// [cafeteria]
Dunkin’, Pringles, & PepsiCo win the game.
AI missed big time.
Bad Bunny ruled.
- female / 19 / Germantown, MD
500+ Gen Z and Gen Alpha users give their real-time take on Super Bowl LX
During the game, [cafeteria] users answered 26 questions each, and delivered 56 hours of insights by midnight.
They talked about the ads that hit, the ones that missed, and the ones that made them want to transact.
Dunkin’, Pepsi and Pringles win the ad game.
Here are GenZ / Alpha’s favorite Super Bowl ads:
Dunkin’
Why → celebrity ensemble + nostalgia. Over a third referenced the star-studded cast. The deeper hook was “iconic” show nostalgia, with 22% calling out the 80s/90s sitcom throwback.
Pepsi
Why → The concept carried it, no celeb needed. The polar bear animation (48% mentioned) and the Coke rivalry narrative grabbed attention and the storyline (with the Coldplay meme nod) made it a clear favorite.
Pringles
Why → Sabrina IS the ad. 44% named her as the reason. 19% praised the creative concept itself. Gen Z / Alpha appreciated building the ad around her persona rather than just dropping her in.
“I thought it was just so captivating and like entertaining and I thought the whole concept of like just the Pringles being the boyfriend and the fans like knocking the Pringles boyfriend over I just thought it was so funny and like exciting and like what a plot twist at the end it was so much fun so I really like that one I just like love Sabrina Carpenter so I thought it was so good”0:00
“I loved the Pepsi ad i thought that one was so good and creative and like trendy if you know what i mean like i understood it”
[Pepsi] “I loved it because it was bold enough to “steal” Coke’s polar bear mascot, it was animated well, and referenced the Coldplay concert controversy”
“The Pepsi one, only because that was one that i remembered the most (usually when the ads came on, i would just go on my phone so i don’t remember much of the others)”
“The Pringles Sabrina Carpenter one was my favorite”
“The Dunkin’ ad with Jennifer Aniston”0:00
[Dunkin’] “I loved it because it had the Friends characters in it.”
[Dunkin’] “It brought characters from tons of iconic shows together”
“Poppi. Charlie xcx always got vibes ✨”
“The Budweiser America one.”0:00
“Thought the Bud one was just super creative”
“Lays always comes up with creative ways to stay relevant as a chip brand”
“I like the state farm ones always”
“Katseye cameo in State Farm ad!! I love Hailey Steinfeld too so it was awesome”
“Sabrina’s Pringle commercial again, that was like the main one that I was looking forward to.”0:00
PepsiCo’s portfolio drove purchase intent with Gen Z / Alpha.
When asked what ads “made you actually want to try it,” Pepsi, Poppi, Lay’s and Doritos all scored big with Gen Z / Alpha - collecting 48% of all top brands mentioned.
“PEPSI!! made me want to chug a huge jar of Pepsi when ever the ad came up. I also liked the Pringles one, it’s been a while since I’ve heard of those chips”
“The Pepsi ad they made it seem refreshing had cool and tasty so it made me wanna try a Pepsi and get one.”
“Poppi because i just remember the ad and was like oh yeah lemme try it!”
“Dunkin’ Donuts! it was cute and funny but also did a good job showing the products in an appetizing way, it reminded me that i was kind of craving coffee and donuts”
“Probably the Poppi ad because I don’t usually drink Poppi but the ad was super fresh and fun and I think they have a very distinct style that makes their marketing so identifiable. it definitely made me crave a raspberry rose Poppi”
“I would say the Dunkin Donuts one because it was super like vibrant and fun and it really stood out to me and I also liked all the colors in it.”0:00
“The Poppi ad :) I love Charlie XCX and while shes pretty popular, she isn’t on stuff like advertisement very often (one could say she’s still culturally niche while being well known)”
“I loved it because I love Pepsi that is my soda of choice and having the Coke when it is a rivalry made it so much better!”
“I thought the lays ad was pretty effective so maybe i’ll buy some chips”
“The Lays ad made me hungry”
Brands spend big on celebs, but only some are memorable.
Sabrina Carpenter delivered Pringles the strongest brand recall tested. Nearly half of Gen Z / Alpha (48%) correctly connected Sabrina with Pringles — and only 13% guessed wrong. When Pringles registered, it registered clearly.
Meta x Oakley came in second at 43%. IShowSpeed wearing the glasses led to association with Meta + Oakley — half named only Meta and 29% remembered Oakley. Only 1 in 5 linked both brands together.
Two famous faces couldn’t make Instacart stick. Ben Stiller and Benson Boone did not resonate, just 22% of Gen Z / Alpha were able to name Instacart — the lowest of any ad tested. Over half (54%) drew a complete blank, and nearly a quarter (24%) guessed wrong entirely.
Andy Cohen didn’t break through with Gen Z / Alpha for Nerds. Only 26% could remember the celebrity from their ad.
Uber Eats celeb association was strong, to a point. Bradley Cooper (71%) and Matthew McConaughey (65%) led the pack. Notably, Parker Posey registered at 17% — nearly 3x more than Addison Rae (6%).
AI and AI slop lose big.
When asked about the ads that flopped, Gen Z / Alpha expressed strong negative feelings toward AI and AI-created ads. They’re mentioning strong aversions to “AI slop”, calling out the Svedka vodka robot ad.
“This vodka brand named Svedka used, I think used AI in their ad and it was a total miss.”0:00
“any ad that used ai 😒”
“Svedka, the completely AI advertisement was a little off-putting”
“Any of the ai ads, like meta and chatgpt. i don’t like what they were promoting.”
“A lot of the very clearly AI ads like the vodka one were just not my vibe”
“most of them used a ton of AI like the xfinity commercial and it just makes them look bad”
“all the ai ads omg”
“Oh, it was an AI one. It was like Gen X or something. Um, AI. I thought that one was so boring. It was too short. I didn’t understand it. It just showed some random man using AI.”0:00
Bad Bunny made history.
His performance was legendary with a 81% positive response from Gen Z / Alpha across all genders. They emphasized his deep cultural pride and representation, the pure energy of the performance and the investment in high production value.
“Fire. Amazing. American.”0:00
“omg tea ate it up”
“so flipping fire”
“Awesome, wonderful, and straight up badass! I’m a fan of his music!”
“AMAZING ICONIC LIFE CHANGING”
“phenomenal, fantastico, and unifying”
“ICONIC, POWERFUL, HOT”
“Riveting, bold, vibey.”
“Cultural, poetic, dedicated”
“AMAZING. incredible. SOOOOO ENTERTAINING”