The Most and Least Popular Super Bowl LVIII Celebrity Ads – Hollywood Reporter

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterSubscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterWith an unusually large number of celebrity ads, some soared and others struggled. While AI-driven ads underperformed.
By

James Hibberd
Writer-at-Large
The scores are in for the other big Super Bowl LVIII clash: Which ads performed the best with consumers.
The results some reveal interesting trends. The number of Super Bowl ads with celebrities has been increasing over the years, and Sunday’s big game had perhaps a record number: 57 of the 94 product ads that aired during the big game featured celebrity names, and many had more than one. That’s up 22 percent from last year. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that A-listers secured fees in the $3-$5 million range to star in a commercial during this year, although cameo appearances earn less.

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Despite advertising writing big checks, the ads with celebrities only engaged viewers somewhat more than average. According to TV market research company EDO‘s survey, 60 percent of the Top 50 ads featured a celebrity. Also, only one of Top 6 non-trailer ads were driven by a celebrity — Glen Powell playing Goldilocks in an ad for Ram Trucks, which came in at number two. Another star-focused American car ad, Jeep’s “Freedom” spot with Harrison Ford, likewise made the Top 10, coming in at number eight. Also doing well: Adam DeVine’s Cirkul water ad, Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara’s Michelob Ultra ad and Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom’s MSC Cruises ad.
In addition, a trio of Gen Z influencers and reality stars (Jake Shane, Alix Earle, and Rob Rausch) outranked many veteran celebrities in other ads with their Soda upstart Poppi ad coming in at No. 9.
That said, ads with celebrities had 11 spots in the Top 20, which is up significantly from last year, which only had three. “When advertisers authentically connected their brands to those of the celebrities they employed, consumers responded in a big way,” said Kevin Krim, CEO of EDO.
Several other celebrity ads delivered rather middling engagement: Kevin Hart touting DraftKings ranked only 75 out of 94 ads, Vin Diesel re-teaming with Fast & Furious co-star Michelle Rodriguez for Haagen-Dazs was 59, Matthew McConaughey pitching Greta Gerwig a football conspiracy movie for Uber Eats ranked 56, Issa Rae teaming with TurboTax was 46 and Adam Brody shilling Pringles was 45. Even the When Harry Met Sally reunion of Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, which drew considerable media interest when the ad was released a couple weeks in ago, merely charted at 49.

The Uber Eats ad was likely among the night’s the most expensive to produce given it also had cameos from Kevin Bacon, Martha Stewart and Charli XCX.
Another intriguing trend: AI-generated ads received plenty of buzz (and concern) ahead of the game, yet firmly underperformed. “Despite the vague promises and flashy demos of generative AI, the AI ads mostly failed to inspire Super Bowl viewers to engage,” Krim noted. “The only AI brand to significantly outperform the median Super Bowl LIX ad was the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, featuring a practical conversational AI assistant in playful, celeb-starring ads.”
EDO ranks Super Bowl ads on how effective the spot was at driving consumer behaviors — such as brand searches — which they claim are proven predictors of future sales compared to opinion surveys. Their methodology is different than, for instance, USA Today’s popular Ad Meter feature, which sorts ads by readers ranking them online.
The most effective ads were T-Mobile’s “You’re Connected” spot offering consumers free access to satellite-powered wireless phones, the Ram trucks ad, Liquid Death’s ad encouraging viewers to “drink on the job,” Universal’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon ad, and Hims & Hers weight loss drugs ad (despite receiving some backlash).
Some of the types of ads that performed best included practical technology, health-focused products and ads celebrating women’s empowerment.
While celebrity-driven Super Bowl ads may seem commonplace, they have become more numerous in just the last few years. Granted, stars have always been present in big game ads, but according to data from iSpot, which tracks commercials, in 2010 only about one-third of Super Bowl ads had celebrities. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, that number soared to more than 70 percent of spots, with ads featuring multiple cameos also booming. Given all this, it’s fair to wonder if 2025 might eventually be seen as the year celebrity Super Bowl ads peaked.

Alex Werpin contributed to this report.Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every dayInside the business of TV with breaking news, expert analysis and showrunner interviewsSubscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterSend us a tip using our anonymous form.

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/most-popular-super-bowl-ads-1236132195/