were any surprises or differences between the classroom opinions and the public vote. Here the goal is to provide a real-life data point that challenges subjective opinions and introduces an external perspective on ad success.

Step 3: Connecting to Promotion Objectives. Link to your textbook. Refer to the section on promotion objectives in your textbook. Explain that companies invest around $8 million for a 30-second spot to meet specific marketing objectives, not just to win awards or be entertaining. Ask students to consider whether the most entertaining ads necessarily achieve these objectives. Our learning objective here is to reinforce that advertising is a strategic tool aimed at achieving business goals rather than simply garnering viewer approval.

Step 4: Reflection and Discussion. Facilitate a discussion on balancing creativity with strategic goals. Questions to Consider:

• What makes an ad effective in achieving a company’s promotion objectives?
• Can you think of any examples where an entertaining ad might fall short on strategic effectiveness?

Our objective here is to help students understand that successful advertising requires both creative appeal and clear alignment with business goals.

Conclusion. Summarize the activity by stressing that while awards and entertainment are valuable, the true success of an ad lies in how well it meets the intended promotion objectives. Encourage students to apply this balanced view in their future analyses of advertising campaigns.