Football was a key driver of reach for four of the top five most-seen non-luxury auto TV ads, as ranked by iSpot’s national TV ad impressions for Sept. 15–21. Kia was the outlier, instead finding audiences through a mix of general entertainment and reality TV programming.
With 161.5 million national TV ad impressions, a Ford spot takes first place. Over half of its total reach came from NFL games, with college football delivering another 27%. According to iSpot’s Creative Assessment, this ad had an 87% brand match (the percentage of survey respondents who remembered it was a Ford ad after watching it), above the recent automaker industry norm of 78%.
Jeep’s second-place commercial features photos and footage of various models in action over the years, set to music from LL Cool J. The music was cited by 16% of viewers as the “single best thing” about the spot (above the norm of 6%). The NFL generated 32.6% of the Jeep spot's total 159.5 million national TV ad impressions, followed by college football (16.3%) and CBS Mornings (2.8%). The spot inspired notable positive purchase intent, with 52% of survey respondents saying they were “more” or “much more” likely to purchase after viewing the ad.
Music is also a stand-out element of Kia’s third-place ad: 14% of viewers said the Steve Miller Band song was the “single best thing” about the spot. Kia employed a variety of programming genres to reach audiences. HGTV's House Hunters generated 4.5% of the spot’s total 113.6 million national TV ad impressions, followed by ABC's Dancing With the Stars (4.4%) and Celebrity Family Feud (4%).
Trucks are the name of the game for Chevrolet’s No.4 spot, which had 80.9 million national TV ad impressions. And speaking of games, the NFL accounted for 57% of total impressions, followed by MLB (33%). Other reach came from USA and NBC's the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (2.3%) and ABC's Good Morning America (2.3%).
Hyundai rounds out the ranking with a commercial for the 2026 Palisade that received 78.1 million national TV ad impressions, over 68% of which came from primetime ad airings. Across all dayparts, top programming included the WNBA (13.5% of total impressions), followed by college football (10.2%) and the NFL (9.8%).
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1. Ford: Ready Set Ford https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrlwWXer9rY
Impressions: 161,507,036
Interruption Rate: 2.26%
Attention Index: 125
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $4,744,297
2. Jeep: America’s Original Influencer
Impressions: 159,493,773
Interruption Rate: 2.78%
Attention Index: 90
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $3,457,209
Impressions: 113,646,073
Interruption Rate: 3.21%
Attention Index: 109
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $1,089,767
4. Chevrolet: Trail Boss Family
Impressions: 80,946,012
Interruption Rate: 2.42%
Attention Index: 125
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $1,575,946
Impressions: 78,086,020
Interruption Rate: 3.26%
Attention Index: 93
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $1,465,779
Data provided by iSpot, The New Standard for TV Ad Measurement.
Chart positions and other data may be updated in iSpot’s database as additional airings information becomes available.
TV Impressions - Total TV ad impressions delivered for the brand or spot.
Interruption Rate - The percentage of devices that were present at the beginning of the ad but did not complete watching the ad. Actions that interrupt ad play include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV. The Interruption Rate is measured on a scale of 0 to 100%.
Attention Index - A comparison of the ad’s interruption rate against its specific media placement. The Attention Index is measured on a scale of 0 to 200, where 100 is the average and means the ad is performing as expected.
Est. National TV Spend - Amount spent on TV airings for the brand’s spots.
