Which Was Your Favorite Super Bowl Ad?
February 11, 2025 — The power of the student perspective is important to advertisers. This year, Super Bowl advertisers paid anywhere from $7 million to $8 million for 30 seconds of airtime during the game Sunday on FOX. While the game itself wasn’t as close as many thought it would be, the ads still received a lot of attention.
As the consistently most-watched television event of the year, the Super Bowl provided advertisers with a platform to showcase their most innovative and high-budget commercials for an evolving audience. Marist students—many with sports communication or marketing concentrations—took advantage of a rare opportunity to weigh in.
“Many people in this day in age do not watch ads because we can skip them very easily but when millions of Americans tune in for a live broadcast like the Super Bowl, it is a great opportunity to get thoughts out,” said Claudia Skretkowicz '26.
“These Super Bowl ads covered a wider variety of ways to appeal to the watchers which I feel is a more effective way of gaining people's attention, especially compared to last year,” said Megan Breunig '26.
For the second time in as many years, national news publication USA TODAY invited Marist students to participate and provide ratings on the ads for their annual Ad Meter.
In USA TODAY’s effort to capture the voice of the next generation, Marist was one of a small group of schools selected from across the country to not only rate this year’s ads but also release their top 5 and bottom 5 the following week.
Marist students in Ward Hall to watch and rate Super Bowl Ads. Photo by Nelson Echeverria/Marist University.
On Thursday, just a few days before the game, some gathered in Ward Hall lounge to preview some of the ads together and share their thoughts, but many more weighed in online over the weekend. Reaction from the students was mixed.
“This year's Super Bowl ads were more engaging and made me laugh more,” said Julia Corsentino '27. “There were known faces on these commercials. The only thing I liked better from last year was the Nerds commercial.”
“Most of the ads this year felt like ones I’d see outside of the Super Bowl,” said Claire Hewitt '27. “While I liked some more than others, nothing stood out as trend worthy like in previous years.”
USA TODAY's Ad Meter began in 1989 and has become a well-established source for evaluating the popularity of Super Bowl ads, determining which ones resonated most with audiences and which ones fell short.
Some of the Marist students who gathered in Ward Hall on Thursday to watch and rate Super Bowl Ads. Photo by Nelson Echeverria/Marist University.
Here are the ads Marist students liked the best and the least:
Marist's Top Five
- Highest rated: Bud Light – Big Men on Cul-De-Sac
- Uber Eats – Century of Cravings
- Instacart – We’re Here
- Coors Light – Slow Monday
- Lay’s – The Little Farmer
Marist’s Bottom Five
- Lowest rated: Coffee mate – Foam Diva
- Tubi — The Z-Suite
- OpenAI – ChatGPT/The Intelligence Age
- Hellman’s – When Sally Met Hellman’s
- Hims and Hers – Sick of the System
This experience allowed many students to engage with real-world advertising and marketing practices, offering valuable insights and potentially shaping the narrative around which Super Bowl ads are most successful.
“They did what I think every Super Bowl ad should do - evoke emotion,” said Stephen Zaglin '28. “Whether it be laughing or crying, the ads I picked got emotion out of me. These ads should be the blueprint for what a Super Bowl ad should look like.”
Check out USA TODAY's article on Marist students and listen to more insights from those who took part in the nationwide survey.
