Which Super Bowl ads struck a chord with US viewers?

A Man’s Best Friend: The Farmer’s Dog is most popular among men

Feelings and preferences towards the Super Bowl’s wide range of ads varied considerably across gender. The age-old name for dogs 'A man’s best friend' may hold more truth than we know: while The Farmer’s Dog ad ranked highest overall for men, it ranked ninth among women.

On the other hand, Jeep’s upbeat 'Electric Boogie' ad came in first for women but fell to 17th overall for men. Men and women shared zero crossover for their respective top five ad rankings.

Among men, beer ads took three of the top five spots in our enjoyment metric, with Michelob Ultra coming in with the highest enjoyment ranking, followed by Busch Light, the Farmer’s Dog, Sam Adams, and Dunkin Donuts. For women, Jeep came in as the ad with the highest enjoyment ranking, in addition to claiming the highest overall ranking.

Men and women shared more overlap with enjoyment rankings, with Jeep’s enjoyment score for women being followed by Bud Light, T-Mobile, The Farmer’s Dog, and Booking.com. While beer ads made the cut for the top five enjoyment rankings among both men and women, the brands were different. Females most enjoyed Miles Teller in Bud Light, while men most enjoyed Michelob Ultra’s homage to the classic comedy film Caddy Shack.

Dunkin Donuts drew laughs from everyone, standing as the only advertisement to land in the top five for our humor metric among both men and women. For women, Bud Light and Booking.com rounded out the top three in the humor index.

Among men, three other beer commercials dominated the humor metric, with Michelob Ultra, Busch Light, Sam Adams comprising the top three. While all beer ads went for the humor angle, only Bud Light’s resonated with women (however, for men, it performed worse in humor than the other beer ads).

Clear differences exist in Superbowl advertisement tastes and preferences among age groups as well. While those in the 18-44 age group ranked Melissa McCarthy’s Booking.com ad as the highest ad overall, T-Mobile ranked the highest overall among the 45+ age group.

For ages 18-44, Booking.com was followed by Dunkin Donuts and Jack Harlow’s Doritos ad. In the 45+ age group, T-Mobile was followed by The Farmer’s Dog and He Gets Us, leaving T-Mobile as the only cross-over in the top five overall ranked ads between younger and older generations.

T-Mobile successfully captured the hearts of younger and older viewers alike, with John Travolta’s guest appearance sparking both nostalgia and recognition in its viewers.

While younger generations enjoyed Melissa McCarthy in Booking.com the most (in addition to ranking it the highest overall), older generations ranked the religious He Gets Us ad the highest in terms of enjoyment, suggesting that older Americans may be more open to religious themes and media.

In addition to ranking the highest in terms of enjoyment in the 45+ age group, He Gets Us also had the third highest ranking for the age group overall. In stark contrast, He Gets Us ranked 29th overall in the 18-44 age group and 18th in terms of enjoyment.

Unsurprisingly, humor ratings varied considerably by generation. While those in the 18-44 age group ranked the Uber One ad the highest on the humor index, those in the 45+ age group ranked Michelob Ultra the highest. Conversely, it was Dunkin Donuts again that achieved success across demographic groups, winning the hearts of younger and older generations alike.