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Super Bowl ads are created to make us laugh, drool, scratch our heads, and yearn for our youth. But some of the most memorable ones are the ones that tug on our heartstrings.
Budweiser’s puppies and horses; that tear-jerker from The Farmer’s Dog (at least for dog owners); or Toyota’s 2021 spot starring Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long, for example.
While the ads that ran during Super Bowl 2025 mostly went for laughs, there were a few designed to get some deeper feelings stirring in the hearts of viewers.
Here are all the tear-jerkers—or at least those that tried to be—from Super Bowl 59.
Dove: “Keep Her Confident”
The ad: Dove’s Super Bowl spot continues a theme that the Unilever-owned personal care brand kicked off back in 2004 with its “Campaign for Real Beauty.”
In “Keep Her Confident,” a young girl smiling hugely runs down the sidewalk. “At 3, these legs are unstoppable,” flashes across the screen, followed by the looming, “At 14, she’ll think they’re unbearable.”
How it aimed to touch hearts: Half of girls who drop out of sports say it’s because of low body confidence, according to Dove. The call to action is for everyone to “change the way we talk to girls.”
Lay’s: “The Little Farmer”
The ad: A young girl lives on a potato farm. When a potato falls off a truck, she plants it in the ground, waters it, and protects it from storms until it becomes a potato plant. She then harvests her potato, and contributes it to the next big potato harvest.
How it aimed to touch hearts: It’s a play for American-grown agriculture—but it wasn’t the original plan.
Lay’s originally intended to air an ad highlighting the Canadian favorite All Dressed flavor, but swapped it out for a more U.S.-centric message. The brand claimed it didn’t have anything to do with declining U.S.-Canadian relations after President Donald Trump announced tariffs against the country’s northern neighbor.