While all of the top five most-seen luxury auto TV ads for Aug. 25-31 harnessed college football action to some extent, reality programming was also instrumental in driving reach for Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti in particular.
Mercedes-Benz takes first place with a spot for the 2025 GLS that highlights available features including the 12 driver assist systems, 7-passenger seating and predictive AI technology. A notable 53.6% of its total 118 million national TV ad impressions came from HGTV programming, led by House Hunters (9.8%) and My Lottery Dream Home (7.5%). Across all networks, additional reach came from college football games (5.3%) and DP World Tour golf (4%). According to iSpot’s Creative Assessment, the commercial performed in the 99th percentile for information, the 96th percentile for relevance and the 95th percentile for desire. Additionally, the spot inspired notable positive purchase intent, with 56% of survey respondents saying they were “more” or “much more” likely to purchase after viewing the ad.
In the second-place spot (96.8 million national TV ad impressions), Buick touts how its various models have “technology as innovative as it is effortless.” College football games generated 26.3% of total impressions, with another 7.6% coming from College GameDay and 3.7% from NCIS.
At No.3: An Infiniti spot for the ’26 QX60 that received 59.2 million national TV ad impressions. The commercial aired solely on cable networks, led by TLC and HGTV (both accounting for 16.8% of total impressions), Hallmark (9%) and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (5.6%). Across all networks, top programming by reach included 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? (10.9% of total impressions), 90 Day: Hunt for Love (5.9%) and House Hunters (3.9%).
Genesis rounds out the ranking with two commercials that had a combined 90.5 million national TV ad impressions.
The fourth-place spot, promoting the Genesis Summer Signature Event, ran up 48.6 million national TV ad impressions, nearly 15% of which came from college football games. The MLB delivered another 12.8%, followed by the 2025 U.S. Open tennis tournament (7.6%). According to iSpot’s Creative Assessment, this ad had an 85% brand match (the percentage of survey respondents who remembered it was a Genesis ad after watching it), above the recent automaker industry norm of 78%.
The No.5 commercial from Genesis features a young girl trying to wrestle an unwieldy rainbow into her family’s GV80 — a cute way to highlight the model’s interior color change capabilities. The visuals resonated with viewers: 44% said they were the “single best thing” about the ad. The 2025 U.S. Open generated 18.4% of the spot’s total 42 million national TV ad impressions, with another 15.2% coming from college football and 5.9% from FBI.
(Click on blue links for videos)
1. Mercedes-Benz: The Philosophy
Impressions: 117,978,517
Interruption Rate: 2.53%
Attention Index: 114
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $1,226,532
Impressions: 96,815,424
Interruption Rate: 1.67%
Attention Index: 135
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $285,701
3. Infiniti: True Luxury Leads
Impressions: 59,189,329
Interruption Rate: 1.88%
Attention Index: 87
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $272,809
4. Genesis: Your New Beginning
Impressions: 48,578,905
Interruption Rate: 2.93%
Attention Index: 98
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $307,166
Impressions: 41,963,316
Interruption Rate: 2.30%
Attention Index: 95
Est. National TV Ad Spend: $297,195
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.
