Senior Stars Bring the Hustle for Michelob ULTRA

We’re seeing the first full ads released in advance of next month’s Super Bowl, and Michelob ULTRA earns this year’s first game night Ad Of The Week with a sporting-themed commercial. But the sport in question isn’t football; it’s pickleball.

Long popular with families and senior citizens, pickleball has enjoyed a wave of growth in the last decade and become a sport of choice for hip young professionals, with a surge in attention for its leagues and competitions. At the same time, it’s a pastime that still has strong associations with casual, friendly competition, and that’s what Michelob ULTRA’s ad from Wieden + Kennedy is tapping into.

The commercial stars Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara as a pair of older pickleball hustlers, who challenge youngsters to a game to win their precious Michelob ULTRA beers. Inevitably, the young players are no match for the old hands who smash their shots across the court and claim their winnings. “Play for an ULTRA” is the tagline, a platform emphasizing the competitive but warm vibe of pickleball and of playing with your friends.

It’s going to be supported by a raft of social and online activations, but this TV commercial is the core, and shows our veteran hustlers beating an all-star cast including real athletes like football icon Randy Moss and basketball star Sabrina Ionescu. Even these champions can’t match Dafoe and O’Hara’s game, and the spot ends with the pair raising a glass of beer in their extensive trophy room.

“Play For An ULTRA” has the star power to shine at the Super Bowl; by casting comic actors as the veteran players and real athletes as the opposition it gets the best out of all its celebrity cast. Dafoe and O’Hara carry the spot with plenty of good lines and entertaining chemistry, and viewers have the schadenfreude of seeing sports stars humbled in a surprising and unlikely way. It’s no wonder so many of the responses mention the humor in the ad and call it funny.

There’s another way this ad shines, though, which might not be so apparent. It’s a great example of how to use older characters well in a commercial. In our recent Wise Up! report we explored how seniors are represented in advertising, showing that ads starring older characters often portray them poorly, as lacking agency or as mere extensions of their younger family. That certainly isn’t true of Michelob ULTRA, which gives its older characters real agency while making an ad with funny, cross-generational appeal. It’s especially impressive that this comes from a beer ad, a category traditionally focused firmly on youth.

So how does “Play For An ULTRA” do when faced with real US consumers? It scores an impressive 4.0-Star Rating on our Test Your Ad platform, predicting strong long-term brand growth with the correct investment. It also gets an Exceptional score on the short-term Spike Rating, promising a strong sales boost for game night and after. These scores are well above the category average for beer ads, and may well be enough to put the ad into the top ranks of Super Bowl performers this year. Michelob ULTRA’s friendly competition may just win big.

As Super Bowl LIX approaches on Sunday, February 9, join us for an in-depth analysis of the ads airing during the biggest game – and the most anticipated advertising event – of the year.

Which ads will capture the public’s hearts? Will advertisers score big with exceptional brand-building strategies? How will brand recognition evolve? Will humor steal the show?

We’ll answer all these questions and more, plus reveal the top 10 ads of the event.