It only took 36 years—36 years and one mayo ad—for Harry to reunite with Sally.

Decades after Nora Ephron’s beloved rom-com When Harry Met Sally was released, condiment brand Hellmann’s brought Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal together again for its 2025 Super Bowl ad. The 30-second spot, called “When Sally Met Hellmann’s,” sent the two lead actors back to Katz’s Delicatessen in New York for the first time since they filmed there in the ’80s, this time for a somewhat toned-down re-creation of the film’s iconic fake orgasm scene.

The reunion marked Hellmann’s fifth consecutive year in the Super Bowl and a pivot from past years’ emphasis on food waste prevention. Jessica Grigoriou, SVP of marketing for condiments at Unilever, told us that the marketing team wanted to do something “a bit more unexpected” this year and, knowing that sandwiches are popular during football games, decided to make them the focus.

“We knew we wanted to be in culture,” Grigoriou said. “When we saw this idea, we got that feeling in your gut that there’s something here.”

“It’s one of the most iconic sandwich scenes in movie history,” Susan Golkin, executive creative director at VML, which developed the ad creative, told us. “So it felt right.”

Even if it felt right, getting actors to reprise their roles after 35+ years is no small feat. We spoke with Grigoriou and Golkin about the campaign and how they pulled the reunion off.

Continue reading here.—KH

Budweiser took a risk casting young talent in its Super Bowl ad this year, and it appears to have paid off.

The beer brand’s second-quarter commercial, starring a Clydesdale foal, won USA Today’s 37th Ad Meter competition.

The AB InBev brand and its Clydesdales are Super Bowl mainstays and favorites among many in the ad industry, although it’s been a decade since Budweiser’s last Ad Meter victory, according to Rick Suter, a senior content strategist at USA Today parent company Gannett and the editor of the Ad Meter.

The Budweiser ad, as well as “The Little Farmer” from Lay’s, which came in second place, represents a departure from last year’s winner, State Farm’s “Like a Good Neighbaaa” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. This year, neither the first nor second-place ad had a celebrity in sight, and they weren’t heavy on humor. With that said, the celebrity-plus-comedy formula worked for some other brands during this year’s Super Bowl.

“Maybe we’re far enough outside of Covid now, where people are okay with having a little bit more…emotion,” Suter told Marketing Brew. “In 2021, people were like, ‘We’re good with crying, just let us laugh. Bring out a robotic dog, and let’s call it a day.’”

Read more here.—AM

Alexia Adana is a visual artist and creative director who serves as VP, director of creative technology at Edelman. She joined Marketing Brew today at our event, Tactical Martech: The Future of AI, Attribution, and Privacy.

Ahead of the event, we had Adana tell us a little bit about how she is using AI, and what her thoughts are on the tech’s possibilities.

How are you and your teams using AI today? Edelman’s AI capabilities are pretty wide-ranging, from building [a] proprietary LLM, ArchieAI, and generative engine optimization to AI readiness assessments for clients on their business transformation journeys. From a creative standpoint, and from where I sit on Edelman’s experiences and design team, we’re primarily using APIs to create out-of-home and digital experiences that are AI-powered to engage with consumers. We are continually testing and experimenting with new tools, proactively building white-label prototypes that solve future problems with emerging technology.

What is the best real-life application of AI that you have seen in the marketing world so far? The 2024 Cannes award-winning Voice 2 Diabetes by Klick Health is a perfect example of AI used with intention, not just for novelty. By analyzing voice patterns to screen for diabetes, it tackled a real-world healthcare challenge in India, blending technology with human-centered problem-solving.

There are plenty of proposed use cases for AI. Which applications are most promising to you? Which ones are least promising? For me, the most promising use cases for AI are the ones that solve real-world problems, especially for marginalized communities. These communities are the most negatively impacted by technological advancements, like AI, due to their lack of access and education, so I’m for anything that pays that back and closes the accessibility gap.

I find the least promising use case to be when AI is used to directly replace human skills, rather than augmenting them. There is so much potential to be unlocked with AI; it can be the right brain to my left brain. We’re staunch believers in the “human in the loop” philosophy when it comes to AI.

Read more here.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Paramount reupped a measurement contract with Nielsen after a four-month stall over cost.
• Always Alpha, the women’s sports management firm co-founded by Olympian Allyson Felix, partnered with Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment to expand services for women athletes and their brand partners.
• Fox acquired Red Seat Ventures, a digital media company known for true-crime podcasts and its work with right-wing media figures like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson.

2025 is the year marketing gets serious about working with creators, having seen how these powerful personalities engage and delight audiences.

Join EMARKETER for their live virtual event this Friday, Feb. 7, to learn how to scale creator content across platforms, create engaging episodic content, and use AI to improve measurement. You’ll get expert advice from their top analysts and leading brand marketers from Taco Bell, Uber, LTK, and Little Chonk. Save the date.