Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara Are Pickleball Hustlers in Michelob Ultra’s Super Bowl Ad
Can an actor known for playing some of cinema’s best villains bring his magic to the Big Game? Michelob Ultra is betting on it.
The fast-growing Anheuser-Busch beer brand will use this year’s Super Bowl to launch “The Ultra Hustle,” a campaign starring Willem Dafoe (Nosferatu, Spider-Man) and Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Home Alone) as a pair of pickleball hustlers looking to score some free rounds from their battered competition (competition that includes NFL legend Randy Moss, WNBA superstar Sabrina Ionescu and Olympic gold medalist Ryan Crouser).
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“We were looking for a couple of things, one was chemistry between these two characters. We obviously know that Willem and Catherine have worked together in the past [on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice]. They know each other, so that is important,” says Ricardo Marques, senior vp marketing for Michelob Ultra, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “But then also we were looking for characters that could be very likable and very friendly, but at the same time a little bit dangerous and intimidating — in a fun way, of course — and both had that unique combo, which was perfect for this script and what we were looking to deliver.”
In the spot, which you can watch below, Dafoe and O’Hara — wearing matching track suits — approach other pickleball pairs, challenging them to a game, with the winner getting a round of Ultras. It’s absurd, hilarious and yet relatable, all at once. Something Marques says was critical.
“It is a cluttered stage, the Super Bowl stage, so creative voltage is important,” Marques says. “We believe that humor can be one of those notes that we hit to engage with our audience … one of the other things that I love about this spot is that our product is front and center. Michelob Ultra is, I would say, the hero of the story, the enabler of everything that you see onscreen. And so we’re being able to combine high entertainment value for the audience through the use use of humor, but at the same time, set up this platform ‘Play for an Ultra’ and making sure that our product takes center stage.”
The “Play for an Ultra” element brings the campaign into the real world. Thanks to a partnership with DoorDash, people will be able to gift others (like, say their 21+ pickleball opponents) a six pack of Ultras.
But the stakes are also high for the brand, which has been surging in popularity over the past few years and is now the No. 2 beer brand in the U.S. in terms of dollars spent.
“It is much more than a Super Bowl spot, it is truly a moment for us to set up what will be a very exciting year,” Marques says. “When you combine these three elements of consistency, investment and creative voltage, once again on the Super Bowl stage, with this amazing campaign that has been the winning formula for Michelob Ultra, it is something that we are excited to continue, not only through the rest of this year, but for years to come.”
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