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The stage is set for an all-out superstar showdown, and we’re not talking about the on-field action. With Super Bowl LIX exploding onto television screens on Sunday 9 February, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs will lock horns in a battle for the ages, but elsewhere, the real spectacle has already begun.
Kicking off as early as last week, the best of the best Super Bowl ads for 2025 slowly started infiltrating our feeds, arriving on streaming platforms, YouTube and, of course, TV. A proverbial buffet of big-name celebrities offering their cameo services to the highest bidder, the 2025 Super Bowl ad roster is as stacked as the sporting event itself. And for the amount of money some brands are paying, you’d expect nothing less.
Best Super Bowl Commercials of 2025
Building on last year, advertisers have once again upped the ante for the best Super Bowl commercials. Littered with A-list stars, cameo appearances and pop-culture references, these big-budget clips are worth a watch. Here’s a roundup of the best commercials and high-profile misses for Super Bowl LIX.
- Funniest: DunKings 2 – Dunkin’ Donuts
- Best celebrity cameo: Email Bill Murray – Yahoo
- Strangest Super Bowl ad: Kiss From A Lime ft. SEAL, Becky G – Mountain Dew
- Big budget favourite: Unidentified Frying Object – HexClad
Now we’ve rounded up our favourites, let’s check out the complete list.
Kiss From A Lime ft. SEAL, Becky G – Mountain Dew
- Brand: Mountain Dew
- Starring: Seal, Becky G
If you’ve ever thought it strange that singer-songwriter SEAL isn’t, in fact, a seal, Mountain Dew’s Super Bowl ad lets you peek into a world where things make more sense—or less sense; it’s hard to tell. In this deeply avant-garde clip, directed by Academy Award-winner Taika Waititi, we dive deep into the thick, fluorescent lore that surrounds Mountain Dew’s iconic Baja Blast with a beautiful exploration of soul and mid-’90s sex appeal.
Apparently, this unique Super Bowl commercial was also supported by on-ground activations in the host city, New Orleans. Fans can reportedly engage with the campaign through experiential marketing activations, with Mountain Dew encouraging them to ‘Spot the Baja Blast Campervan’ and ‘Escape to Baja Beach’. Honestly, Kiss From A Rose is an absolute banger, even when Mountain Dewed into Kiss From A Lime, and Becky G is also here, for some reason. Super Bowl commercials feel a lot like a fever dream sometimes, and this one is definitely on that scale.
Abduction – Doritos
- Brand: Doritos
- Starring: Michael Strassner
As it turns out, aliens love Doritos as much as we do. The cheesy chips are targeted by some extraterrestrial explorers in this ad, with actor Michael Strassner trying his best to keep his snacks to himself. I feel like there could have been an ‘aliens built the great pyramids to look like Doritos’ joke in there somewhere, but I suppose they only had 30 seconds to work with.
The clip opens with an alien conspiracy theorist sitting in a shed while trying to track aliens and UFOs. His long and beleaguered efforts finally come to fruition when an extra-terrestrial being suddenly appears, marking the first recorded case of intergalactic connection. What does this space traveller want? Well, just the bag of Doritos. A tug of war ensues, with both the conspiracy theorist and the alien putting up a hefty battle for the good of mankind. Doritos runs a competition each year for amateur filmmakers to come up with their own Doritos commercials to air during the Super Bowl, and Abduction took home the goods this year. Congrats!
DunKings 2 – Dunkin’ Donuts
- Brand: Dunkin’ Donuts
- Starring: Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck & Jeremy Strong
I’m not quite sure that sitting in a barrel of beans can be considered method acting, but you do you, Jeremy. Honestly, it looks incredibly uncomfortable, so I hope he didn’t have to stay in there for too long. After the breakout success of Ben and Casey Affleck’s DunKings spot last year, the Academy Award winners return with another instalment of hilarious hijinks, all in the name of great baked treats and coffee.
The second instalment Dunkin’s multi-part campaign culminates in the debut of “DunKings 2: The Movie”, a story that sees the brothers defend their title in a high-stakes coffee band battle. This scene is actually just one of several that were shot for the short, which you can watch in its entirety here. I don’t know if I’d recommend it, but how you spend your time is your business. According to Jill McVicar Nelson, chief marketing officer at Dunkin’, the continued partnership with Artists Equity, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s company, is set to expand the Dunkin’ Cinematic Universe…whatever that is.
“Everyone wants to be a DunKing! After seeing the incredible response to Ben and the DunKings last year, we created an entire coffee and breakfast universe to extend the fun and make one thing clear: Dunkin’ is for everyone,” McVicar Nelson said. “This latest chapter is bigger, funnier, and full of surprises—and it reinforces what Dunkin’ has always been about: great coffee, fast—plain and simple. We have a lot to offer, from all-day breakfast to high-quality drinks served at the speed of Dunkin’. And while we take those things very seriously, we never take ourselves too seriously. DunKings for life.”
Who Eats Art? – Meta Smart Glasses
- Brand: Meta
- Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt and Kris Jenner
Meta’s kicking off its big smart-glasses push with the help of every Chris and Kris it could think of: Hemsworth, Pratt, and Jenner. Chris and Chris are exploring Kris’ house, and Chris scolds Chris for eating Kris’ banana. Wacky! In the clip, which debuted on Sunday during the 2025 Super Bowl, Hemsworth and Pratt find themselves in Jenner’s apartment. Whilst perusing the art and wandering through the hallowed halls, Pratt uses the smart glasses to identify a piece of art. Unfortunately, that art is a banana taped to the wall, which Hemsworth promptly eats.
The short commercial is a reference to artist Maruzio Cattelan’s 2019 work “Comedian”, which made headlines when it debuted as part of Art Basel Miami. Showcasing a banana tapped to the wall, which in itself was a reference to Andy Warhol’s critique of art in mass production and distribution, the work sold three editions ranging from USD$120,000 to USD$150,000. To be fair, asking how much something you’re looking at is worth would probably be handy when you’re walking through Kris Jenner’s house if only to have a sticky beak.
Unidentified Frying Object – HexClad
- Brand: HexClad
- Starring: Gordon Ramsey, Pete Davidson
Ever wondered why Pete Davidson kinda looks like an alien? Well, according to HexClad, he’s been one all along – along with the rest of Hollywood. I knew it! In this 2025 Super Bowl commercial, celebrity chef and human sandwich-maker Gordon Ramsey wanders through Area 51, tasked with cooking a delicious dish for a foodie alien, and discovers Davidson is an alien ambassador.
Admittedly, the commercial itself isn’t amazing, but it does speak to the success of the privately-owned company. ‘Unidentified Frying Object’ is HexClad’s debut Super Bowl ad and, even more impressively, the first Super Bowl ad by a cookware brand ever. Also, apparently, HexClad’s frying pans are made of flying saucers. Pretty huge news, actually.
Email Bill Murray – Yahoo
- Brand: Yahoo
- Starring: Bill Murray
We’ve now seen SEAL as a seal and Bill Murray as a dog in the same Super Bowl – I guess turning celebrities into animals is big business. At least Murray seems perplexed as to why he’s looking a bit different in the mirror and asks for some help from a ‘skilled amateur’ before showing off his email address. Is that real, Bill? I can imagine he’s about to get signed up to every newsletter on the internet.
How Much is a Super Bowl Ad in 2025?
Over the last decade, the cost of a Super Bowl ad has exploded into the millions. However, for advertisers, the unique opportunity is still an enticing deal. CBS, one of the networks responsible for the 2025 Super Bowl broadcast announced in November last year that it had sold out of Super Bowl commercials, with multiple 30-second placements selling for a record USD$8 million.
The figure, while astounding, merely follows an upward trajectory for the sporting event, which regularly drags in over 100 million viewers. Last year, CBS reported that a 30-second spot would set companies back USD$7 million, representing a 14 per cent price hike in just 12 months and a whopping 55 per cent increase since 2019. Peter Bray, founder and executive creative director at ad agency Bray & Co. told MoneyWatch that the incremental creep of advertising costs is driving the event towards a billion-dollar ad sales market.
“I think in three years it’s going to hit a billion dollars in ad sales. And that has never before happened on the planet. That is the immensity of this event,” the advertising expert explained. “It’s the advertising industry’s Super Bowl as well. It’s the one time of year where the general public actually cares about advertising so it’s an exciting time.”
“It’s (social media) actually made advertising in the Super Bowl more relevant than ever because what’s happened is with all these different platforms, it’s very difficult to find a large audience at once,” Bray said. “Someone might advertise as an advertiser on TikTok, or on Instagram … all of these different advertising opportunities. But you might be duplicating because the audience on TikTok, maybe 90 per cent are the same audience on Instagram, so there’s a lot of duplication.”
Despite the enormous value placed on the TV spot, it only makes up a portion of the total sum. Advertisers go all out in the pursuit of Super Bowl commercial perfection, tapping celebrities from across the globe for guest appearances, cameo performances and unique parodies, driving production costs to eye-watering amounts. Take Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant commercial from 2022, for example. The ad placement, headlined by Creedstar and all-around sex symbol Michael B. Jordan cost a whopping USD$26 million to produce, making it the most expensive advertisement in Super Bowl history.
For Super Bowl LIX, the production costs are likely to swell even further, with external economic factors such as inflation driving up expenditure. Throw in a dazzling halftime performance by Rihanna, her first major appearance since 2016, and you’ve got a recipe for a blockbuster bottom line. With a number of famous faces already attaching themselves to major brands, the sheer value of a Super Bowl ad in 2025 is only growing.
Why are Super Bowl Ads So Expensive?
Put simply, the Super Bowl is one of the most-watched entertainment spectacles on television each and every year. Broadcast across 225 different stations in more than 180 different countries, alongside around 450 radio stations, the sporting event is a perfect place to reveal a new brand messaging, product or tagline. In the past, classic ads like Wendy’s 1984 hit Where’s the Beef? and Budweiser’s Whassup? from 1999 made their debut at the Super Bowl before transcending the sporting arena and entering the cultural vernacular.
In 2023, Super Bowl LVI was viewed by a staggering 99.18 million people, however, fell short of the all-time viewing record. The most-watched Super Bowl ever belongs to Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, which saw the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks do battle in front of 114.44 million viewers. Needless to say, with numbers like this, it’s little wonder brands are eager to jump at the lucrative, albeit very expensive, advertising opportunity.
