Tubi Ran Two Super Bowl Ads—And Ranked Dead Last.
That Was the Point
Tubi ran two Super Bowl ads this year. One ranked dead last on USA Today’s Ad Meter. The other was so unrelatable it didn’t even make the rankings. If you think the goal of a Super Bowl ad is to be universally loved, that looks bad.
But that was never the game Tubi was playing.
They weren’t trying to be the most beloved brand of the night. They were talking to their audience—and that’s a different strategy entirely.
The Z-Suite Spot: A Super Bowl Hack That Didn’t Land
Tubi’s first ad was for The Z-Suite, a satirical workplace comedy about Gen Z taking over an ad agency. The ad mimicked a Gen Z “hack,” with TikTok effects, vertical video, and a deliberately disruptive feel. It was supposed to look like young creatives had hijacked the Super Bowl feed.
It was different. It was self-aware. It was messy on purpose.
And that’s where things get complicated.
People claim they want fresh ideas—until a brand actually breaks the formula. Then, they say, "That wasn’t a Super Bowl ad."
Super Bowl ads are supposed to fit a mold: big-budget, celebrity-packed, emotionally driven, or laugh-out-loud funny. When an ad doesn’t fit, it doesn’t just stand out—it gets rejected.
That’s exactly what happened with The Z-Suite. It didn’t look like a Super Bowl ad. It didn’t feel like one. And when you don’t fit in the box, people don’t know what to do with you—so they rank you last.
The Cowboy Hat Ad: Too Weird to Register
The second ad didn’t try to be ironic. It tried to tell a story—a strange one.
A couple watches a sonogram of their unborn baby and learns he’s a fan of Westerns. The twist? His head literally grows into a cowboy hat. He gets teased in school for being different—until he wins over his classmates by showing them a dragon-fighting movie on Tubi.
It was surreal. It was bizarre. And it didn’t connect.
Super Bowl ads work when the message is clear within seconds. This one left viewers confused. Was it about Westerns? Was it about being different? Was it just trying to be funny?
If people don’t get an ad, they don’t rank it. They ignore it. That’s what happened here.
The Reality: Most Super Bowl Viewers Don’t Care About Strategy
Tubi’s ads didn’t land because they weren’t built to win over the masses. They were designed to speak to a specific audience—but most people watching the Super Bowl don’t care about ad strategy at all.
Not in the way marketers do.
Super Bowl ads aren’t made for deep analysis. No one outside of ad agencies, Twitter debates, and media junkies is sitting around deconstructing brand strategy.
The average viewer? They just want something fun to watch between plays and beer refills.
They don’t care about hidden metaphors, market segmentation, or narrative risks.
They remember:
The funny beer ad.
The cute dog commercial.
The big celebrity cameo.
They don’t remember the ad that tried to be a statement. They don’t remember the one that required them to think too hard.
And they definitely don’t remember a ranking from USA Today’s Ad Meter.
Tubi Isn’t Playing the Same Game—They’re Redefining It
Tubi’s Super Bowl ads didn’t land because they weren’t designed to land—at least not in the traditional sense.
Most of the streamers competing in this space—Peacock, Paramount+, Discovery—are just selling the same TV model in a new wrapper.
Their business model is simple:
Take linear TV,
Slap some exclusives on it,
Throw in a paywall,
Call it a “premium streaming service.”
It’s just lipstick on a pig—the same content, the same structure, and the same price creep that made people hate cable in the first place.
Tubi isn’t in that business.
They sit at the intersection of Netflix, YouTube, and modern content consumption—not trying to compete with traditional TV, but replacing it entirely.
Netflix is built on subscriptions.
YouTube thrives on algorithm-driven discovery.
Tubi blends both—zero cost, endless content.
And as people burn out on streaming fees, that’s starting to look like the future.
For years, streamers convinced people that paying $15 a month for “ad-free” content was the future.
Now? People are realizing that after stacking Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, and whatever else pops up next, they’re paying more than they did for cable.
Tubi saw the problem and skipped ahead to the solution: stop making people choose.
It’s free. It’s algorithmic. It’s an open ecosystem that doesn’t ask viewers to commit—it just keeps them watching.
The Takeaway: Tubi Doesn’t Need to Win Ad Meter—They’ve Already Won the War
The Z-Suite ad was ranked dead last. The cowboy hat ad didn’t even register.
But Ad Meter doesn’t matter when you’re changing the way people consume content.
Tubi isn’t playing the game of linear TV repackaged as a subscription model.
They’re playing the game of modern consumption habits—a game where you don’t have to win the Super Bowl ad rankings to win streaming.
And with 15.5 million peak Super Bowl streamers and a new TMZ-fueled content push, they’ve already figured out what everyone else is still trying to learn:
People don’t want another subscription. They just want something to watch. Tubi is already there.