Why human emotion was a star player in this year’s Super Bowl ads

The Super Bowl is one of the most highly anticipated television events, with this year’s game averaging 127.7 million U.S. viewers across TV and streaming platforms. While the action on the field is the main event, the ads airing during the Big Game are an iconic part of the viewing experience in their own right. This year’s commercials brought celebrity cameos, aliens and AI references. No matter the approach, every ad aimed to do one thing: elicit an emotion or feeling. From joy and surprise to nostalgia and anger, emotions serve as key strategic components behind a successful Super Bowl ad. Let’s look at the role different emotions played in this year’s top-performing spots to understand why some messages stuck while others missed. Brands go beyond joy Super Bowl ads are overwhelmingly upbeat and cheerful, matching the high energy, fun and fandom surrounding this major cultural moment. At Wurl, we ran an analysis of 55 Super Bowl LIX ads, scoring the intensity of eight common emotions–joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger and anticipation–on a scale of 1 to 10. Of those emotions, joy was found to be the most common, averaging 7.2 out of 10, with nearly half (26) of the ads receiving a joy score of 8. While it can be hard to stand out in a crowd full of upbeat and happy ads, this year’s top performers brought something else to the table. Ram Trucks’ “Goldilocks and the Three Trucks” spot–ranked the second-most engaging Super Bowl ad per EDO–is a great example. The ad led with joy while also scoring an 8 out of 10 for surprise–the highest surprise score in the batch. Other brands tapped into more serious emotions like sadness and anger. Hims & Hers’ “Sick of the System,” which aims to bring awareness to the obesity epidemic while promoting the company’s weight-loss drugs, was an outlier in this year’s lineup, scoring much higher than average on anger and sadness, while much lower on joy. While the Hims & Hers spot may have engaged viewers because of its tonal difference from the other commercials, or due to the controversy surrounding it before airing, some platforms shared less favorable reviews of the ad, with Ad Age noting “Super Bowl spots that aim to educate rather than entertain are usually a bit of a downer.” Getting viewers to pay attention to an ad is one thing, but whether that attention is positive or negative will impact a person’s long-term perception of the brand. Emotional resonance can play a key role in helping advertisers capture audiences’ attention in the right moments when their messages stand to really resonate. When an ad’s emotion fits within the context of the content surrounding it, viewers are often more receptive to the message. AI meets nostalgia Evoking nostalgia, which often is a mix of emotions like joy, sadness or surprise, has long been part of the Super Bowl ad playbook. Viewers can expect to see commercials that showcase celebrity favorites, highlight significant historical moments or tug at the heartstrings by depicting everyday experiences of time passing. “When Sally Met Hellman’s” was one example from this year’s game. The spot brought Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan back to Katz’s Delicatessen in New York to recreate an iconic scene from their 1989 romcom “When Harry Met Sally…,” scoring high on the emotions of joy and surprise. Nostalgia was also a theme this year in ads that touched on future-looking technologies like AI. Google’s spot “Dream Job”–ranked among the best for this year’s top Super Bowl ads–switched between sentimental past-and-present scenes of a dad and his daughter, while the dad uses Google’s AI tool, Gemini Live, to prepare for a job interview. Similarly, Coca-Cola–while not promoting an AI product in its commercial–hinted at the parallels between the hesitancy around the rise of computers back in the day and the rise of AI today, ultimately concluding that “we’re going to be alright.” Both brands leaned into nostalgia to make their forward-looking products and messages feel rooted in the past, tapping heavily into emotions of trust. Google’s ad scored an 8 out of 10 for trust, while Coca-Cola’s scored a 7. Emotions impact attention One thing remains constant when it comes to each year’s Super Bowl commercials: the power of emotion. This year, some advertisers moved beyond joy to invite moments of surprise and anticipation, while others leaned on nostalgia as a way to evoke trust. Great content starts with storytelling that connects with audiences on an emotional level. Humans are complex beings who experience a wide range of emotions, and we as an industry can prioritize emotional resonance to go beyond the placement of the ad alone. By tapping into different emotions, brands can more deeply break through the noise to appeal to the hearts and minds of consumers, ultimately creating better experiences and more favorable outcomes for everyone.

Why human emotion was a star player in this year’s Super Bowl ads

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