M&M's Almost Champions Ring of Comfort Wins Over Super Bowl LVIII
M&M's Almost Champions Ring of Comfort is a 30-second Super Bowl LVIII advertisement created by BBDO New York and Team Omnicom for Mars, airing on CBS on February 11, 2024, in which actress Scarlett Johansson and NFL legends Dan Marino, Terrell Owens, and Bruce Smith celebrate a fictional diamond ring designed to honour runners-up rather than champions.
The campaign centres on a singular creative conceit: a lab-manufactured diamond ring produced using M&M's Peanut Butter, a product the brand characterises as a source of comfort. The spot depicts Johansson and the three NFL legends gathered in a laboratory setting alongside the brand's animated spokescandies, admiring the Almost Champions Ring of Comfort and sharing a self-effacing laugh about the shared experience of finishing as runner-up. Johansson connects to the theme through her own history of Oscar nominations, while Marino, Owens, and Smith each carry the weight of Super Bowl appearances that stopped short of the ultimate prize. The casting is not incidental. Each participant was selected precisely because their public record of near-victory gives the humour its credibility and its warmth.
The ad represents M&M's ninth Super Bowl appearance, with the brand's history in the game dating back to 1998 as confirmed by Mars. It aired during the first commercial break of the first quarter of Super Bowl LVIII, the highest-profile placement available within that broadcast window. In the United States, the Super Bowl consistently ranks as the single largest live television audience of the calendar year, making first-quarter placement a strategic statement as much as a media buy. The campaign was supported by a limited-edition Champion Comfort Collection developed in connection with the broader activation, as reported by Food Dive. M&M's signature humour framework and its stated brand purpose of using fun to foster a sense of belonging — a platform introduced globally in January 2022, according to Mars — provide the structural scaffolding on which Almost Champions is built.
M&M's Almost Champions draws its strategic power from a universal emotional truth: the experience of falling just short is more widely shared than the experience of winning outright. The campaign does not position M&M's Peanut Butter as a reward for champions. It positions the product as comfort for everyone else — which, in any competition, is the larger audience.
In the United States, Super Bowl advertising operates in one of the most competitive creative environments in global marketing. Rival confectionery and snack brands including Reese's, owned by The Hershey Company, and Lay's, owned by PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division, have consistently competed for snack-category share of voice during the game. Against that backdrop, M&M's decision to anchor the campaign to a bespoke physical artefact — the Almost Champions Ring of Comfort, with its lab-grown diamonds — gives the brand a tangible news hook that extends the campaign's reach beyond the 30-second spot itself. The ring subverts the long-standing sports tradition of exclusively rewarding winning teams, which is precisely the kind of cultural inversion that generates earned media coverage in a crowded broadcast environment.
The confectionery sector in the United States sits within a broader global market that research firm GM Insights describes as experiencing sustained growth, with chocolate representing a dominant share of overall confectionery value. The top five global confectionery manufacturers held approximately 46.1 percent of global confectionery value in 2023, according to research published via LinkedIn industry analysis citing sector data. Mars operates within that concentrated competitive set, and Super Bowl investment at this scale reflects the brand's intent to defend and extend its position in the United States. The Almost Champions concept also advances M&M's platform of belonging — a strategic pillar Mars formalised in January 2022, per the company's own communications — by explicitly celebrating imperfection rather than aspiration, a posture that differentiates the brand from more conventional achievement-oriented advertising in the snack and confectionery category.
Director Jess Coulter helmed the Almost Champions spot for production company O Positive, bringing a measured comedic sensibility to material that required its celebrity cast to perform self-deprecation convincingly rather than theatrically. The 30-second format demands economy, and Coulter's execution keeps the lab setting clean and the performances grounded, allowing the absurdity of a diamond ring made from peanut butter to register as warmth rather than farce.
Post-production and editing were handled by Mackcut, with editor Cooper McLane shaping the final cut. The music was composed through JSM Music, whose score anchors the spot's tonal balance between gentle comedy and genuine sentiment. The choice to set the action in a laboratory rather than a stadium or a living room is a quietly confident creative decision: it gives the M&M's spokescandies a plausible reason to be present and frames the ring's creation as an act of invention rather than consolation, which shifts the emotional register from pity to celebration.
Scarlett Johansson's casting functions on multiple levels simultaneously. As an actress with a documented history of Oscar nominations, she brings personal relevance to the almost-champion narrative that no amount of scripted dialogue could manufacture. Her own statement, published on February 6, 2024, captures the campaign's intended register precisely. As she described it, per Mars' official communications: the spot is playful and comforting at the same time, just like one of her all-time favourite Mars candies, Peanut Butter M&M's. Dan Marino, Terrell Owens, and Bruce Smith carry equivalent cultural weight within the NFL context, each recognised as among the most accomplished players of their eras who nonetheless never claimed a Super Bowl title. The creative decision to assemble this specific quartet — rather than a single high-profile star — creates a collective portrait of near-victory that feels inclusive rather than individual, which is consistent with M&M's broader belonging platform. BBDO New York and Team Omnicom structured the campaign around this ensemble logic, ensuring that the Almost Champions Ring of Comfort reads as a cultural statement rather than a celebrity endorsement.
No verified performance data for the Almost Champions campaign is publicly available in terms of sales lift, digital engagement metrics, or measured brand equity movement. What the public record does document is the nature and volume of the reception the spot generated in the United States.
Coverage published by Marie Claire on February 11, 2024 focused specifically on Scarlett Johansson's self-deprecating Oscar reference within the spot, treating it as a culturally resonant moment rather than a straightforward product advertisement. Yahoo Lifestyle published coverage on the same date explaining the fictional diamond-creation premise to general audiences, indicating that the Almost Champions Ring of Comfort successfully translated as a news-worthy artefact beyond the advertising trade press. Meaww reported enthusiastic internet reaction characterised by viewer enthusiasm for Johansson's involvement, suggesting the casting decision performed its intended function of extending earned media reach beyond the paid broadcast window.
Structurally, the campaign demonstrates several properties associated with durable Super Bowl advertising. It carries a physical product — the ring — that functions as a press object independent of the film itself. It deploys a cast whose personal histories validate the central creative claim rather than merely decorating it. And it connects the product's core attribute, comfort, to the emotional territory of near-victory in a way that is both specific enough to feel intentional and broad enough to encompass virtually any viewer who has experienced falling short of a goal. These are design choices that increase the probability of organic conversation beyond the paid media footprint.
Clapboard rates Almost Champions 71 out of 100, recognising a campaign that executes its humour with discipline and genuine emotional intelligence, anchored by a creative device — the lab-grown diamond ring — that earns its novelty through thematic coherence rather than spectacle alone.
M&M's Almost Champions Ring of Comfort is a Super Bowl LVIII advertisement created by BBDO New York and Team Omnicom for Mars. The 30-second spot features Scarlett Johansson, Dan Marino, Terrell Owens, and Bruce Smith celebrating a fictional lab-made diamond ring crafted from M&M's Peanut Butter, designed to honour near-champions rather than outright winners.
Jess Coulter directed the Almost Champions spot for production company O Positive. Post-production was handled by Mackcut, with Cooper McLane serving as editor, and the music was provided by JSM Music. These credits were confirmed through production documentation associated with the 2024 Super Bowl LVIII campaign.
Scarlett Johansson was cast because her documented history of Oscar nominations gives her personal credibility within the almost-champion narrative. Her presence, alongside NFL legends Dan Marino, Terrell Owens, and Bruce Smith, creates an ensemble of recognised near-winners whose real-world records validate the campaign's central theme of celebrating runners-up.
The Almost Champions ad aired during the first commercial break of the first quarter of Super Bowl LVIII on CBS on February 11, 2024. Mars confirmed this placement in its official campaign communications. The spot was publicly released on February 6, 2024, ahead of the game broadcast.
The Almost Champions Ring of Comfort features lab-made diamonds created using M&M's Peanut Butter, according to Mars' official campaign materials. The ring subverts the sports tradition of exclusively rewarding winning teams by honouring runners-up, connecting the product's comfort attribute to the emotional experience of finishing as a near-champion.
Almost Champions advances the M&M's global platform of using fun to foster belonging, a purpose Mars formalised in January 2022. By celebrating imperfection and near-victory rather than outright achievement, the campaign positions M&M's Peanut Butter as comfort for the majority rather than a reward reserved exclusively for winners.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
