Seal was kissed by a rose in the '90s, but in 2025 he was kissed by something even sweeter with a tangy kick. The artist's collaboration with Mountain Dew left Super Bowl viewers everywhere with their jaws on the floor.
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00:00Seal was kissed by a rose in the 90s, but in 2025, he was kissed by something even sweeter
00:06with a tangy kick. The artist's collaboration with Mountain Dew left Super Bowl viewers
00:12everywhere with their jaws on the floor. If you've ever wanted to see Grammy-winning singer-songwriter
00:17and producer Seal as an actual aquatic mammal, you're in luck.
00:21In their 2025 Super Bowl spot, Mountain Dew highlighted the Baja Blast flavor by reimagining
00:26Seal's greatest hit as an ode to their citrus-flavored soda. Seal's song, Kiss from a Rose, shot
00:33to the top of the charts after it was included in the 1995 movie Batman Forever. And 30 years
00:38later, Kiss from a Lime put a surreal spin on the tune in order to promote the Mountain
00:43Dew flavor that was once only available at Taco Bell.
00:47This year's bizarre ad, which also stars Becky G., kicks off with the Mountain Dude lounging
00:53on a kitchen counter, casually handing Becky a refreshing Baja Blast. The singer and actress
00:58then falls through a portal and into a speedboat at Baja Beach. This is where the 15-time Grammy
01:04nominee Seal appears, or at least a terrifying version of him, with his head CGI-spliced
01:10onto the body of a seal. Seal's slippery seal flippers can't grasp the Baja Blast bottle,
01:16so he laments his struggle through song.
01:19My flippers got old Mountain Dew, it slips right off the watershed."
01:28The soulful ode to Baja Blast is paused only at the threat of sharks, and the ad ends with
01:34Becky G. saying what everyone has probably been thinking the entire time.
01:39Well, this is the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
01:42This is the second time that Baja Blast, which was made available in stores seasonally in
01:47before expanding year-round in 2024, has taken center stage in the Super Bowl. That year,
01:52the brand featured a commercial starring Aubrey Plaza. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of
01:57the Baja Blast flavor, it was similarly bizarre and showed Plaza having a blast despite a
02:02series of misfortunes. It even included a brief reunion with her former Parks and Recreation
02:08co-star Nick Offerman.
02:10I, too, am having a blast."
02:14Directed by Taika Waititi, who also directed this year's tearjerker Lays ad, the 2025 Baja
02:20Blast commercial takes the absurdity up a notch. Seal himself shared a clip of the ad
02:24on Instagram with the cheeky caption,
02:27"'Couldn't have sung it better myself.'"
02:29Super Bowl viewers were in agreement that the Mountain Dew ad was the stuff of bad dreams,
02:34and took to social media to express their opinions. As one Blue Sky user posted,
02:39"'Did anyone else see that cringey Mountain Dew ad with Seal? Never thought I'd see the
02:45day. Was he strapped for cash or just really into awkward energy? Wow.'"
02:50Some people went as far as to compare it to a scary movie. More specifically, Kevin Smith's
02:562014 Walrus-based flick Tusk, in which Justin Long's character suffers a similar fate.
03:03Anyone who watched The Big Game could see that 2025 was the year of fever dream body
03:07horror Super Bowl ads, and it's no surprise why some people might not be fans of that
03:12trend. Between Coffee Mate Cold Foam's dancing tongues and 2B's flesh hats, it's easy to
03:18think that the bigwigs on Madison Avenue might have watched too many David Cronenberg films.
03:24"'None of this makes sense!'
03:27So what might be in store next year for Super Bowl 60? Will we see Frida Lays' Chester
03:32Cheetah morphing into a bloodthirsty jungle cat when someone takes his Cheetos? Or perhaps
03:37Planters' Mr. Peanut will fall into a grinder and be turned into delicious peanut butter
03:42in front of horrified viewers? When companies pay up to $8 million for a 30-second ad, they
03:48want to be remembered. And by turning Seal into an actual pinniped, it seems that Mountain
03:53Dew has managed to do exactly that.