Overview:
Advertising law and claim substantiation take center stage in a Super Bowl ad. How did “best” claims get airtime in one of the most-watched championships on earth?
Super Bowl Sunday
Homes.com, owned by the CoStar Group, allows homeowners and agents to sell and buy homes. Last year, CoStar launched a $1 billion marketing campaign, which the company calls “record-breaking.” That includes Super Bowl spending.
The Super Bowl is the biggest advertising competition in the world–err, it’s the championship game of the National Football League in the United States, which attracts enough viewers to also be a notable and expensive time slot for advertisers. Homes.com spent $35 million on ads in 2024, and in 2025, it purchased two thirty-second spots during the first and third quarters of the game, valued at nearly $8 million per spot.
The 2025 ads featured actor-comedians Heidi Gardner and Dan Levy, plus actor Morgan Freeman. The two-segment skit showed Homes.com executives played by Levy and Gardner in a meeting with an advertising lawyer (played by Bob Glouberman) and Freeman, as himself. They discuss how to position the brand as “the best” without saying they are “the best,” because the lawyer insists that they can’t say that. Finally, the executives solve the issue by unveiling a rebranded website, Homes.comisthebest.com. Was this Inception-style depiction of an issue arising from claiming that one brand or service is “the best” an accurate take on advertising law? How might advertising claim substantiation and consumer surveys enter the play?
The Best and Puffery
“The best” is a popular advertising claim, but also a contentious one. What consumer doesn’t want the best? A real lawyer in the position of the lawyer in the ad may have cautioned Freeman and the executives that they can’t say “best,” because this kind of claim might require substantiation–that is, some kind of reasonable basis—if it’s a claim to be the best in some specific way.” How to prove this varies according to the claim, but some claims can be supported with objective measurements like sales records or pharmaceutical studies. Claims about consumer preferences require consumer surveys. For example, if Homes.com wanted to claim that it had the best customer service in the field, it would likely need a survey of customers.
But it’s important to note that in this commercial, Homes.com did not actually say in what way it was claiming to be “the best,” which means the claim might be considered puffery. Puffery claims are exaggerated or subjective statements that can’t be proven or disproven. A court might find that a “best” claim is puffery if it’s made generally, without any supporting statements providing measurable ways in which the product or service is actually the best. In this situation, there is no way to prove or disprove what “the best” means. The Homes.com ad plays up this issue without naming it.
Advertising Claim Substantiation for the Winning Play
Time and sales will tell whether the ad was a touchdown with consumers, but it scored on advertising law. MMR Strategy Group, an IMS Legal Strategies company, offers consumer surveys for substantiating advertising claims, including claims to be “the best” in some way. We also offer advertising communications surveys to parties on either side of advertising disputes over claims to be “the best,” which allow advertisers to learn what a “best” claim means to real consumers in the target markets. If you are considering making a big play in advertising and would like to level up your claims, MMR Strategy Group, an IMS Legal Strategies company.