Lexus Drives Yellow Brick Road Up Most-Seen Auto Ad Chart

Lexus is front and center in iSpot.tv’s weekly ranking of the most-viewed auto commercials, generating over 528 million TV ad impressions from two ads that aired more than 3,400 times from Nov. 7-13. 

“Characters,” in first place, led by a wide margin with 350.5 million impressions, while “Unfollow” took third place (177.8 million impressions). While NFL and college football games delivered top impression counts for both spots, Family Guy was also a top-five program by impressions. 

Although it had the lowest estimated spend of the five commercials in our ranking, Dodge’s “The Real Brotherhood of Muscle” took second place on the chart with 183.3 million TV ad impressions. News programming was a large source of viewership, with Fox News and MSNBC as the top two impressions-delivering networks. Notably, this ad features real footage from real drivers, and the resulting dynamic quality resonated with viewers: 33% of respondents to iSpot’s survey-based Creative Assessment cited the visual scenes as the single best thing about the ad. 

Subaru remains in fourth place week-over-week with its ad for the Ascent highlighting the vehicle’s safety features. According to iSpot’s Creative Assessment, viewers found this spot to be the most persuasive in the top five, with an overall Persuasion score nearly 12% above industry norms.  

After two weeks in first place, Chevrolet’s “EVs for Everyone” slips to fifth this time around. The spot generated 163.9 million TV ad impressions, with the 56th Annual CMA Awards telecast as the top impressions-driving program (13.8 million). The soundtrack, a song by Fleetwood Mac, appealed to viewers: 21% of iSpot Creative Assessment survey respondents considered the music the single best thing about the spot. 

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1. Lexus: Characters 

Impressions: 350,491,945

Interruption Rate: 1.81%

Attention Index: 99

Est. TV Spend: $2,206,847

2. Dodge: The Real Brotherhood of Muscle 

Impressions: 183,336,499

Interruption Rate: 2.16%

Attention Index: 94

Est. TV Spend: $939,673

3. Lexus: Unfollow 

Impressions: 177,795,551

Interruption Rate: 2.17%

Attention Index: 106

Est. TV Spend: $2,366,339

4. Subaru: Thin Painted Line 

Impressions: 170,420,687

Interruption Rate: 2.94%

Attention Index: 91

Est. TV Spend: $1,326,622

5. Chevrolet: EVs for Everyone 

Impressions: 163,945,271

Interruption Rate: 3.06%

Attention Index: 93

Est. TV Spend: $1,269,100

Data provided by iSpot.tv, The New Standard for TV Ad Measurement

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.