Two Super Bowl ads from the NFL -- ”You Are Special” and “Champion” -- were ranked as the top two most effective spots, respectively, based on consumer emotional responses analyzed by ad tester System1. Stagwell’s 72andSunny created both ads for the league.  

Rounding out the top 5: Budweiser’s “American Icons” from BBDO; Universal Orlando Resort’s “Lil’ Bro” from Lucky Generals and Michelob’s “The Ultra Instructor” from Wieden + Kennedy New York.  

System1’s testing platform measures consumers’ emotional responses to ads, assigning a score of between 1 and 5.9 stars. Ads that make people feel intense positive emotions like happiness and surprise score high on the scale.  

System1 also found that ads relying on AI did not appear to tug at the emotional heartstrings as well as those ads that did not.  

This year, 18% of the ads in the game featured AI messaging and averaged 2.1 stars.

“The most compelling subplot of the night was how AI companies would sell a use case for the tech,” said Jon Evans, chief customer officer at System1. “Most of these ads lacked storytelling, a character to root for and clarity on who the ad was for.”  

One exception is Ring’s “Search Party From Ring” promoting the brand’s pet-finding service (in-house, Miniac and Bemo), which found a more relatable story to tell. It ranked sixth overall.  

Altogether, the Super Bowl ads averaged 2.7 stars, a decrease from last year’s 3.0 average. This year’s crop averaged a bit better than the 2.4 star average for all U.S. ads.  

The testing company also found that most of the highest-scoring ads (seven out of the top 10) achieved effectiveness without celebrities. But celebrities are still very much in vogue -- 59% of the ads in the game featured one or more of them.  

Culture and nostalgia played well. High scorers included Pepsi’s “The Choice” from PepsiCo Content Studio with BBDO, which ranked seventh overall and featured Coke’s iconic polar bear choosing Pepsi in a blind taste test. So did Hellman’s “Meal Diamond” from VML, ranking 10th overall.