BET MGM - 'You've Won Too Much, Tom' Vince Vaughn and Tom Brady (2024) :60 (USA)

In BetMGM's Super Bowl ad, Tom Brady is told that he can't wager on the sports betting app. Vince Vaughn, who stars in the ad, breaks the bad news to the seven-time Super Bowl champion that BetMGM is for everyone who loves sports betting, except for Tom Brady. The ad features cameos by Brady and hockey icon Wayne Gretzky. As a montage of prospective gamblers ask Vaughn if they can use BetMGM, he signs off on all of them, as long as they are not Tom Brady. Even when Brady disguises himself as "Tim Birdie, seven-time pool champion" and asks if he can use the sports bettor, Vaughn doesn't fall for the ruse. For the ad's creators, the opportunity to work with Brady was an easy bet to take.

According to Alex Zamiar, group creative director at ad agency Highdive, the ad's core idea is centered around the fact that BetMGM is for everyone (as long as they are of legal age!). When Tom Brady signed on, they wanted to tap into his legacy and personality and tell a story that had never been told before. Tom wins at everything he does, so they found the idea of him not being able to win really funny. Luckily, he was game for making fun of himself and it went from there.

The ad's creative team also relished the opportunity to say no to Tom by upping the ante with another legendary athlete - Gretzky. Highdive's Johnathan Richman said that the Super Bowl is all about surprising people and subverting expectations. So, once they had the idea of excluding Tom Brady from betting with BetMGM, they loved the idea of turning the screws on Tom even more by allowing another living legend to participate with a cameo from Wayne Gretzky.

Zamiar points to the Brady-as-pool-shark scene as a metaphor for the commercial itself. When they shot the pool scenes, Tom sunk almost every shot. That guy really is good at everything, that's why they think the commercial is so relatable. At least the rest of us can have something he can't.

Ad agency: Highdive
Principal talent: Vince Vaughn, Wayne Gretzky and Tom Brady
Group Creative Director: Alex Zamiar, Johnathan Richman