From Meg Ryan to David Beckham: this year’s best Super Bowl ads are already here​on February 7, 2025 at 3:31 am

Two teams – the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles – will march into the Caesars Superdome, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Monday, Australian time, to slug it out for America’s greatest sporting honour: the Super Bowl.

If you’re not an expert on American football, this is the skinny: the Chiefs won the last two Super Bowls, which makes them the reigning NFL champions and puts them well on the way to their own dinner set. The Eagles, meanwhile, are the underdogs of the clash, hoping to unseat the Chiefs and claim their own glory.

But there is much more going on at the Super Bowl than mere sport. The embarrassment of riches is not on the field, despite the hefty player paychecks, but in the commercial breaks.

The Super Bowl ad economy is worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year, not just in lavish production costs, but in carved up airtime. This bottom line has helped expand the telecast to between three and four hours in duration.

The list of companies who have claimed the more than 50-odd slots in this year’s telecast include high-profile snack brands Doritos, Häagen-Dazs, Pringles and Reese’s, along with beer brands such as Bud Light, Budweiser, and Coors Light. Delivery apps Door Dash and Uber Eats have also secured coveted airtime, as has Mountain Dew soda, Coffee Mate, Duracell, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Booking.com.

Many of the ads will feature A-list actors and sports personalities, which has turned the parade of what amounts to a raft of TV commercials into something that generates the kind of attention usually reserved for an event like a film festival.

Such transitions from commercial enterprise to cultural event are increasingly commonplace: the Dieux du Stade and Pirelli calendars, Vogue magazine’s September issue and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue are all business ventures which have cloaked themselves increasingly in media noise.

Famous faces who feature in 2025’s Super Bowl commercials include actors Adam Brody, Nick Offerman and basketballer James Harden for a Pringles ad, while UK footballer David Beckham stars in a Stella Artois ad. Beer brand Michelob Ultra snagged actors Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara for their commercial, while an ad for Bud Light stars country musician Post Malone, comedian Shane Gillis and quarterback Peyton Manning.