Super Bowl LVII was a thriller, with the Kansas City Chiefs overcoming a 10-point halftime deficit to beat the Philadelphia Eagles. For a group of Michigan State University faculty members, the main draw of the game wasn’t the football — it was the ads.

For the 26th year, faculty in the MSU Department of Advertising and Public Relations ranked the ads that aired during the big game.  

Robert Kolt, professor of practice and creator of the ad-watching tradition, said faculty look for creative messaging, strategy, production quality, branding, ad execution and if the ad is unique and memorable. 

“Audiences have high expectations for ads in the Super Bowl,” said Kolt, who recently described what makes a great ad. “This year, there were a lot of good Super Bowl ads featuring lots of celebrities, animals, animation, babies and humor — all formulas for success.”

According to the MSU faculty, this year’s top ads were:

1. Google Pixel 7

2. GM x Netflix EVs with Will Ferrell

3. Amazon's Saving Sawyer dogs

4. (tie) The Farmer's Dog

4. (tie) Bud Light hold music

The faculty ranked ads from FanDuel and DigiDaigaku as the game’s worst.

The Super Bowl traditionally delivers the largest audience on American television every year, with over 100 million viewers. Advertisers paid a record high $7 million for 30 seconds of television time on the FOX-TV network for an ad in the Super Bowl this year.