The Super Bowl took place in the US yesterday, with ad slots for the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs selling for $7-8 million a pop (and that’s before brands have paid any celebs to appear in them). So what can we glean about the state of the USA in 2025? Mostly that things have gotten a little weird – but maybe you knew that already.

It’s perhaps instructive in reviewing this year’s clutch of ads to take a look back at the ads from the big game in 2017. Taking place right after Trump’s first inauguration, many were surprisingly political, with brands such as Budweiser and 84 Lumber offering commentary on immigration and It’s a 10 Hair Care taking the mickey out of the new president’s hair.

Flash forward eight years and there is no such corporate rebellion in sight. Instead we have wild laughter, weird animal-human transmogrification, heavy nostalgia, celebrities, AI and ads for weight-loss drugs. Welcome to 2025.

Here’s our pick of the standout ads from yesterday’s game. How many will we remember in 12 months’ time?

Let’s start with the weird. Directed by Taika Waititi, this ad for Mountain Dew sees the musician Seal appearing as a … seal. Yes we’ve come to this. I honestly don’t know if this is genius or the end of times, but it’s an image that will possibly stick in our minds.

Next we have a mix of the strange and the funny via a ‘genius’ whale for Nerdwallet. Fans of Succession’s Kieran Culkin will love his star turn as the whale’s voice. And if you’re still in the market for more weirdness this year, there are also these offerings from Coffee Mate, Tubi and Reese’s.

A micro trend for flying facial hair emerged in this year’s ads. First in this spot for Pringles, which stars Adam Brody who conjures up various flying moustaches when he runs out of the snack at a party and blows in the empty carton. Then in this spot for Little Caesars we see Eugene Levy’s eyebrows take flight too.

Let’s take a breather for a moment, with this comparatively refined ad from Squarespace (one of a selection of ads in this year’s games created by in-house teams). Here we find Barry Keoghan channelling his turn in
The Banshees of Inisherin and tossing out laptops to people around the village as if they are newspapers.

Google digs deep on the emotion with this two-minute spot which tells a heart-warming tale of a relationship between a father and daughter. The narrative is nudged along by Google’s Gemini AI which felt a little creepy in this setting though the ad gave way more feels than the AI ad offering from Meta.

ChatGPT’s ad has a striking black and white aesthetic that stands out among the gloss of the other ads on show at this year’s game.

All hail the celebrities! If you are a celeb of a certain age, the Super Bowl can be a rewarding gig. The stars featured all seem to skew older here, perhaps reflecting the TV audience that will see these ads live, so the references often skew old too, delivering a heavy dose of nostalgia. And so it goes with the Hellmann’s ad which sees Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal recreate their famous Katz’s deli scene from When Harry Met Sally. If you’d prefer your nostalgia of the advertising kind though, check out this spot for Instacart, which features a roll call of brand mascots from across the years.

I didn’t have Jeremy Strong on my Super Bowl celeb bingo card but he delivers an enjoyably self-aware send up in this spot for Dunkin’ alongside Ben and Casey Affleck. No Matt Damon this time – he’s off appearing alongside a somewhat wooden David Beckham for Stella Artois instead.

A host of celebrities from Matthew McConaughey to Kevin Bacon to Greta Gerwig star in this spot for Uber Eats, which presents a light-hearted conspiracy theory (with no politics in sight) that football was invented purely to sell food. There were plenty of other decent celebrity turns last night too, with highlights including ads for Homes.com, HexClad, DoorDash, and Michelob Ultra.

If you can’t find the right celebrity then just get the Muppets, who come together in this ad for Booking.com which has had over 90 million views already on YouTube. Running shoe brand On also leant on the charm of Henson’s characters, pairing Elmo with Roger Federer in a cute ad that mocked the brand’s own logo.

Liquid Death showed up at the Super Bowl with an ad that’s distinctly less anarchic than the brand’s usual fare though still has a touch of edge. (The spot arrives in the wake of the drinks brand exiting from the UK market, which has caused much debate among the marketing community on LinkedIn – we look forward to the next instalment of the brand’s Greatest Hates compilation series in response to this).

Finally, Nike returned to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1998, and unlike most brands this year, drew on the power of surprise by not trailing the ad ahead of the game. Directed by Kim Gehrig entirely in black-and-white, the 60-second ad is classic Nike, offering a powerful serenade to women’s sport backed by Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. And if this puts you in the mood for more sporting empowerment for women, check out the NFL’s own ad, which calls to make girl’s flag football a varsity sport in 50 states.