Catherine O’Hara, Willem Dafoe dish on pickleball, new Super Bowl ad
Catherine O’Hara and Willem Dafoe chat with USA TODAY’s Ralphie Aversa on the set of their new Super Bowl commercial with Michelob Ultra.
In a Super Bowl commercial lineup that leaned into artificial intelligence, nonspecific meditations on divisiveness and the usual smattering of celebrities, Budweiser rose above the chaff with a proven formula.
For the ninth time, Budweiser emerged as the winner of USA TODAY’s Ad Meter contest, with viewers voting “First Delivery,” a tale of a Clydesdale foal proving its mettle, the No. 1 commercial during Sunday’s game broadcast.
It marks a return to the winner’s circle for Budweiser, which claimed its first Ad Meter title in 1999 yet hadn’t reached that No. 1 spot in 10 years. And it was a banner year overall for Anheuser-Busch, which led all alcohol products by purchasing 3 ½ minutes of advertising time – at around $7 million per 30 seconds – and saw a payoff in viewer approval.
Budweiser edged Lay’s “The Little Farmer,” which finished second on the strength of an authentic backstory of potatoes sourced to domestic farms. Yet it was an InBev flood after that.
Michelob Ultra placed third with its “Ultra Hustle” spot featuring actors Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara as advanced-age pickleball paragons. Stella Artois, with soccer star David Beckham and Matt Damon in a separated-at-birth saga, followed in fourth, while exurban America cul-de-sac bros Peyton Manning, Post Malone and comic Shane Gillis helped Bud Light to an eighth-place finish.
But it was the anchor brand that finished above it all, proof that a time-tested visual (horses) and a recognizable brand go a long way on a Super Sunday where consumers are increasingly distracted by second and third screens.
“We hear from our fans that Super Bowl is just not the same without the iconic Clydesdales,” says Kyle Norrington, Anheuser-Busch’s chief marketing officer. “(First Delivery) reinforces that we’ve been delivering since 1876 and will continue for decades to come.”
If AdMeter voters are any indication, some dint of authenticity – and an earlier time slot in a game that finished Eagles 40, Chiefs 22 – certainly helped.
An Open AI ChatGPT spot finished 54th out of 58 ads slotted from kickoff to the final gun. A Meta x Ray-Ban collab landed in 45th. Only Google, with a voice assistant helping a struggling professional with a cover letter, performed well among voters, ranking 15th.
Other spots similarly vexed viewers.
Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg, the latter fresh off an appearance at a presidential inaugural ball, mad-dogged each other and yelled hateful epithets, apparently to prove a point about stamping out hate. Coffee mate’s first Super Bowl spot ever was oddly conceived, as the protagonist’s ability to manipulate his tongue apparently didn’t sell fans on the merits of their cold foam product; it placed 56th.
Fetch and Tubi, meanwhile, had the misfortune as emerging brands placed in the latter slots of a blowout game, perhaps explaining their positions in the last two spots.
The much-anticipated reunion of Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reenacting their iconic diner scene in “When Harry Met Sally” connected sufficiently for Hellmann’s, rounding out a top 10 that also featured both NFL ads.
Yet at the top was an old reliable. Budweiser sat out the big game altogether in 2021 and didn’t solidify its spot for this Super Bowl until the waning weeks of the run-up. And then it was foal steam ahead.
“This is a privilege, that our company and brands get associated with this massive moment in culture,” says Norrington. “It means a lot, not only to our marketing team but to the 65,000 people in our Anheuser-Busch system that make this the moment it deserves to be in culture in America.
“We don’t take that privilege lightly.”
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.