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Its 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. Ive 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 werent a waste of timethey made me laugh, think, and, yes, crave a fast-casual margarita. Lets dive in, shall we? Best Social Commentary Commercial for a Meat Australian Lamb The Comments Section What is it about Australian Lamb? And Im 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 Worlds Gone Mad If you were watching the NBA playoffs when this ad aired, youd be excused if you thought someone snuck some shrooms in your beer glass. Unhinged doesnt 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 copycatsee: McDonalds now-pulled European holiday spot. Im 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 Nikes 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 brands 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 cant 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 brands heritage as an iconic advertiser, with a modern message that shouldnt get old. Best Blockbuster Video Game Commercial Battlefield 6 Live Action Trailer Created with agency Mother LA, the video game giant appears to be bringing Battlefield 6 squads to life with the help of Zac Efron, NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler, chart topper Morgan Wallen, and MMA fighter Paddy Pimblett. It harkens back to the days when Call of Duty enlisted Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel (2010), or Jonah Hill and Avatars Sam Worthington (2012) to hype its new releases. Except the celebs in this spot only last for about three seconds. Set to Smashing Pumpkins Bullet with Butterfly Wings, it quickly becomes clear that the game doesn’t need to rely on the celebrity of Efron, Butler, Wallen, and Pimblett, but its strength is actually in the community of everyday players that make it what it is. A clever play on a classic gaming trope to help launch a blockbuster. Best Meta Movie Marketing Award
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E-Commerce
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” opened with $345 million in worldwide sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, notching the second-best global debut of the year and potentially putting James Cameron on course to set yet more blockbuster records.Sixteen years into the “Avatar” saga, Pandora is still abundant in box-office riches. “Fire and Ash,” the third film in Cameron’s science-fiction franchise, launched with $88 million domestically and $257 million internationally. The only film to open bigger in 2025 was “Zootopia 2” ($497.2 million over three days). In the coming weeks, “Fire and Ash” will have the significant benefit of the highly lucrative holiday moviegoing corridor.But there was a tad less fanfare to this “Avatar” film, coming three years after “Avatar: The Way of Water.” That film launched in 2022 with a massive $435 million globally and $134 million in North America. Domestically, “Fire and Ash” fell a hefty 35% from the previous installment. Reviews for “Fire and Ash” were also more mixed, scoring a series-low 68% “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.Yet those quibbles are only a product of the lofty standards of “Avatar.” The first two films rank as two of the three biggest box-office films of all time. To reach those heights, the “Avatar” films have depended on legs more than huge openings.“Avatar” (2009), opened with $77 million domestically but held the top spot for seven weeks. It ultimately grossed $2.92 billion worldwide. “The Way of Water” also held strong to eventually tally $2.3 billion globally. James Cameron, right, director and co-writer of “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” poses with his wife Suzy Amis Cameron at the premiere of the film on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. [Photo: Chris Pizzello/AP Photo] “The openings are not what the ‘Avatar’ movies are about,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers. “It’s what they do after they open that made them the no. 2 and no. 3 biggest films of all time.”For “Fire and Ash” to follow in those footsteps, it will need robust ticket sales to continue for weeks. Working in its favor so far: strong word-of-mouth. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore.In interviews, Cameron has repeatedly said “Fire and Ash” needs to perform well for there to be subsequent “Avatar” films. (Four and five are already written but not greenlit.) These are exceptionally expensive movies to make. With a production budget of at least $400 million, “Fire and Ash” is one of the costliest movies ever made.“James Cameron is not known for his low budget movies,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “You can’t exactly create the world of Pandora on the cheap. If you’re going to have a 3D movie, an epic film that’s three hours and 17 minutes, it’s a huge buy-in of money, time, resources, and then you have to hope the audience wants to once again go along on that ride.”“Fire and Ash” was especially boosted by premium format showings, which accounted for 66% of its opening weekend. A narrow majority of moviegoers (56%) chose to watch it in 3D.The “Avatar” films have always been especially popular overseas. “Fire and Ash” was strongest in China, where its $57.6 million opening weekend surpassed the two previous movies. ‘David’ overperforms and ‘Marty Supreme’ sets a record “Fire and Ash” didn’t have the weekend entirely to itself. A trio of other new wide releases made it into theaters in hopes of offering some counterprogramming: Lionsgate’s “The Housemaid,” Angel Studios’ “David” and Paramount Pictures’ “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants.”In the race for second place, “David” came out on top. The animated tale of David and Goliath collected $22 million from 3,118 theaters, notching the best opening weekend for Angel Studios, the Christian-oriented studio that emerged with 2023’s surprise hit “Sound of Freedom.”“The Housemaid,” Paul Feig’s twisty psychological thriller starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, opened with $19 million 3,015 theaters. The Lionsgate release, which cost about $35 million to make, is set up well to be one of the top R-rated options in theaters over the holidays. Based on Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel, it stars Sweeney as a woman with a troubled past who becomes a live-in maid for a wealthy family.Trailing the pack was “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” which collected $16 million from 3,557 theaters. The G-rated film, based on the Nickelodeon TV series, is the first “SpongeBob” theatrical movie since 2015’s “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.”All of this weekend’s new films will hope the ticket sales keep rolling in over the upcoming Christmas break. Starting Dec. 25, they’ll need to contend with some new wide releases, including A24’s “Marty Supreme,” with Timothée Chalamet; Focus Features’ “Song Sung Blue,” with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson; and Sony’s “Anaconda,” with Jack Black and Paul Rudd.Before expanding on Christmas, “Marty Supreme” opened in six theaters over the weekend, grossing $875,000 or $145,000 per theater. That was good enough for not only the best per-theater average of the year, but the best since 2016 and a new high mark for A24. The film, directed by Josh Safdie and starring Chalamet as an aspiring table tennis player in 1950s New York, is the most expensive ever for A24. Top 10 movies by domestic box office With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore: “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” $88 million. “David,” $22 million. “The Housemaid,” $19 million. “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” $16 million. “Zootopia 2,” $14.5 million. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” $7.3 million. “Wicked: For Good,” $4.3 million. “Dhurandhar,” $2.5 million. “Marty Supreme,” $875,000. “Hamnet,” $850,000. Jake Coyle, AP Film Writer
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E-Commerce
Power was restored Sunday to the bulk of the 130,000 homes and businesses in San Francisco impacted by a massive outage a day earlier that caused major disruptions in the city.About 17,000 customers remained without power as of noon Sunday, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said. PG&E said earlier its crews were working to restore electricity in several neighborhoods and small areas of downtown San Francisco following Saturday’s outage.PG&E in a statement said it expects to restore power to remaining customers no later than 2 p.m. Monday.“The damage from the fire in our substation was significant and extensive, and the repairs and safe restoration will be complex,” the utility said, referring to the substation at 8th and Mission streets. That fire has been blamed for some of the blackouts. The outage remains under investigation.PG&E said it mobilized additional engineers and electricians to help with restoration efforts.“This is a very complex work plan and will require the highest amount of safety focus to ensure safe work actions,” PG&E said. No injuries have been reported.The outage, which occurred shortly after 1 p.m. on Saturday, left a large swath of the northern part of the city without power that began to grow in size. At its peak, the outage represented roughly one-third of the utility company’s customers in the city.At about 4 p.m. on Saturday, PG&E posted on X that it had stabilized the grid and no further outages were expected.Social media posts and local media reported mass closures of restaurants and shops and darkened street lights and Christmas decorations on Saturday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said on X there were “significant transit disruptions” happening citywide and urged residents to avoid nonessential travel and treat down traffic signals as four-way stops. Waymo, the operator of driverless ride-hailing vehicles, suspended its services. At least one video posted on social media appeared to show a Waymo vehicle stopped in the middle of an intersection. Jaimie Ding and Susan Haigh, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Shares in Rocket Lab Corp were heading for their second day of gains on Monday after the aerospace manufacturer was named as one of four companies that will build tracking satellites for the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA). The stock (Nasdaq: RKLB) was up more than 4% in premarket trading on Monday as of this writing. That’s in addition to a jump of 17% on Friday when the news was announced. Share are now trading at record highs. What did the Space Development Agency announce? The SDA, a unit of the United States Space Force, said on Friday that it awarded four companies with contracts to build 72 satellitesor 18 apiecewith the aim of expanding missile tracking and defense systems. The total value of the award is $3.5 billion. In addition to Rocket Lab, the SDA also named Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris Technologies. The constellation of satellites is expected to launch in 2029. Long Beach California-based Rocket Lab has been gaining more attention recently for its Electron orbital rocket, which is lighter than the heavier vehicles manufactured by rivals SpaceX and Blue Origin. As Fast Company previously reported, the Electron’s lightweight nature gives it an edge in certain complex missions where precision and speed are prioritized. A head-turning market rebound After going public during the ill-fated SPAC craze of 2021, Rocket Lab stock struggled to rise above $10 a share. It limped along for well over three years. But the stock has really broken out this year as excitement has grown around satellite buildouts and Rocket Lab executed successful launches for companies like Kinéis, a French operator of internet-of-things satellites. For its third-quarter financial results released last month, Rocket Lab reported record revenue of $155 million and said it had secured a record 17 Electron launch contracts. The company reported a net loss of $18.3 million for the second quarter, much narrower than the $52 million net loss it reported a year earlier. As of Friday, Rocket Lab’s stock was up more than 182% year to date and was trading at $70.52 a share.
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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. From technological advances and geopolitical changes to workplace culture shifts and market pressures, 2025 has been a year of change, uncertainty, and disruption. Im Gwen Moran, and for nearly three years as Modern CEOs editor, Ive had a front-row seat as Mansueto Ventures CEO and Chief Content Officer Stephanie Mehta talks to business leaders and experts to help CEOs navigate the modern world. Every year, I recap some of the key insights from a year of interviews with the array of leaders featured in the newsletter. Here are four themes that we saw repeatedly in 2025. Uncertainty and change were everywhere Leaders faced nearly constant changeand more than a few curveballsthis year. When E.l.f. Beauty CEO Tarang Amin was named inaugural Modern CEO of the Year near the end of 2024, little did he know that tariffs, blowback over an influencer scandal, and attacks on the diversity efforts that E.l.f. champions were awaiting him in the coming months. When we asked CEOs to share their thoughts on leading during times of great uncertainty, we got responses representing industries from architecture to pharmaceuticals. Some of the changes we saw this year will have lasting ripple effects. Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman talked about closing one of the worlds largest and most well-known philanthropies over the next two decades. What had become an annual check-in with former SAIC CEO Toni Townes-Whitley was canceled after she and the company parted ways, leaving TIAAs Thasunda Brown Duckett as the only Black woman currently leading a Fortune 500 company. AI still dominates the conversation One of the most pressing mandates many CEOs face is figuring out how to realize the potential of artificial intelligence (AI). And they were forthcoming about their opportunities and challenges this year. Weber Shandwick CEO Jim OLeary discussed how his firms multifaceted AI use is giving him back what most leaders value most: time. OLeary estimates that AI saves him one to two hours per day. This spring, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach said the quiet part out loud when he discussed how his company made head count cuts to invest in AI. Then, during the summer, seven leading C-level execs gave us a peek at how they are using AI to do their own jobs. Regardless of their path, leaders dont succeed in a bubble This years reporting showed us that there are many paths to the CEOs office, from intern to chief financial officerand even a comeback story as former Beautycounter CEO Gregg Renfrew took the reins at her new beauty company, Counter. Despite their different backgrounds, they have one thing in common: They need great people around them to succeed. Leaders shared insights about performance management, the importance of strategic partnerships, the challenges of keeping CEOs safe, and what happens next in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Additionally, one of our top-performing pieces was about how boards need to focus more on their No. 1 job: succession planning. Creativity and community fuel growth Modern CEO dropped dispatches from Cannes Lions in June. It was clear that this Festival of Creativity has grown into an important event for CEOs. As Shelley Zalis, founder and CEO of the Female Quotient, a community of women in business, put it: Any CEO who wants to grow, innovate, and stay culturally relevant will benefit from being here. The importance of creativity is a message AKQA Global CEO Baiju Shah discusses with the next-generation business leaders he teaches at Northwestern University. He believes that a fusion of technology and creativity is essential for businesses, especially in the age of AI. Another recurring theme in this years coverage was community. Cult brand co-CEO AJ Kumaran, who heads chicken chain Raising Canes, attributes his companys success to a rigorous focus on its community. And your community includes your team, too: WorkJam CEO Steven Kramer explained how enlisting the wisdom of frontline workers can help you find market insights and solutions. What lessons did you take away from Modern CEO in 2025? Were there issues of Modern CEO that helped you or gave you something to think about this year? Wed love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts in an email message to stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Read more: other Modern CEO highlights Conscious capitalism isnt dead Why your companys next CEO might be a multi-hyphenate Modern CEO readers share their thoughts on top leaders
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