“A group of professors got together and thought that they should use their expertise to rate how good these Super Bowl ads are,” Corner said. “And this is long before Super Bowl ads were even an (iconic) thing.”

To determine which ads are the most effective and enjoyable, the professors discussed each advertisement and rated and ranked them based on a number of factors, explained professor of practice emeritus and former advertising and public relations instructor Robert Kolt.

“We rate them based on creative strategy, production, branding, whether or not the message really penetrates, or whether or not it’s going to make a sale,” Kolt said. “We have professors who are experts in different areas, and they bring that to the game. We take all that expertise and put it into an actual rating system, and you get a pretty good idea of what’s a good ad and what isn’t.” 

Kolt, who is credited with starting the tradition, also celebrated his retirement at the watch party after spending thirty-one years in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. 

“I hope the tradition continues, but at some point, I have to retire,” Kolt said. “I hope people will still do it; ads are fun. Sometimes they’re the best part of the game.”

A table to the left of the television hosted two computers that turned the ad feedback into statistics and rankings, explained advertising master's student Cionne Casanova. 

“On one of our computers, we have the ad ratings, which are sent to everyone’s phones as a poll," Casanova said. "The second computer has an Excel sheet where we calculate all of the averages, and then at the end of the night we figure out which one does best.”

Even first-time attendees of the ad ranking watch party, like NPR fiscal officer Kelsey Pink, knew that this was a big night within MSU’s advertising department. 

“This is actually my first one, but I hear about it all the time," Pink said. "It’s a way for our faculty to get together and hang out. At one point it got to be so big that they would go to a restaurant and eat out while watching the game.”

Casanova said the sense of community that comes with this event is exactly what the people behind the Super Bowl advertisements are aiming to build.

“I got into advertising for this exact reason. It connects people and brings people together,” Casanova said. “It’s something that you don’t always think of. When you think of Super Bowl Sunday, you think about the football, but you also get to share this first viewing of the ads and see how everyone feels about them. What you might find funny, someone else might not feel the same, so it’s something to discuss.” 

This year, humor and celebrity features were the key to the MSU Department of Advertising’s hearts. The Michelob ULTRA commercial starring Ryan Crouser, Willem Dafoe, Catherina O’Hara, Sabrina Ionescu and Randy Moss as pickleball players took the first-place spot with a score of 4.8/5 stars. Close followers include Mountain Dew (4.6/5), WeatherTech (4.5/5) and Google Pixel (4.4/5).

The worst rated ads included Marvel Thunderbolts (2.2/5), Tubi (2/5) and, worst overall, Megan 2.0, which earned 1.7/5 stars.