The Super Bowl 2025 Internet Recap: Messi, Mayo, and Mahomes
It's been a few days now. Super Bowl 2025 came, saw, and conquered our timelines. Let's break it down.
From Leo Messi pulling up like the GOAT he is, to Kendrick Lamar and the internet breaking down his halftime show before we even had a chance to process it, the internet was MOVING.
If you blinked, you might’ve missed something. Lucky for you, we got the receipts.
Here’s the ultimate rundown of what went down in social, culture, and of course, adidas’ own work for the Big Game.
VIRAL MOMENTS THAT OWNED THE INTERNET
🕶️ Messi in the Building
Messi rolled up to the Super Bowl and social went WILD. The content, the memes, the undeniable star power – it was everything. We jumped on the moment, setting up an adidas tailgate photo that made waves. Coverage? Locked.
X (Twitter): Tim Cook flexing his new best mate.
🎤 Kendrick Lamar’s Halftime Show
Now the most watched Super Bowl Half-Time show of all time, surpassing Michael Jackson’s performance, with 133.5 million viewers tuning in. Although MJ still holds the record for the highest % of US population to watch.
Let’s be real, K. Dot did what K. Dot does – delivered a performance so good, it needed a frame-by-frame gallery exhibit.
The internet was busy analyzing every beat, every set piece, every Easter egg. Here is the breakdown you need.
His outfit drove a 400% increase for the Nike sneakers and everyone was obsessed with his $1,300 women’s Celine bootcut jeans. I may or may not have searched for them on Depop.
📲 The social posts to check out:
Social media analytics firm Sprout Social reports Tubi was the most talked-about advertiser on social media on Super Bowl Sunday, generating 5,654,692,414 impressions.
TV measurement firm iSpot.tv, which ran a consumer panel on the Super Bowl ads, rated Pfizer’s “Knock Out” as the most likeable commercial.
Humor largely dominated on social media, as was the case for many of the ads that aired during the Big Game:
United Airlines throwing shade at bagagge?
Heinz leveraged the halftime show as an opportunity to promote its recently announced partnership with Mustard (Kendrick’s producer)
🍔 Adverts That Had Us Talking
Some brands played it safe, others WENT for it.
Here’s what stood out:
Hellmann’s Mayo – When Sally Met Hellmann’s ft. Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal & Sydney Sweeney? The nostalgia HIT.
Michelob Ultra – Pickleball, Willem Dafoe, and Catherine O’Hara? Unexpected, hilarious, and a WIN.
Uber Eats – A century of cravings ft. Matthew McConaughey. Weirdly brilliant.
Dunkin’ Donuts – Ben Affleck. Tom Brady. Boston accents. The brand movie we didn’t know we needed.
Nike showed up, and they didn’t miss. Their first Super Bowl advert in 25 years. They didn’t choose to land messaging around the NFL. Instead Nike’s “So Win” spot from Wieden+Kennedy Portland focusd on their female partners.
The ad, which shows Sha’Carri Richardson, Caitlin Clark, Jordan Chiles and Sabrina Ionescu busting through female athlete stereotypes, was the Super Clio Winner. Judged this year by a jury of 19 marketers and agency and production leaders.
Strong in reactive, ads, PR and more, it’s the major work I have seen people talk about since.
💡 Key trends in the ads:
Celebs, everywhere. (Predictable, but still entertaining.)
AI takes center stage. (Salesforce, OpenAI, and Meta all went all-in.)
90s nostalgia still undefeated. (Alix Earle for Carl’s Jr., Budweiser’s Clydesdales, Muppets for Booking.com.)
Safe but funny. (Less controversy, more slapstick.)
Moments > Ads. (Michelob Ultra nailed this.)
“The most attentive moment” in the game went to the “No Reason to Hate” ads starring Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, according to the TVision Attention Index from Lume and TVision.
📸Brand-to-Brand Banter
It’s not a Super Bowl without brands playfully taking shots at each other, and this year did not disappoint.
Dunkin’s “DunKings” Ad – Jeep and Pepsi both jokingly requested their own neon orange “DunKings” tracksuits, while DoorDash and Max poked fun at the celeb cameos (or, in DoorDash’s case, the absence of Matt Damon).
Flying Facial Hair Feud – Little Caesars and Pringles both featured airborne facial hair in their ads, leading to a collab post blending Pringles’ iconic mustache with Little Caesars’ bushy eyebrows. Calm and Scrub Daddy jumped in, claiming they just couldn’t compete with the “floating hair” trend.
Coffee Mate’s Dancing Tongue Nightmare – Cinnabon and Sam Adams both had thoughts on Coffee Mate’s surreal, dancing tongue ad, reacting with equal parts horror and fascination.
Olipop vs. Poppi – Olipop threw subtle shade at Poppi’s influencer vending machine stunt, which sent free soda machines to influencers and left fans divided.
Coors Light x Peloton Collab – Coors Light’s ad featuring sloths attempting a spin class turned into a hilarious brand collab with Peloton, where instructors joked, “Are you gonna work out Monday? Does a bear sh*t in the woods and is a sloth slow?” Coors even promoted Peloton classes to help “beat the Monday slump.”
What did adidas do?
🏈 Pre-Active Efforts:
The team teed up Mahomes’ Impact FLX "Pass A Good Time" colorway, securing placements in Sneaker News, Nice Kicks, and B/R Kicks.
We rolled out Mahomes Facetime across our owned social and landed SI-level coverage ahead of the game.
🎤 Elevating the Brand Hub:
Hosted Boardroom, Nice Kicks & three content creators (Crystal Sorem, AJ Greene, Ayo Adewuya) for a four-day adidas experience.
The Hub was poppin’ with top-tier athletes: David Njoku, Micah Parsons, Tyreek Hill, Trevor Lawrence, and many more.
Celebs pulled up too – Glorilla, Teezo, and Run DMC in the mix.
33+ on-site interviews. 9.54M combined reach from athlete partner content. HUGE.
📸 The Big Game:
Messi. Suite. Family. Friends. adidas athletes. Vibes were immaculate.
Our AP photographer captured real-time moments that went straight to the media.
Hosted Messi + top adidas athletes to support Mahomes.
While the game didn’t go our way, our preactive work delivered, and we’re already looking ahead to the next major moment.
That is that!
From Messi mania to mayo magic, this Super Bowl gave us a lot to talk about.
Let’s keep riding the momentum, tapping into the culture, and making sure adidas stays in the conversation.
Stay tuned.