Uber Eats is back on the NFL sidelines with a fresh wave of “Football Is for Food” ads, once again led by actor Bradley Cooper. Debuting during NBC’s Sunday Night Football, the new spots enlist Baker Mayfield and Troy Aikman as unwitting accomplices in what Cooper fears is football’s slow transformation into a cookbook.
Building on last season’s campaign—and its Super Bowl crescendo—this year’s creative leans harder into the absurdity, layering in new cultural references and insider jokes that only intensify Cooper’s paranoia.
Here’s what iSpot’s Creative Assessment platform revealed among NFL viewers to the campaign’s newest spots.
The Details:
Among Followers of the NFL:
- This year’s “Football is for Food” campaign featuring Bradley Cooper is landing most positively with NFL followers aged 21-35 as well as with female followers of the league (“Celebration” was an exception across gender):
- Scores are indexed to all other ads with NFL content (across industries) over the past 90 days.
- Among female league watchers, the :30 Baker Mayfield “Celebration” did not deliver the same level of breakthrough (Attention and Likeability) nor relatability as the Troy Aikman “Player Names.”
- Based on viewer response, Uber Eats might consider targeting the 21-35 and female audiences and/or placements in games with the featured teams.
- Scores are indexed to all other ads with NFL content (across industries) over the past 90 days.
Among female league followers:
- The better performing “Player Names” broke through the clutter as successfully as the average NFL-content spot over the past 90 days, and effectively reminded the target audience about the Uber Eats product:
- The characters were rated Single Best Thing about the ad at more than twice the rate of the average NFL-content ad by league followers, who found the casting positive.
- Incredulity was sparked by the Funny ‘food’ player names highlighted in Dallas Cowboys rosters, but viewers found little new Information nor sensed a Change in direction or offering in this spot (both trailing the audience benchmark).
- Still, the creative reminded eight in ten NFL followers of Uber Eats, and an above-norm proportion (58%, +4 pts vs norm) indicated higher likelihood of using the brand.
- The characters were rated Single Best Thing about the ad at more than twice the rate of the average NFL-content ad by league followers, who found the casting positive.
- Second-by-second trace shows a drop-off in male engagement during “Player Names” (a more significant gap vs females among NFL followers viewing the original :60 Bradley Cooper ad was also seen):
- Viewer sentiment on the :30 “Player Names” reveals that the ad successfully entertained and created positive associations through humor and celebrity appeal. For league followers, the natural association between watching football and ordering food resonated, with game day eating habits effectively triggered.
- The absurd premise (football as a conspiracy to sell food) is still resonating strongly and the player name wordplay was widely appreciated. Most found the dialogue between Bradley Cooper and Troy Aikman engaging and the celebs helped grab Attention.
- However, upon first view, many consumers couldn’t identify the brand until the very end; as such, the connection to Uber Eats felt delayed or unclear. While iSpot is a non-skippable viewing environment, skipping will result in a lost opportunity given the branding is only revealed at the end of the spot. Earlier branding cues are recommended to boost engagement and clarity. Alternatively, non-skippable media or frequency media plans could also be considered. Logos on clothing, bags, etc. in the background often go unnoticed.
- Of course, those that disliked the Cowboys and/or the Eagles were also less enthused.
- Viewer sentiment on the :30 “Player Names” reveals that the ad successfully entertained and created positive associations through humor and celebrity appeal. For league followers, the natural association between watching football and ordering food resonated, with game day eating habits effectively triggered.
Sample comments on the “Player Names” :30 among NFL followers
“I loved the humor and the names of the players. Thanks for using my team. I loved it. And it was clever merging it all together seamlessly.”
Female 50+
“Good ad. Just don’t care for either Bradley Cooper or Troy Aikman. Go 49ers.”
Male 36-49
“The ad is pretty funny, great script, solid cast. I actually enjoy this ad.”
Male 21-35
“I enjoyed seeing familiar faces like Troy Aikman, a previous Dallas Cowboys player, known hall of famer! I love Uber Eats and football and Dallas Cowboys so overall, it took my attention instantly! The famous actor Bradley Cooper from The Hangover made the commercial even more appealing because he’s funny and stars in great movies so it instantly grabs everyone’s attention seeing a familiar face associated with good quality movies.”
Female 21-35
“It’s good, I guess, but it could use more visually appealing stuff in it to capture the viewers. It was boring just watching two guys talking to each other.”
Male 21-35
“It kind of started off boring until I recognized the characters and once I realized what the dialogue was about, it made me laugh.”
Female 36-49
“I felt like they were trying to be funny, but it wasn’t really funny. And plus, I hate the Dallas Cowboys. So anything with the Dallas Cowboys on there, I’m really not going to like in the first place.”
Male 36-49
“It almost took too long to figure out that they ordered food using Uber Eats. However, it made me want to order using Uber Eats at this moment 😂”
Male 50+
“Should include an Uber Eats visual earlier in the ad.”
Female 36-49
- “Player Names” was more successful in sparking action among NFL followers with a Top 2 Box purchase intent that approximated that of the :60 “Bradley’s Mission” while “Celebration” trailed both:
- Favoring the former could help maximize outcomes although targeting “Celebration” to Eagles and/or Tampa Bay fans is also advisable (and certainly being executed).
- iSpot Media Measurement shows a slight favoring of “Player Names” on national linear and streaming for the two weeks ending 12/1/25 (with launch on 11/22/25).
- Favoring the former could help maximize outcomes although targeting “Celebration” to Eagles and/or Tampa Bay fans is also advisable (and certainly being executed).
- The “Football is for Food” campaign continues to resonate most successfully among NFL followers that are also the most frequent users of food delivery services:
- With an average overall response (Ace Score) of 603 for NFL-content ads over the past 90 days, “Player Names” landed very well with league followers ordering at least some time in the past four weeks or past week.
- “Celebration” and “Bradley’s Mission” showed some extended strength among league followers ordering in the past three months.
- As such, the campaign is in some sense, ‘speaking to the choir’ in that it is not connecting as well with less frequent food delivery customers; however, the concept continues to connect with the key user audience.
- With an average overall response (Ace Score) of 603 for NFL-content ads over the past 90 days, “Player Names” landed very well with league followers ordering at least some time in the past four weeks or past week.
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Creative Agency: Special Group