Super Bowl season has passed but the talk is still in the air! Continuing the traditions from the first-ever Super Bowl in 1967, Superbowl 59 of 2025 included the two winning teams of the NFL playoffs, a half time show by Kendrick Lamar with guest star SZA, and interesting commercials that are intended to be seen by a large crowd–-hence the 120 million people that streamed the Super Bowl broadcast on February 9th 2025. This years Super Bowl was held in Caesars Superdome in New Orleans Louisiana (NOLA), featuring the Philadelphia Eagles who came in with their first and only Super Bowl title in 2018, and the Kansas City Chiefs, who came in with 4 Super Bowl titles trying to be the first team in history to win 3 straight Super Bowls in a row.
As anticipation grew for the big game, predictions started to flood in. According to The New York Times, 69% of 41 voters were convinced that the Chiefs would have won the Super Bowl. Spoiler alert, they didn’t, which was just as surprising to some as the halftime show and the commercials all around the world.
Halftime
This year’s halftime show was hosted by Kendrick Lamar with guest star SZA who are very popular among the younger generations. As the show opener, Kendrick performs his hit songs “Squabble Up”, “Humble”, and “DNA”, and alongside SZA, their collaboration songs “Luther” and “All the Stars”.
Throughout his show, Kendrick was hinting at his song “Not Like Us” but was hesitant in playing it. This song excelled 1 billion streams this year on Spotify winning all 5 Grammy awards that it was nominated for. Therefore, it was hard not to deliver what the fans wanted before ending the amazing night.
As his last song, Kendrick sang “TV off” which for many of the 135.5 million people who tuned into the broadcast channel just for the halftime show did in satisfaction.
Furthermore, the halftime show was more than just a singing performance, it was a moment for Kendrick to tell a story. There were many symbols in his performance such as the backup dancers dressed up in the colors of the American flag, the stage being set up as a video game controller, Samuel L. Jackson narrated the performance as Samuel Addams, and Kendrick Lamar wearing a necklace of an A minor chord. Kendrick Lamar wanted to spread multiple messages to the viewers but what those messages were can be up to interpretation.
One of his main messages was to highlight racism. Many of Kendrick Lamar’s Lyrics address the racism faced by Black Americans like his opening line “40 Acres and a Mule”. Kendrick is referencing the large acres of land that Black Americans were promised after the Civil War but never received, getting their American Dream deferred. The stage was not only set up as a game controller but as a prison yard set to stress the unequal amount of Black Americans who are wrongfully incarcerated and convicted. The dancers in red, white, and blue were repeatedly getting split up to accurately spread the message of how divided our nation really is. In doing so he emphasized ways to call unity.
Other guest stars included Tennis star Serena Williams who did an amazing crip walk originating from her hometown, Compton, California even if it was a couple of seconds. In inviting Serena, Kendrik represented West Coast culture and to unify their people. Mustard, who produced ‘Not Like Us’ danced alongside Kendrick to the West Coast Anthem showing much love and thankfulness.
Super Bowl Commercials
Commercials are a big part of Super Bowl culture due to their creativity and appearances from well-known people. To have a 30-second commercial featured during the airing of the Super Bowl it costs $8 million or about $267,000 per second, higher than ever before. Many brands are willing to pay this amount because it is a chance to promote their product, brand, or service to a big crowd. Out of the 57 Super Bowl commercials this year, 26 of them were over a minute long, setting a new record for the most Super Bowl commercials of that length.
The price has increased remarkably over the years as the price of a 30-second Super Bowl commercial in 1967 was about $37,500 to $42,500 depending on the broadcast channel. The first year a Super Bowl commercial cost over $1 million was in 1995. The price of $4 million in 2015, 10 years ago, has been doubled. This year, brands like Doritos, Budweiser, and Lays had the highest screen times, with Nike having the most screen time. However, the company with the most commercials this year goes to Wieden+Kennedy peaking at 5 commercials. The longest Super Bowl commercial this year was the 6 minute and 50 second long Dunkin’s Dunking 2 The movie commercial featuring famous actor Ben Affleck, a former Dunkin’ actor for Super Bowl 58 with his brother Casey Afflek and more, like comedian Druski. The estimated cost to air this Super Bowl commercial was over $30 million dollars.
The USA TODAY Ad Meter 2025 claimed that Budweiser won the best Super Bowl Commercial, which would make it the ninth time they have won this title. Budweiser does know what it takes to be number 1 as they have the most purchased Super Bowl commercials ever. Starting back since the first Super Bowl in 1967, Budweiser has made 142 Super Bowl commercials!
Following Budweiser, commercials from Lays, Michelins Ultra, Stella Artois, the NFL, Bud light, Uber Eats, Hellmann’s and Pfizer came in as the top 10 commercials of Super Bowl 59.
This year’s Super Bowl saw commercials that fought for a cause like unity, hope, and the American dream. A commercial done by the NFL and Nike represented diversity and inclusion in girls’ flag football to promote making the sport a varsity sport in all states. A Rocket commercial represented families living in a happy home to want people to have the chance of living this dream. Dove’s commercial addresses keeping young girls confident with their bodies. Foundation to Combat Antisemitism(FCAS) had rapper Snoop Dogg and actor Tom Brady insulting each other, then FACAS stated these were stupid reasons for hate. In the commercial, Snoop and Brady agreed that the need to address this topic was due to the severity of the conditions being so bad. These commercials connected to the viewers who experienced hate due to their cultural, ethnic, and racial background and promoted equity. These commercials understood the importance of paying millions of dollars to fight for a cause.
Super Bowl commercials are really a hit or miss. Brands can get their business to boom or they could just be losing a lot of money depending on how interesting the commercial is. Tubi was rated the lowest out of all the 57 national Super Bowl Commercials this year in the USA TODAY Ad Meter 2025, as well as the 30-second long commercials from Coffee Mate coming in 56th place and Fetch’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial coming in 55th place.
Winners
The Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl 59. In all the quarters, the Eagles managed to take the lead by a significant amount. The first quarter score was Eagles with 7 points and Chiefs with 0 points. The Eagles managed to stay in the lead in the second quarter with 24-0 points. The Third quarter saw the Chiefs get their first 10 points, but the Eagles gained another 10 alongside them, leading the score to be Eagles 34 points and the Chiefs 10. The final score was Eagles 40 and Chiefs 22, an 18 point difference.
Jalen Hurts, ranked a top 10 quarterback in the NFL by USA Today, helped gain the Eagles their first points with a touchdown through a rush. Jake Elliot, who is a kicker for the Eagles, scored points from his 9 impressive kicks of the football through the field goal, missing none of his attempts the whole game, becoming a record breaker for the most accurate kicker in Super Bowl history. Cooper DeJean scored a touchdown as a cornerback rookie on the Eagles as well as A.J. Brown, a wide receiver. Jalen Hurts threw 46 yards, which wide receiver Devonta Smith caught, making the final Eagles touchdown of the night!
Travis Kelce, named one of the greatest tight ends in history by Fox Sports, plays for the Chiefs and is also known as American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. He claimed that the Chiefs “…haven’t played that bad all year,” being asked the question “What’s most shocking about this type of loss,” with him having zero catches until the last half of the game. The Chiefs couldn’t get any points in the first and the second quarter, until the Chiefs managed to score one touchdown in the third quarter, and two in the fourth with an additional 4 points from passes. The offensive line struggled with protecting defensive players like quarterback Patrick Mahaomes which affected the Chiefs offense throughout the night. As Eagles player Jalen Hurts says, “Defense wins championships.”
In addition to the celebration of the Super Bowl win, other celebrations were happening on February 9th. Rookie Cooper Dejean (first player to score a touchdown) and Saquon Barkley’s birthdays both landed on the day of the Super Bowl, having won the Super Bowl as the best birthday present ever. Rookie Jeremiah Trotter Jr is the son of retired Eagles player Jeremiah Trotter. Jr was just a baby at the Super Bowl when his father took home the first Eagles Super Bowl win. Over half of the fans present in the stadium were Eagles fans. Eagles fans know how to party, and so did they. The Eagles successfully took another Super Bowl home, and as all the Eagles fans who proved their joy on the Broad Street of NOLA want it, they hope the Eagles get to and win Super Bowl 60. Congratulations to them.
Conclusions
The Super Bowl is an annual American tradition that never gets old, although each year is a little different from the ones before. New rivals, new halftime performers, and new Super Bowl commercials add on to the fun of football. The NFL has recruited talented young players who proved through the game that the Super Bowl and NFL have a bright future ahead of them. Maybe next year’s players will be your home team. Maybe next year’s halftime performers will be your other favorites. Maybe next year’s commercials will cost 10 million for 30 seconds of air time! Without the participation of the fans and viewers, the Super Bowl wouldn’t have been so successful as it has been for the past 59 years. Let’s go, Super Bowl 60!
