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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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“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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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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