Sincerity and Storytelling Win The Big Game: Lay's, the NFL & WeatherTech Win Consumers' Hearts

Feb. 10, 2025

System1, The Creative Effectiveness Platform, has announced consumers’ favorite Big Game ads: Lay’s, the NFL, and WeatherTech took the top three spots, with appearances from Pfizer, Stella Artois and Doritos. In a Super Bowl whose ads were often weirder, wackier and more celebrity-driven than ever, Lay’s simple story of a young potato farmer cut through to take System1’s top score.

System1’s Test Your Ad platform measures consumers’ emotional responses throughout an ad, assigning creative a score of 1.0 to 5.9 Stars based on long-term brand-building potential. Ads that make people feel intense, positive emotions like happiness and surprise score high on the scale. Usually only 1% of ads secure a 5-Star score.

Super Bowl LIX delivered a classic victory for the Eagles and the ads flew high too – it was the strongest year yet for Super Bowl ads with three 5-Star commercials and 13 landing 4-Star Ratings. Last year, for comparison, we found zero 5-Star ads.

All the Super Bowl ads averaged 2.9-Stars, an increase from 2024’s 2.7-Stars and the 2.3-Star average for all US ads. 

Themes and Insights: Sincerity Beats Starpower

What made Super Bowl LIX such an ad success?

• Heartfelt messaging: For all the press attention on celebrities, the top ads didn’t rely on star power for effectiveness. Instead, they brought sincere messages about ordinary Americans. Lay’s brought authenticity to the forefront by spotlighting real potato farmers. The NFL’s ad tugged at the heartstrings by showcasing players mentoring New Orleans youth, reinforcing the inspiring message that every child can become "somebody." And Pfizer flipped the script on typical cancer ads by shifting from fear to hope, pledging to achieve eight cancer breakthroughs by 2030.
• Humor scorecard - go wild, not weird: The top humorous ad came from WeatherTech with their hellraising senior bikers, soundtracked by rock classic “Born To Be Wild.” It’s a classic unexpected role reversal ad, putting a fresh spin on the way ads portray older people. But there’s such a thing as too weird. Ads that were overly surreal risked making audiences uncomfortable.
• Celebrity winners: Vin Diesel and Beckham: The top celebrity-driven ads came from Häagen-Dazs and Stella Artois. They subverted expectations of their guest stars, a tactic which often makes ads more effective. In the Häagen-Dazs ad the Fast and Furious franchise stars chose to slow down and enjoy the mellow side of life, and for Stella Artois, David Beckham discovered he has a lost American twin, leading to plenty of US vs UK humor. Audiences love it when stars show their funny sides, and these ads show it.
• Creative Consistency Wins Out: The Budweiser Clydesdales have been consistently used since the 1980s, and the iconic brand mascots placed Bud into the Top 10 this year, with a touching piece of storytelling about a foal and a lost beer barrel. Doritos also embraced consistency by bringing back their “Crash the Super Bowl” campaign of fan-made humorous ads, and they too landed back in the System1 Top 10.

The top ads are ordered by Star Rating (long-term brand-building potential). Ads equal on Star Rating are ordered according to System1’s Spike Rating which predicts short-term sales impact.  

• Lay’s (Highdive), Little Farmer – 5.9-Stars
• NFL (72andSunny), Somebody | It Takes All of Us – 5.6-Stars
• WeatherTech (Pinnacle Advertising), Whatever Comes Your Way – 5.2-Stars
• NFL (72andSunny), Flag 50 – 4.9-Stars
• Häagen-Dazs (nice&frank), Not So Fast, Not So Furious – 4.7-Stars
• Stella Artois (Artists Equity), David & Dave: The Other David – 4.5-Stars
• Doritos (Dylan Bradshaw), Abduction – 4.4-Stars
• Pfizer (Publicis Co Lab), Knock Out – 4.4-Stars
• Nerds (Digitas Chicago), NERDS Big Game Commercial ft. Shaboozey – 4.3-Stars
• Reese’s (Erich & Kallman), Don’t Eat Lava – 4.1-Stars

The top ads are ordered by Spike Rating. Ads equal on Spike Rating are ordered according to System1’s Fluency Rating which measures the strength of branding in the ad.

• Reese’s, 1.70 Spike
• Doritos, 1.67 Spike
• Little Caesars, 1.66 Spike
• Pringles, 1.58 Spike
• Taco Bell, 1.55 Spike
• Bud Light, 1.54 Spike
• Budweiser, 1.51 Spike
• Booking.com, 1.49 Spike
• Stella Artois, 1.47 Spike
• Hellmann’s 1.46 Spike

Pfizer returned to the Super Bowl after their debut last year with an ad that has stunned the pharmaceutical category. Their Big Game ad "Knock Out", scored 4.4 Stars making it the eighth best ad overall. Jon Evans sat down with Pfizer’s CMO, Susan Rienow, for a special episode of Uncensored CMO to discuss what it takes to create such a successful ad in the most competitive environment.

Jon Evans, Chief Customer Officer, System1 said:

"With a record-breaking number of 4- and 5-Star ads, 2025 is the best Super Bowl advertising performance of the last six years. Brands leaned into storytelling, like Lay’s, Pfizer, the NFL and WeatherTech. This was well balanced with no holds barred humor from the likes of Reese’s, Pringles, Mountain Dew and Doritos."