The battle for Super Bowl ad supremacy is almost as hotly anticipated as the tussle for victory on the field, and this year it was won by an unlikely entrant: a Mike Tyson confessional aimed at “fudgy” Americans.
The stark public service announcement-style ad, featuring Tyson and his son eating apples and urging Americans to “eat real food,” has ricocheted across social media, drawing everything from earnest praise to jokes about the former boxer’s delivery and suitability as a spokesperson for the government’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative.
Highlights
- Mike Tyson stars in a stark Super Bowl ad urging Americans to eat real food and avoid processed products.
- The ad highlights Tyson's personal struggles with obesity and the death of his sister from heart disease.
- Some viewers praised the ad's serious tone, while others found Tyson's delivery and phrases unintentionally funny.
- Critics point out processed foods' affordability and convenience make healthier eating challenging for many.
- Tyson's past and the ad's bold message sparked mixed reactions, fueling wide public debate during the Super Bowl.
“The most important commercial I have ever seen,” said one commenter on Tyson’s YouTube channel, while another popular comment simply said, “This commercial had me dying laughing.”
Mike Tyson’s Super Bowl ad drew mixed reactions
The 30-second black-and-white ad starts with Tyson talking about the death of his obese sister from a heart attack at 25 years old.
“I was so fat and nasty, I would eat anything, I was like 345 pounds,” Tyson then says, adding that he ate a quart of ice cream every hour.
“I had so much self-hate, I just wanted to kill myself.”
The ad, which was funded by the MAHA Center—a non-profit aligned with the radical health agenda being implemented by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—then shows Tyson biting from a carrot and then an apple.
He then says, “We’re the most powerful country in the world, but we have the most obese, fudgy people. Something has to be done about processed food in this country.”
The ad closes with the stark message that “processed food kills,” before telling people to “eat real food” and directing them to RealFood.gov—a government website set up to promote purportedly healthier nutrition.
Online, the intensity landed for some as overdue seriousness. Posts sharing the clip framed it as unusually impactful for a Super Bowl break.
Others saw the irony in the fact the ad would be showing during a time when millions of people would be eating processed foods while watching the game.
Many saw humor in the ad, given the popularity of processed foods during the Super Bowl
But much of the response online was less reverent. Viewers fixated on Tyson’s phrasing about “obese, fudgy people”—a line that some found unintentionally funny and others read as fat-shaming.
A separate line of pushback focused on money and time. Commenters argued that ultraprocessed foods are often cheap, shelf-stable, and convenient, while fresh, minimally processed options can cost more and require planning, equipment, and cooking time.
Adweek noted the campaign sidesteps structural realities: ultraprocessed products account for roughly 70% of the U.S. food supply, and their affordability and convenience make them difficult for many households to avoid.
Other reactions were aimed at the apple itself, with some viewers pointing out that even “healthy” food can be compromised by modern farming and preservation, with fresh produce also carrying risks.
Tyson’s celebrity baggage also powered the punchlines. Some users reached for the most infamous Tyson reference point—the 1997 fight in which he bit off a part of Evander Holyfield’s ear— repurposing it into one-liners about “biting” and “eating ears” whenever the ad cut to him chomping fruit.
Mike Tyson’s fame for biting off part of an ear was the focus of many jokes
The ad has also drawn criticism tied to Tyson’s past beyond the ring. Some commenters said a public-health message delivered by Tyson is hard to take seriously given his 1992 rape conviction.
Others pointed to his 1988 marriage to actress Robin Givens; she filed for divorce, citing fear, and declined to sign a complaint, reports said.
The backlash has not been limited to online snark. Bloomberg reported that food industry figures criticized the unusual Super Bowl spot, objecting to the claim that processed food “kills people.”
Even so, the ad’s defenders argue that the discomfort is the point: a confrontational message that forced its way into the most commercialized night on American television.
Whether it’s remembered as a public-health gut punch or a meme generator, it succeeded at one basic Super Bowl task: getting people to talk.