The Easter Egg In Michelob Ultra's 2024 Super Bowl Ad Only Soccer Fans Will Notice
If you dig watching soccer and cracking open a cold one, the 2024 Super Bowl Michelob Ultra ad was probably a huge treat. In case you missed it (or if you aren't a soccer fan), the protagonist of the industry-leading beer brand's latest commercial wasn't an A-List Hollywood actor but a soccer all-star (aka the other football). Lionel Messi won the Best FIFA Men's Player title twice, and according to the ad, he's apparently fueled by Michelob Ultra.
The scene opens on a beach. A handsome, surfwear-clad Messi walks up to a beach bar and points to the Mich Ultra draft tap. But as the bartender pours the beer, it sputters out. The bartender then offers to pour Messi another brand of beer, but he says he'd prefer to wait while the keg is replaced. He then promptly turns around to find a stray soccer ball rolling his way, and a seemingly impromptu game of beach soccer ensues.
Messi effortlessly dribbles the ball down the beach, and when our star returns to the bar, he finds a full glass of Michelob Ultra with a perfect foam cap waiting for him. Hooray for Mich, right? Not so fast... Notably, not only does Messi not take a sip of the Mich Ultra before embarking on the rad beach soccer fantasia, but he also doesn't sip it after returning to the bar post-keg-change. During the entire course of the ad, the star never actually drinks Michelob Ultra, which is both disappointing and hilarious.
The ad misses the goal in some ways, but still scores
Still, it seems like this omission hasn't deterred fans. Folks took to the comments section of the official YouTube post of the ad, writing praise like "I don't drink, but I love this advertisement" and "Now I will drink Michelob Ultra." They also speculate on how many times Lionel Messi touches the ball in the commercial (somewhere between 35 and 41 seems to be the consensus).
Either way, the Michelob Ultra ad is certainly a feast for the eyes. The beach-goers are attractive and Messi is running circles around them, flexing fancy footwork as palm trees sway and technicolor beach umbrellas ripple. There's even an Australian Shepherd — whose cameo is longer than that of actor Jason Sudeikis, who appears for a brief moment to deliver a line about how he and Leo "go way back." (It's inexplicable and seemingly purposeless, but slamming in a random-yet-familiar celebrity face seems to be a popular strategy for many Super Bowl ads. Call it fan service, call it lazy writing...)
Messi also appears alongside Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino, another Easter egg for longtime sports fans who might be feeling a little thirsty this Super Bowl Sunday. Michelob Ultra is the second-most popular beer in the industry by volume, and Lionel Messi is arguably the best soccer player probably ever. The Argentine global icon plays for Inter Miami FC and is slated to potentially join Argentina for the Olympic games in Paris later this year.