In the days leading up to the Super Bowl, Prof Tom Prince was on the local radio station, telling listeners what to expect from the big-game advertisers
MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS (February 12, 2025) — Wondering what the best Super Bowl commercial was this year?
It all depends on who you ask.
That was one of the takeaways for students in Monmouth College's "Principles of Marketing" class, taught by Professor Tom Prince. For the past several years, Prince has used the Super Bowl as a teaching moment.
"We offer a marketing degree at Monmouth now, and we're really proud of that," said Prince. "Talking about the Super Bowl ads is a way to say, 'Here's the risk/reward.' We can look at the financial aspect, look at the creative aspect. This is a great opportunity to talk to our students about these things."
As one chief creative officer phrased it in the days leading up to the game, which was viewed by more than 127 million people, "In a world of personalized feedback loops, the game is a brand's one remaining opportunity to go staggeringly macro."
Where they rank
As part of his annual review of Super Bowl ads, Prince shared the rankings posted by Ad Age and USA Today. "But first," he said to the class, "let's start with us."
Monmouth students listed more than a dozen commercials among their favorites. Collectively, the students decided on a top five of ads by Instacart, Uber Eats, Pfizer, Bud Light, and Liquid Death.
"There were a lot of references that a lot of people could understand," said one student of the Instacart ad, which featured icons of advertising such as the Green Giant, Mr Clean, the Kool-Aid Man, and the Pillsbury Doughboy.
Prince then shared the national rankings, explaining that Ad Age claims, "This is our expert opinion," while USA Today takes consumer feedback into account.
Among those top five ads, there was no overlap. Google's "Dream Job" ad, an emotional appeal promoting the company's Gemini Live AI assistant, earned Ad Age's N° 1 ranking. In its top spot, USA Today had the Budweiser ad "First Delivery," featuring a young Clydesdale horse nosing a keg to its proper establishment.
That was an upset, of sorts, for the brewing giant, as Budweiser had been on a waiting list to air an ad during the Super Bowl. The company only moved into the lineup after another advertiser dropped out.
Emotion vs. humor
Budweiser made good use of its chance with its emotional appeal, and other advertisers who went that route, in addition to Google, included Pfizer, with its knock-out cancer message, and Nike, which featured several outstanding female athletes and the message, "Whatever you do, you can't win. So win."
Prince pointed out to the students that it was Nike's first Super Bowl ad in 27 years.
Humor, however, carried the day, with roughly 70% of the ads using that approach. The high-ranking comedic ads that hit the mark included Coors Light (the Monday sloths), Homes.com (with Morgan Freeman), Michelob Ultra (with pickleball "hustlers" Willem Dafoe and Catherine O'Hara), and Stella Artois (with "twin brothers" Matt Damon and David Beckham).
"An overriding trend this year was to not take chances," said Prince. "You didn't see an advertiser be controversial. Why? We had political controversy all year. Advertisers felt viewers needed a break from all that. It will be interesting to see what will change by next year."
Prince also commented on Rocket's ad, which included the John Denver song, "Take Me Home Country Roads." As the ad ended, the entire Superdome stadium was belting out the song in unison.
"They paid extra for that," topping the going rate of $8 million, said Prince. "That was a marketing ploy, and it was a pretty slick move. That's the first time I've seen that type of connection with the consumer."
A big swing and a miss
Those were some of the success stories. But who missed the mark?
Prince's marketing students went with a pair of consensus Super Bowl ad losers — Totino's Pizza Rolls and Coffee Mate (that dancing tongue!) — as well as a couple of ads that were ranked much higher by Ad Age or USA Today. One was what Ad Age called a "memorably strange" ad for Mountain Dew featuring the singer Seal as a seal, and the other was Hellmann's walk down Memory Lane, with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reprising their famous restaurant scene from the movie When Harry Met Sally.
"But think about the target audience for that ad," said Prince to the class. "It wasn't you guys. That movie came out in 1989."
And speaking of a Super Bowl loser, the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs fell behind 40-6 at one point.
"As the game deteriorated, viewership declined," said Prince. "Heck, I was even channel-surfing by that point. I watched some Celebrity Jeopardy. So, think about how you'd like to invest $8 million on your Super Bowl ad, and then it came on at the end of the third quarter?"
It's all part of the big risk/big reward nature of advertising during the Super Bowl.
"Did the ad prompt action?" asked Prince. "That's why companies invested this money — to cause action. Tracking a company's sales over the next month is a way to gauge that action."
