It’s been called the AI Super Bowl, thanks to Anthropic and OpenAI launching what (hopefully) might become AI’s very own Cola Wars.
It’s been called the MAHA Bowl, thanks to brands like Novo Nordisk promoting Wegovy pills, while Ro and hims & hers are pitching telehealth services, Novartis got NFL tight ends to relax for prostate cancer checks, and pharma company Boehringer Ingelheim hypes kidney health.
But we know it was the Super Bowl because mixed in amongst the trends were Sabrina Carpenter’s FrankenPringles man, both T-Mobile and Coinbase hit play on the Backstreet Boys, Oakley Meta made connected glasses look pretty good, and Manscaped somehow turned shaved body hair into emotionally-resonant characters.
Another distinct sign this was as Super Bowl-y an ad game as any other Super Bowl? Celebrity directors. Taika Waititi took on Pepsi, Spike Jonze went full Italian variety show with Ben Stiller for Instacart, and Joseph Kosinski took all the innovation from his experiences at the helm of last year’s blockbuster F1 to get Kurt Russell to teach a guy how to ski. Oh, and somehow the award-winning director with the least commercial films had two spots in the game—Yorgos Lathimos directed both Squarespace and Grubhub.
Apple continued its complete reinvention of the halftime show, turning Bad Bunny’s electric performance into a global event.
We also saw a respectable number of hit songs get classically commercial reinterpretations. The aforementioned Backstreet Boys were joined by Andy Samberg becoming Meal Diamond for Hellmann’s, Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key butchering Bon Jovi for State Farm, and both the NFL and Rocket crafting emotional gut punch moments by reinterpreting two songs from the Mr. Rogers catalog.
Advertising!
It was a feast for the senses—a cornucopia of commercial extravaganza. All with enough choices that everyone watching the game has their own favorites Including me!
Here are my picks for the best ads from the 2026 Super Bowl. But first, the worst!
Svedka Vodka “Shake Your Bots Off”
It’s apparently the first Super Bowl ad known to be produced primarily with AI. I never would’ve guessed…
This ad so bad I’m not sure it’s fair to make fun of it, even if it’s somehow purposely awful. This is the kind of bad that should be taught in schools. It looks like it was made by Advertising 101 students in a rush. The AI angle is a gimmick for gimmick’s sake, obviously, and doesn’t add anything to the ad at all except the robots’ nightmare fuel faces.
What is so disappointing is that vodka has historically been a pretty great place for advertising. For anyone curious about the kind of creativity is possible in the vodka category, just watch Belvedere Vodka’s 2022 spot “Daniel Craig,” directed by Waititi. Or Absolut’s “Vodka Movie” from 2008, made by Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, and Zach Galifianakis. Glorious.
Svedka, conversely, serves up the advertising equivalent to the most vapid, superficial people you’ve ever seen in a club. A robot apocalypse as imagined by the Butabi brothers.
OK, now let’s get to the good stuff. Here are my Top 5 ads from this year…
Budweiser “American Icons”
As I said in my pregame brand power rankings, Bud was here for the crown.
Created by BBDO New York, this takes Budweiser’s penchant for animal buddies to a new, non-partisan patriotic level. What could possibly be cuter than a horse and a yellow lab becoming best friends? Well, when it’s Bud’s 150th anniversary and America’s 250th, the answer, of course, is EAGLET.
These are divisive times, with many states feeling less and less united with every news cycle. But here, just for a moment, Bud has served up something that we can all agree on.
When that bald eagle spread its big grown wings for the first time from behind that leaping horse, red states, blue states, MAGA, Democratic Socialists, coastal elites, flyover rednecks, and everyone in between were able to say, “Oh HELLS yeah.”
And in 2026, that’s something to raise a glass to.
Jeep “Billy Bass Goes to the River”
What initially appears to be a pretty run-of-the-mill car ad takes a decidedly epic turn that transforms this spot into a classic.
If you listen to the Super Bowl episode of Fast Company’s “Brand New World” podcast (do it!), you’ll know I spoke to the folks who made it, Mark Gross and Chad Broude, who are co-founders and co-chief creative officers of Chicago-based independent ad agency Highdive. They have hundreds of Super Bowl ads between them, and this latest piece of work shows the benefit of that experience.
Highdive has become synonymous with great Super Bowl work since the 2020 Super Bowl and their fantastic Jeep commercial starring Bill Murray, reliving the classic 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day.”
The level of difficulty here is high—no nostalgic soundtrack, no celebrity, no gimmick. Just a straight shot of good ol’ fashioned copywriting, perfect casting and comedic timing straight into the veins.
Rocket x Redfin “America Needs Neighbors Like You”
With the amount of money required just for Super Bowl air time—a reported $8 million, plus a required additional matching ad buy across other NBC sports— brands need to ensure they get your attention.
This year, Rocket and Redfin did that by combining three things that would create a large Venn diagram of interest: Lady Gaga singing Mr. Rogers’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”; a heartwarming commercial airing during the game; and, most crucially, giving viewers the chance to win a million-dollar house.
But everything revolves around the spot, which was a well-crafted, heartwarming vibe shift from all the comedy and celebrities.
I spoke to CMO Jonathan Mildenhall about this triple threat approach.
“The only way to win at the Super Bowl is to win a disproportionate share of conversation pregame, as well as during game, and, increasingly, the progressive brands are talking about postgame conversation,” Mildenhall says. “For us the pregame was Lady Gaga behind the scenes, then during the game there is the spot, and we’re announcing the Great American home search for people to participate in over the days after the game.”
Hellmann’s “Meal Diamond”
The Boston Red Sox, and every karaoke bar on the planet, utilize Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” effectively to bring a crowd together, put an arm around one another… and scream “SO GOOD! SO GOOD! SO GOOD!” in unison.
Here we get that 1969 hit remixed for mayo thanks to Andy Samberg as Meal Diamond. Of course this looks and sounds ridiculous. But it actually continues a strategy Hellmann’s started in 2024.
“Mayo Cat” starred Kate McKinnon and was able to put one word into the mouth of every cat: “Mayyo.” Its ambition to embed itself in our brains in such an insidious way that we hear it every time a cat meows was commendable. Clearly, that ambition remains.
Now when you’re making lunch, you may find yourself humming a familiar tune and whisper-crooning to yourself, “Haaaam, touching ham…..” until it hits a crescendo, “Sweet Sandwich Time!” Bah-bah-baaaaah.
Bud Light “Keg”
Bud Light was in a dark place not that long ago. It was unfairly punished for its one-off partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, which turned into an unlikely lightning rod for anti-trans weirdos and “fans” of Kid Rock.
Thankfully, with Shane Gillis, the brand has been building back its beer advertising pedigree by making commercials that are funny as hell. His impressive run includes “Confessions,” “Wrong Commercial,” and last year’s big game ad “BMOC.”
Now Gillis, Post Malone, and Peyton Manning return, this time at a wedding. When the keg gets knocked over and rolls down a hill, the entire wedding party does its best Princess Bride “As you wish” impression. Dumb, fun, and exactly what you want from a Bud Light ad.
