Uber Eats’ 2025 Super Bowl uncovers a remarkable conspiracy: Football was created to make people hungry.
So for its Big Game spot, the brand is revealing the dark secret history of football, with Matthew McConaughey portraying the “inventor” of the game, Matthew McConaughey playing the “founder” of the Buffalo Bills, Matthew McConaughey playing Mike Ditka, Matthew McConaughey playing Peyton Manning, and Matthew McConaughey playing, well, you get the idea.
“We needed, first and foremost, someone who could really resonate with this idea of quite a kooky conspiracy, whilst also being part of some way the NFL world,” says Georgie Jeffreys, the head of marketing for Uber, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “And Matthew McConaughey was perfect for that. He’s an NFL fanatic, he very much is synergistic with this eccentric idea that actually football is some crazy conspiracy just to make you hungry.”
But Uber didn’t just rely on McConaughey appearing in a tableau of moments from football history (real or imagined): It is also bringing on a score of celebrity cameos. From Kevin Bacon, who helped originate the term “pigskin,” to Hot Ones host Sean Evans, who was there eating chicken wings in Buffalo when the idea for an NFL team came up, to Martha Stewart and Charli XCX, riffing on the fact the halftime show is “sponsored by an Apple,” and that the game is played in a stadium (the Caesars Superdome) “named after a salad!” Stewart quips.
And of course Gerwig, who is revealed as the person McConaughey is pitching his conspiracy to all along.
“You want me to make a movie about a football conspiracy?” Gerwig quips in the spot.
“What was really critical for us, and always is with every Super Bowl, is that we have an ensemble cast, and that each person in the cast have to amplify the creative idea. They can’t just be there because they appeal to Gen Z or they appeal to moms,” Jeffreys says. “The ensemble allows us to actually tap into lots of different fan bases and ensure that there’s something for everyone, which is why the extension of having someone like Greta Gerwig in there, and Charlie XCX and Martha Stewart all became really important.”
“We spend a huge amount of time really dialing in on every joke, we actually shoot a lot more than we use,” Jeffreys adds. “We shoot hundreds of hours of footage, and you have to then distill that down into the very best 60 seconds. There’s a lot of things that don’t make the cut, but at the end of the day, we’re just really looking to make sure the idea is really smart.”
But the spot was also something of an audible for Uber Eats, with Jeffreys saying that the brand did not enter the NFL season planning to buy a Super Bowl ad. But the company launched its conspiracy campaign with McConaughey, and the reaction to the initial spots changed their minds.
“We felt like we had lightning in a bottle, and it made sense for us to continue this story,” Jeffreys says. “Our hope is that this story has more fertile ground, and there’s more to take from it, and that it continues to stretch within future football seasons.”
And with Super Bowl campaigns expanding out of the home, Uber Eats will leverage its app to connect to the Big Game spot. Martha Stewart is creating a “Caesars Superdome Salad” that users will be able to order via Uber Eats.