PHILADELPHIA and LONDON – March 9, 2026 – Advertising tied to major cultural and sporting moments dominated U.S. television in February, according to the latest edition of the monthly Breaking TV Ads Report from global media intelligence platform Kinetiq and creative data provider DAIVID. 

The monthly report combines Kinetiq’s real-time TV ad detection with DAIVID’s AI-powered creative analytics to identify the newly launched U.S. TV campaigns that broke through — and the emotional drivers behind their performance.

Olympics-themed storytelling dominated the creative effectiveness charts, with brands tapping into themes of national pride, perseverance and shared achievement. These narratives generated strong emotional responses including inspiration, admiration, pride and hope — helping them outperform more traditional product-focused advertising.

Olympic-themed ads from Michelob Ultra, Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation and Hershey’s all ranked among the top five most creatively effective campaigns of the month, demonstrating how emotionally resonant storytelling tied to major global moments can significantly amplify advertising impact.

The report includes a ranking of the month’s top-performing new U.S. TV ads, alongside insights into the creative approaches driving performance.

Key insights from February’s report include:

>> Chevrolet’s “Embrace Your Adventure” ranked as the most effective new TV ad to launch in February.

>> Michelob Ultra’s “Find Your Inner Greg” and Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation’s “Olympics: On the Same Team” placed second and third respectively.

>> Michelob Ultra’s campaign delivered the highest brand recall in the study, driven by strong product integration and emotional storytelling that generated “craving” as the dominant audience response.

>> Other brands appearing in the top 10 most effective new ads include Hershey’s, Starbucks, Subaru and Apple. 

“Emotion remains the strongest driver of advertising effectiveness,” said Ian Forrester, CEO and Founder of DAIVID. “The campaigns that performed best this month successfully tapped into feelings like pride, inspiration and humor, emotions that typically resonate strongly when audiences are already engaged in major cultural or sporting moments.”

In addition to the Olympics, Super Bowl LX also aired in February. The report’s special feature examines how this year’s Super Bowl campaigns extended their reach after the game. 

Using proprietary ad detection technology, Kinetiq tracked Super Bowl commercials across U.S. networks for one week following the broadcast, identifying the ads most frequently replayed across news coverage, morning shows and broader television programming. These replays represent incremental earned broadcast exposure, extending the reach of Super Bowl campaigns beyond their initial paid airtime. Combined with DAIVID’s creative data measuring emotional response, the analysis highlights clear patterns in the types of ads that sustained replay across television coverage. 

>> Dunkin’ Donuts’ “Goodwill Dunkin” ranked as the most replayed Super Bowl LX ad across U.S. television, followed by Ring’s “Search Party for Dogs” and Budweiser’s “American Icons.” 

>> Other brands appearing among the most replayed ads include Telemundo, T-Mobile, Pepsi, Salesforce and Squarespace.

>> Commercials generating stronger emotional reactions – particularly high levels of positive emotion, humor and nostalgia – were more likely to be replayed. The Ring and Budweiser ads ranked highest for intense positive emotions within the top ten most replayed ads.

>> Conversely, ads that triggered intense negative emotions, such as the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate spot, also achieved significant replay, suggesting that both highly entertaining and more provocative creative executions can drive continued media attention and discussion after the game.

“Major cultural moments like the Olympics and the Super Bowl create unique opportunities for brands to capture attention,” said Kevin Kohn, CEO of Kinetiq. “What our data shows is that campaigns rooted in emotional storytelling, particularly those tied to shared cultural experiences, are far more likely to extend their impact beyond the initial broadcast.”

To view the full February Breaking TV Ads Report, click here. 

For full rankings, category benchmarks or custom analysis, contact videoadtrends@kinetiq.tv