These were the best ads of 2025

It’s been a pretty wild year in the world of advertising and brand work. Amid broader industry shifts , there has been some incredible brand work created this year across many different platforms, film, experiences, and more. But as we bring 2025 to a close, I wanted to take a more targeted look at some of the best commercials of this year. I’ve tried to adhere to criteria that includes level of difficulty, creative inventiveness, risk, and sheer entertainment. Despite how much great work is out there, sadly, most advertising can be generously categorized as cultural wallpaper. But these select few pieces of brand weren’t a waste of time—they made me laugh, think, and, yes, crave a fast-casual margarita. Let’s dive in, shall we? Best Social Commentary Commercial for a Meat Australian Lamb “The Comments Section” What is it about Australian Lamb? And I’m not even talking about the meat. The Aussie meat producer marketer is making a habit of crafting hilarious social commentary while hyping the taste and quality of its young sheep. This year, it holds a mirror up to online culture and the absurdity of how people act in the comments compared to IRL. The results are simply delicious. Best Self-Aware AI Commercial That Absolutely No one Should Copy But Many Will Kalshi “The World’s Gone Mad” If you were watching the NBA playoffs when this ad aired, you’d be excused if you thought someone snuck some ‘shrooms in your beer glass. Unhinged doesn’t even begin to describe how the prediction market platform Kalshi went about introducing itself to the broader American public. Hilarious, wild, and an absolute AI -generated nightmare, the spot immediately grabbed attention, but also burned the bridge of shock-and-awe AI ads behind it. Any other spot that tries to use this approach will just be a copycat—see: McDonald’s now-pulled European holiday spot. I’m definitely not a fan of AI slop advertising , but here Kalshi sets the bar for AI as a creative ad gimmick. Bonus points here for the equally funny behind-the-scenes spot that quickly followed online. Best Reinterpretation of a Classic Tagline Nike “Why Do It?” When Walt Stack ran across the Golden Gate Bridge in Nike’s first commercial , “Just Do It” became the tagline and philosophy that propelled the swoosh to become an iconic global brand. Now almost 40 years later, Nike needed to remind a new generation what “Just Do It” actually means. Launched in September, the brand’s campaign was called “Why do it?”, and it took aim at the pervasiveness of cringe culture, which often frames earnest effort as uncool. “Those three words mean so much to us, but we can’t just be holier-than-thou about it,” Nike chief marketing officer Nicole Graham told me at the time . “We have to make sure that those three words are resonating with each generation.” Narrated by Tyler, the Creator, and starring a laundry list of star athletes, this was a stylish way to bridge the brand’s heritage as an...

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