By Aimee Picchi
/ MoneyWatch
The Kansas City Chiefs weren't the only winners at this year's Super Bowl, with several advertisers scoring top ratings for their commercials during Sunday night's game.
Among the best-ranked ads were those from Google Pixel, T-Mobile, Kia and PopCorners, according to Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, which each year grades commercials in its Super Bowl Advertising Review.
Advertisers this year showed their commercials to an audience of 113 million, the biggest in six years, according to Deadline.com.
"Brands played it safe"
The big game also featured a handful of losers that fumbled their chance to win over viewers with their ads, Kellogg said. There was a lot on the line for advertisers, who this year paid $7 millionfor a 30-second ad during Super Bowl LVII — and who could spend as much as $10 million to $15 million in total after production costs for a spot, noted Derek Rucker, a Kellogg professor and co-lead of the school's ad review.
A great ad can help catapult a brand's image and even boost sales, such as the iconic "1984" ad by Apple that ran during Super Bowl XVII in 1984. Likewise, a terrible ad can damage a brand, such as the infamous Just for Feet commercial in 1999 that was decried as racist.
This year's crop of Super Bowl ads didn't include any huge hits, or misses, and was generally light and upbeat, Rucker said.
"What I expected going into it was that it would be a relatively safe year: mostly positive upbeat tones, and that is largely what we saw," Rucker said. "Brands played it safe."
The Kellogg ratings, which range from A to F, are based on an academic framework that measures ads based on marketing qualities such as distinction and positioning, with a panel of business students applying the metrics to the ads. This year's crop of ads doesn't include any that received an "F" rating from the panel.
Winners: T-Mobile, Kia, Google ads
Many of the ads played on nostalgia, tapping cultural references from the 1970s, '80s and '90s. One of this year's winning ads was a T-Mobile spot featuring John Travolta, who starred in the movie "Grease" more than 40 years ago, crooning the musical's hit, "Summer Nights," with new lyrics emphasizing the brand's capabilities.
Another winner: Google Pixel 7, which showed the phone's ability to enhance photographs by erasing unwanted elements and improving focus, after a picture has been taken. That ad scored well because it clearly depicted what the technology is capable of doing for consumers, Rucker noted.
Another top ad: a Kia commercial depicting a father taking his Kia Telluride on a rugged drive as he backtracks home to retrieve his baby's binky, which was left behind accidentally.
"It's a fun ad, it's engaging. They are showing you what the brand is capable of," Rucker said. "Some people might think Kia isn't a very rugged car, but it's showing it can go off-road."
Some of the Kellogg School's winners also received top ratings from the USA Today ad meter, which ranked the T-Mobile commercial with John Travolta No. 7. USA Today's top-rated ad was from The Farmer's Dog, a company that makes dog food, which the newspaper noted was "the first 'sentimental' ad since 2015 to land at No. 1."
The humorous Netflix/GM ad featuring Will Ferrell scored an "A" from the Kellogg School, as did the PopCorners commercial featuring the stars of "Breaking Bad" reprising their roles as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman — but this time, making addictive snacks instead of drugs.
"PopCorners was super brand-focused," Rucker noted. "They bring in characters you can recognize, but the product is the focal point of the conversation."
Losers: M&Ms, Rémy Martin
Among this year's crop of poorly rated ads were spots for M&Ms, which has been embroiled in some controversy this year over its "spokescandies," and Rémy Martin cognac.
USA Today's Ad Meter also gave low scores to these two spots, putting them in the bottom 5 of all ads shown during the game.
The M&M spot, which comes after the brand said it would put its spokescandies on pause indefinitely, featured comedian Maya Rudolph in an ad for "ma&ya's candy coated clam bites." But a separate ad, aired at the end of the game, depicts the spokescandies saying they're back.
"Basically there is a whole backstory of that where they said we are going to remove the characters, replace it with Maya Rudolph," Rucker said. "You misrepresented your brand's intention. Now it's like, 'Just kidding.'"
The Rémy Martin ad featured Serena Williams talking about what it takes to win, but without clearly connecting it to the cognac brand until the very end.
"You have Serena but that ad could have been about anything," Rucker said. "Rémy Martin is almost an afterthought."
The lowest-ratedamong USA Today's Ad Meter rankings was U2's commercial for a live performance, which featured spheres floating over the Earth. The ad struck many viewers as odd timing, given the reported Chinese spy balloonsthat have been shot down over the U.S.
Here are the ads by grade, according to the Kellogg School.
A
Google Pixel 7
Doritos
Disney
KIA
T-Mobile
Uber One
Netflix/GM
SquareSpace
PopCorners
B
Bud Light
The Farmer's Dog
Skechers
RAM
CrowdStrike
Hellmann's
Pepsi Zero Sugar
Pringles
Dunkin'
Booking.com
NAVY
WeatherTech
Amazon
Planters
C
Michelob ULTRA
Molson Coors
Avocados From Mexico
Rakuten
Jeep
Tillamook
Bass Pro Shops
Workday
Intuit TurboTax
E*Trade
Xfinity
DoorDash
Advocate Health Care
Heineken 0.0
Paramount+
Crown Royal
Temu
Busch Light
D
Peaco*ck
Downy
Virgin Voyages
FanDuel
Tubi
He Gets Us
e.l.f.
M&M's
Rémy Martin
- In:
- Super Bowl
Aimee Picchi
Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.
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