Who Won This Year’s Super Bowl Ad Contest?

This year’s Super Bowl ads showcased celebrities, tapped into nostalgia, and aimed for laughs, reflecting a broader trend of companies choosing entertainment over social commentary in light of the country’s tense political backdrop.

Most ads were in development during last fall’s U.S. presidential election race, heightening the priority to avoid controversy.

“That’s the challenge this year. Everybody wants to be safe, but you also want to be interesting,” Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, told the Associated Press. “Safe advertising isn’t the advertising you notice or remember.”

“It was a bad year for ads,” wrote Mike Hale, television critic for The New York Times, also calling out the minimal risk-taking. He said, “More spots than usual depended entirely on the appeal of a relatable celebrity (who was almost certainly male). Concepts beat ideas — there was a lot of fussy, overly complicated silliness and not much in the way of simple, effective storytelling or mood setting.”

The stakes were still high to make an impression, as some of the roughly 80 Super Bowl ad spots cost a record $8 million for 30 seconds this year.

Nonetheless, a few ads stood out in media coverage and were likely the subject of Monday cooler talk.

Adweek’s list of the top 10 Super Bowl ads included Michelob Ultra’s “The Ultra Hustle,” Disney+’s “What If?,” Dove’s “Keep Her Confident,” Ram’s “Drive Your Own Story,” Mountain Dew’s “Kiss From a Lime,” Uber Eats’ “Century of Craving,” Dunkin’s “DunKings 2: The Movie,” Coors Light’s “Case of the Mondays,” Google Pixel’s “Dream Job,” and Nike’s “So Win.”

Hale, of The New York Times, rated ChatGPT’s “The Intelligence Age,” as his favorite Super Bowl ad, followed in his top 10 ranking by Nike’s “So Win,” National Football League’s “Somebody,” Stella Artois’ “David & Dave: The Other David,” Squarespace’s “A Tale As Old As Websites,” The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism’s “No Reason to Hate,” HexClad Cookware’s “Unidentified Frying Object,” He Gets Us’ “What is Greatness?,” RITZ Crackers’ “RITZ Salty Club,” and Science Moms’ “By the Time.”

The Washington Post’s favorites included Mountain Dew, RITZ Crackers, Dunkin’, and Nike’s commercials as well as Duracell’s “Brady Reboost,” Angel Soft’s “The Big Game Potty-tunity,” and On’s “Elmo and Roger Federer’s letters of the day.”

Billboard’s top 10 rankings were led by Dunkin’, RITZ Crackers, Uber Eats, and Mountain Dew’s ads, followed by Häagen-Dazs’ “Not So Fast, Not So Furious,” Booking.com’s “Get your stay ridiculously right,” Novartis’ “Your Attention, Please,” Little Caesars’ “Whoa!,” and Pringles’ “The Call of The Mustaches.”

USA TODAY’s Ad Meter contest, based on an open panel of regular TV viewers rating ads on a five-point scale, found the top-ranked ad to be Budweiser’s “First Delivery,” followed in its top 10 by Lay’s “The Little Farmer,” Michelob Ultra’s “The Ultra Hustle,” Stella Artois’ “David and Dave,” NFL’s “Somebody” and “Flag 50,” Bud Light’s “Big Men on Cul-De-Sac,” Uber Eats’ “Century of Cravings,” Hellmann’s “When Sally Met Hellmann’s,” and Pfizer’s “Knock Out.”