An ad for Uber Eats called “Football Is For Food” won the Grand Effie at the US Effie Awards gala in New York earlier this week. The award recognizes the year’s most effective marketing effort. The ad featured actors Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper. Agencies Special US and Omnicom’s PHD handled creative and media, respectively, on the campaign. Contributing to the production/post-production were O Positive, Exile, Pariah and Trevor TV. 

“At a time when sports marketing is more crowded than ever, Uber Eats transformed football fandom into a powerful growth platform for the brand – reframing one of America’s biggest cultural passions through the lens of food delivery,” the Effie's organization stated.  

“Through sharp strategic positioning, entertainment partnerships, and culturally resonant creative, the campaign succeeded in driving both business results and brand impact at scale.” 

The campaign earned additional honors at the gala, including Gold awards in Delivery Services and Brand Integration & Entertainment Partnerships. 

The Grand Effie is selected from the year’s top-scoring Gold Effie winners.  

Along with Uber Eats this year’s Grand Effie contenders included:  

Mischief @ No Fixed Address had a standout year across multiple categories, earning wins for brands including Coors Light, Chili’s, e.l.f. Cosmetics, JCPenney, Tubi, and eos.  

Heinz and The Kraft Heinz Company were recognized across several categories, including a Gold Effie for “Mustard x Mustard,” which also earned top honors in Multicultural Marketing.  

Mastercard and McCann XBC earned top recognition for “Abracadabra: From Fan To Featured,” winning Gold in Engaged Community – Services and additional honors across youth and social categories. Novartis’ “Your Attention Please” campaign emerged as a major winner in Health & Wellness, taking home Gold in Rx – Consumer/DTC and additional recognition for disease awareness and education.  

Last Prisoner Project’s “The Pen to Right History” earned Golds in both Social Good – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Social Good – Non-Profit categories, underscoring the growing impact of purpose-driven work rooted in measurable outcomes.  

The Sustained Success categories once again recognized brands that have demonstrated long-term business impact over multiple years. This year’s Gold winners included Tubi for “How Tubi Broke Category Conventions To Break Through In Streaming” and The Ajinomoto Group for “How Ajinomoto Changed America’s Minds about MSG.”  

In addition to honoring this year’s most effective campaigns, the Effie Awards also revealed the yearly rankings for most effective agencies, networks, holding companies, marketers and brands. The U.S. Rankings are calculated from finalist and winning entries and will contribute to the 2026 Global Effie Index, releasing next year.  

All 2026 Gold-winning campaigns are eligible to compete in next year’s Global Best of the Best Effie Awards, where the world’s most effective marketing efforts will compete for Global Grand Effies and the Iridium Effie. 

Separately, B2B agency MX Group and cybersecurity firm Okta were awarded a Silver Effie in the “David & Goliath Category” for the campaign “It’s Possible.” Instead of leaning into the industry-standard fear-based messaging, the campaign focused on freedom, human capability, and possibility. 

MX is believed to be one of the few pure-play B2B agencies to win a U.S. Effie. 

Other “David & Goliath” winners and finalists included B2B and B2C brands Samsung and Wells Fargo with work from agencies BBDO New York, GSD&M, The Martin Agency, and Mischief @ No Fixed Address. 

See the full list of 2026 winners here. 

Pictured above is an image from the Uber Eats ad, "Football Is For Food."