Super Bowl 60 saw the Seattle Seahawks claim victory over the New England Patriots, but there were plenty of other winners — and losers — off the field during the game, with some brands scoring with their commercials and others fumbling their attempts for a loss.
The stakes are high for advertisers, with 30 seconds of airtime fetching as much as $10 million in Sunday’s game. Brands pay additional millions to craft their commercials, hire celebrity spokespeople and market their ads before the game.
The most effective Super Bowl ads this year delivered an emotional or humorous punch while also clearly conveying the importance or utility of their products, according to Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. The annual post-game ad breakdown ranked Google’s spot for its Gemini artificial intelligence service as the best this year because it tugged at the heartstrings while also showing how the platform could be used to picture a newly bought home with fresh paint, a redecorated child’s bedroom and a cozy garden.
“This ad captures what Google has historically done best: pairing genuine emotional storytelling with a clear illustration of how the product fits naturally into people’s lives,” said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing and co-lead of the Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review.
Coinbase, meanwhile, earned a failing grade from Kellogg’s ad review for using a Backstreet Boys song with karaoke-like lyrics. The ad failed to show viewers what Coinbase does or why they might want to use it, the business school said.
Best: Google Super Bowl ad
Google’s ad, titled “New Home,” touted the tech giant’s AI capabilities, showing a mom and young son using its Gemini app to depict what their new house would look like with a new garden and different colored walls. The ad oozes cuteness, featuring an adorable baby, a charming house and a faithful family dog.
The Kellogg panel, which ranks the ads with grades from A to F, gave the Google ad an “A.”
Worst: Coinbase Super Bowl ad
Coinbase’s ad got a failing grade from the Kellogg review panel because the pared-down commercial was unclear about what the crypto exchange does — or even that it has anything to do with cryptocurrency.
Full ratings for Super Bowl 60 ads
Below is the full list of Super Bowl commercial ratings from the Kellogg panel, which rates the commercials on their marketing effectiveness.
A-rated ads
- Bosch
- Novartis
- Anthropic (Claude)
- Michelob ULTRA
- NFL
- Pepsi
- TurboTax
- Levi’s
B-rated Super Bowl ads
- Fanatics Sportsbook
- Lay’s
- Ring
- Xfinity
- T-Mobile
- Uber Eats
- Hellmann’s
- Microsoft Copilot
- Squarespace
- Grubhub
- Wix
- Budweiser
- Pokémon
- Meta
- Liquid Death
- Red Bull
C-rated Super Bowl ads
- Apartments.com
- Homes.com
- Liquid I.V.
- Toyota
- Dove
- Universal Orlando Resort
- Pringles
- Blue Square Alliance Against Hate
- Hims & Hers
- Wegovy
- Nerds
- Base44
- Ro
- Dunkin’
- Bud Light
- Toyota
- Genspark
- State Farm
- DraftKings
- Boehringer Ingelheim
- Cadillac
- Kinder Bueno
- WeatherTech
- Amazon (Alexa)
- OpenAI
D-rated Super Bowl ads
- Ritz
- The MAHA Center
- Poppi
- Instacart
- Redfin/Rocket
- Salesforce
- He Gets Us
- Svedka
- Volkswagen
F-rated Super Bowl ads
Alain Sherter
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