She Said, He Said: Super Bowl Edition

With all the press, teasers and social buzz around Super Bowl commercials, it’s no surprise we’re increasingly watching the ads as carefully as the game itself. In recent years, we’ve seen a decided shift away from women wrestling in fountains or stripping down for web hosting services. In this brave new era of largely gender-neutral advertising, we wondered whether the genders had different takes on the ads they were watching.

So we reached out to 185 Super Bowl viewers and asked them about their reactions to the ads they saw during the big game. We gave everyone a chance to tell us about their favorite ads, as well as their least favorite ads. Then we asked more focused questions about 12 ads in particular. Here’s what we learned.

1. Women Remember. 

Women were more likely than men to say they remembered an ad well in virtually every instance. Only two ads – Acura’s NSX “What He Said” spot and Amazon Echo’s “Baldwin Bowl” spot – were significantly more likely to be remembered well by men than women. The most memorable spot for women? NFL’s Super Bowl Babies, which was remembered by 97% of the women we surveyed. The least-remembered spot for both women and men was Honda Ridgeline’s “A New Truck To Love,” with 2 in 5 men and women saying they didn’t remember the ad.

2. Women Are Talking.

When asked whether an ad sparked a conversation, women were more likely than men to agree in nearly all cases. Once again, the exceptions were Acura and Amazon. Nearly half of all men and women said the NFL Super Bowl Babies spot sparked a conversation, while Mountain Dew Kickstart’s “Puppymonkeybaby” spot sparked a conversation for almost 3 in 4 women.

3. Women and Men Don’t Agree on Everything.

Puppymonkeybaby was also the spot women loved to hate, and they were almost four times more likely than men to say they posted something negative about the ad on social media. Meanwhile, Super Bowl Babies ranked second in positive social media postings among women, but was the ad men were most likely to badmouth on social media. In another twist, The Bud Light Party rang more true to women than men, with women being 50% more likely than men to say the ad was authentic to the brand. It seems Amy Schumer’s credibility among women transfers to light beers.

4. Two Things We All Agree On: Love the Wiener Dogs, Loathe the Puppymonkeybaby

The one ad that consistently performed against both women and men in our survey was Heinz’s “Wiener Stampede.” Regardless of gender, this ad achieved strong recall, the greatest personal resonance, and the most positive social media buzz among our respondents. And, alongside the Doritos Ultrasound spot (which we didn’t include in our battery of 12 ads), it was the unaided favorite spot for both men and women. Everyone’s unaided least favorite spot? Mountain Dew Kickstart’s Puppymonkeybaby – but hey, at least women are talking about it.