Seal Stars In Mountain Dew's Nightmare-Inducing Super Bowl Ad

Imagine if more ads took inspiration from an artist's name to shape their script — like featuring Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers in a quirky, bug-themed spot. Mountain Dew has done just that in its latest Super Bowl ad for Baja Blast, where singer and songwriter Seal quite literally becomes a seal while belting out a fresh take on his 1994 hit "Kiss from a Rose" — turning it into "Kiss from a Lime" to explain what makes the drink that was previously only available at Taco Bell so refreshing.

This year's bizarre ad, which also stars Becky G, kicks off with the Mountain Dude lounging on a kitchen counter, casually handing Becky a refreshing Baja Blast. The singer and actress then falls through a portal and into a speedboat with friends and the Mountain Dude outside Baja Beach. This is where the 15-time Grammy nominee Seal appears, or at least as a terrifying version of him, with his head CGI spliced onto the body of a seal. The singer-slash-marine-mammal is surrounded by a chorus of seals joining in on the fun from atop the rocks. Seal's slippery seal flippers can't even hold onto the Baja Blast bottle, a conundrum that makes its way into the bizarre lyrics. "My flippers can't hold Mountain Dew, it slips right on through, what a shame." The soulful ode to Baja Blast pauses only at the threat of sharks and is punctuated by leaping Orcas and Becky G proclaiming, "Well, this is the strangest thing I've ever seen." Us too, Becky.

This is the second time Baja Blast — which was made available at stores in 2015 — has taken center stage in the Super Bowl. In the 2024 Super Bowl ad, the brand featured a commercial starring Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman from "Parks and Recreation." The ad, which celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Baja Blast flavor, was equally bizarre and showed Plaza, 'having a blast' in a series of misfortunes. Directed by Taika Waititi, who also directed this year's tear-jerker Lay's ad, this commercial takes the absurdity up a notch while creating a Baja Blast-inspired rendition of Seal's Grammy Award-winning hit. For his part, Seal shared a clip of the ad on Instagram with the cheeky caption, "Couldn't have sung it better myself."

Super Bowl fans were in agreement that the Mountain Dew ad was the stuff of bad dreams and took to social media to express their horror. One Bluesky user posted that they were traumatized by the commercial. Another asked, "Did anyone else see that cringy Mountain Dew ad with Seal?!? Never thought I'd see the day—was he strapped for cash, or just really into awkward energy? WOW!"  

Anyone who watched the game could see that 2025 was the year of fever-dream Super Bowl ads, and we hope this is not an emerging trend for the advertising industry. Between the tongues dancing over the taste of Coffee Mate Cold Foam and Reese's introducing viewers to maniacal chocolate lovers being discouraged from eating lava, we're starting to wonder if Madison Avenue has run out of good ideas. 

We know technology is supposed to make our lives better, but we shudder to think about what's in store for the ads for next year's Big Game. Will we see Frito Lay's Chester Cheetah morphing into a bloodthirsty jungle cat? Or, perhaps Planters' Mr. Peanut will fall into a grinder and be turned into peanut butter in front of horrified viewers? When companies pay up to $8 million for a 30-second ad, they want to be remembered. We think this Mountain Dew commercial will not be forgotten soon.