Super Bowl 2024 was a night of touchdowns, Taylor sightings, and TV ads. And now that we’re a day out, who were the favorites? The answer to that question depends on your sense of humor, or maybe how devoted you are to Snoop (here’s looking at you, BIC). Regardless, the Mascola team took a crack at it, and you’ll find our best Super Bowl ads 2024 picks (in no particular order) below.
While there’s a whole suite of Dunkin’ Super Bowl 2024 ads featuring Ben Affleck (a.k.a Battfleck, if you’re DC Comics fan), our first selection for the best Super Bowl ads 2024 is the one below featuring JLo, Fat Joe, Tom Brady, and none other than Matt Damon. We love a Good Will Hunting reunion, but this one’s a winner for the sheer amount of star power. We asked each other, “Did they just waste $10 million on this?” Then we said, “No, because we’re still talking about that ad and who was in it the next day.”
Maybe more important is the smart play Dunkin’ made bringing Affleck into the fold. After (iconically) dropping a massive Dunkin order in paparazzi photos in 2020, he became an unofficial face of the brand online. It’s a no-brainer to make it official, and it shows a Super Bowl marketing team that knows how to have fun with brands in way that includes (and expands) their audiences.
Did anyone have this one on their Super Bowl 2024 ads bingo card? We didn’t, but we loved it. Getting nerdy for a second, this ad is a great example of synthesis (taking two seemingly unrelated ideas to design ads that work; it’s one of a couple criteria for good ad design that we talk about here). In this case, it’s obvious what the unrelated ideas are: skin cream and Michael Cera. The creatives behind this found a common point hiding in plain sight, though: “Cera”. When you put the two together, it’s funny and delightful in a way that makes you wonder why this didn’t happen way sooner, like, when Netflix first revived Arrested Development.
(Note: there was also some really good PR that went into this ad leading up to game day. Appearing in interviews and getting asked about being seen with CeraVe, Cera reportedly played coy, saying things like “my product—I mean, a product I use”. Fun stuff).
This was another pick on our best Super Bowl ads 2024 list that gave a pop culture reunion. Seeing some of the Friends cast back together again tugs the heart strings a little bit, especially after Matthew Perry’s passing. Too bad Anniston can’t seem to remember Schwimmer, though. Playing off the old adage that you have to forget stuff to make room in your brain for something else, this Uber Eats ad plays the humor to the max, showing that old (but not necessarily true) wisdom unfold to its extreme conclusions (how could a Spice Girl forget she was a Spice Girl?! Stop right now, thank you very much).
The great thing about this Super Bowl 2024 ad, though, is that it has a clear message—don’t forget that you can get more than food delivered through Uber—and achieves it by memorably showing people forgetting other things because knowledge of Uber’s service is that important to hold onto. We won’t be letting this slip our minds any time soon.
This Super Bowl 2024 ad had no big stars, no big story, no new movie to push, no pricing info for Disney+ subscriptions, nothing. Just an off-white page akin to it’s revamped animation title cards showing the classic Steamboat Willie character, and Courier-style typeface writing out the script to some of the biggest moments of childhood. (And, you know, that Marvel and Star Wars goodness too). This made our best Super Bowl ads 2024 list because it’s a great example of a brand not doing anything except reminding people of what they’ve loved about you for a century.
Where great stories live forever. #DisneyPlus pic.twitter.com/vZmQwipD07
— Disney+ (@DisneyPlus) February 12, 2024
Skincare brought the A-game this year. This ad’s a little long, but it works so well for the big game because it tells a familiar story—father-daughter bonding—with timely and hyper-specific twists. One of the special elements to football in 2023 and 2024 has been Taylor Swift, so of course the daughter only shows interest in the big game when the announcers make a sly mention to an unnamed woman that can only be the reigning queen of pop music. Will it be successful? Only time will tell. What makes it great in the moment is that the Super Bowl marketing team at Cetaphil knows what their audience is fixated on and meets them there.
These are what the Mascola team considered to be standout ads, but most of the Super Bowl marketing in 2024 was pretty safe, relying on celebrities more than really solid brand development and storytelling. We called out these examples in particular because they communicated clever and cohesive ideas. We could see sound thinking went into them—but that doesn’t mean the conceptual seams were showing. They were just that smart.
Mascola Group appreciates that kind of marketing because it’s the type of strategic and creative work we pride ourselves on. When we say we’re Marketing with Integrity, we mean that the marketing we bring to the table is strategically sound, based in facts and true insights about consumers behaviors and feelings.
If that’s the kind of marketing you want for your brand, see what we’re capable of, then contact us to get the marketing partner you deserve at Mascola Group.