From weird and wacky to sentimental and even salty, Brandcenter alum work shines in 2025 Super Bowl Ads

In the world of advertising and branding, working on a Super Bowl spot is considered a coveted achievement— and Brandcenter is a breeding ground for future Super Bowl commercial makers.

Most professionals in the advertising industry never have the chance to work on these high-profile spots, but year after year, Brandcenter alumni are featured across the board.

This year we had over 30 alums on nearly 20 spots for brands including Michelob Ultra, Google, Ritz, Uber Eats, Little Caesars, Tubi, and Booking.com, to name a few. Over 30% of Super Bowl commercials had a Brandcenter alum on the team. And while their graduation years span from 2005 to 2024—a third of the alums in this list actually graduated in the past five years.

We caught up with alum Gabe Sherman (Copywriting, 2014), an Associate Creative Director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to chat about the Mountain Dew ad he worked on featuring Becky G and singer Seal (as an actual seal no less.) While he’s worked on regional Super Bowl ads, this was his first time on a national spot. The resulting song parody of Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” is the latest earworm that’s bound to loop in our collective consciousness long after the game.

Gabe said that his team would often fall back on the idea of breaking through the noise the day after. They would picture the following Monday, “could someone say ‘did you see this ad?’ and explain the idea in a few words…You only have 30 seconds to catch people’s attention and give them something that they will remember.”

While the press tends to be mixed on the ads afterwards, there’s no doubt that this one will be remembered. Responding to some of the feedback that Seal as a seal is weird or disturbing, Gabe laughed, “it’s disturbing in a good way. It’s something that is going to stick with people. Even the visual used in our decks, where we Photoshopped Seal’s face onto a seal—that was the thing that got everyone hooked. It’s just…you can’t unsee that kind of thing.”

From weird and wacky to sentimental and even salty, we’re sure these ads will be living rent-free in our minds for years to come. Congratulations to all our participating alums on another year for the books.

Check out the full list of campaigns worked on by Brandcenter alums below: