It’s being called the AI Super Bowl, thanks to Anthropic and OpenAI launching what could (hopefully) become AI’s own Cola Wars.
It’s called the MAHA Bowl, thanks to brands like Novo Nordisk promoting Wegovy pills, while Ro And him and her pitch telehealth services, Novartis got the NFL’s tight ends to relax for prostate cancer checks, and a pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim hypes kidney health.
But we know it was the Super Bowl because among the trends were Sabrina Carpenter’s FrankenPringles guyboth T-Mobile and Coinbase featured the Backstreet Boys, Oakley Meta made connected glasses look pretty good, and Manscaped somehow changed shaved body hair in emotionally resonant characters.
Another clear sign that this was as Super Bowl-y ad game as any other Super Bowl? Famous directors. Taika Waititi took on Pepsi, Spike Jonze joined Ben Stiller on the all-Italian variety show for Instacart, and Joseph Kosinski used all the innovation from his experiences at the helm of last year’s blockbuster F1 to get Kurt Russell to teach someone 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 classic commercial reinterpretations. The aforementioned Backstreet Boys were joined by Andy Samberg who became Meal Diamond for Hellmann’s, Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key Slaughtering Bon Jovi for State Farmand both the NFL and Rocket create emotional moments through two songs from the Mr. Rogers catalogue.
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It was a feast for the senses, an abundance of commercial spectacle. All with enough choices that everyone who watches 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 off your bots”
It’s apparently the first Super Bowl ad known to have been produced primarily with AI. I never thought…
This ad is so bad that I’m not sure it’s fair to make fun of it, even if it is somehow intentionally awful. This is the kind of wickedness that should be taught in schools. It looks like it was created by rushing to advertise to 101 students. The AI angle is obviously a gimmick for gimmick’s sake, adding absolutely nothing to the ad other than the robots’ nightmarish fuel faces.
What’s so disappointing is that vodka has historically been a pretty good place for advertising. For anyone curious about the kind of creativity possible in the vodka category, take a look at Belvedere Vodka’s 2022 spot.”Daniel Craig”, directed by Waititi. Of Absoluts “Vodka movie” from 2008, created by Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and Zach Galifianakis. Glorious.
Svedka, on the other hand, offers the advertising equivalent of the most bland, superficial people you’ve ever seen in a club. A robot apocalypse as imagined by the Butabi brothers.
Okay, 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 love of animal lovers to a new, nonpartisan patriotic level. What’s more fun than a horse and a yellow lab becoming best friends? Well, if it’s Bud’s 150th anniversary and America’s 250th, the answer is of course EAGLET.
These are divisive times, with many states feeling less and less united with each news cycle. But here, just for a moment, Bud has presented something we can all agree on.
When that bald eagle first spread its big adult wings from behind that leaping horse, red states, blue states, MAGA, democratic socialists, coastal elites, flyover rednecks and everyone in between could say, “Oh HELLS yes.”
And in 2026, that’s something to raise a glass to.
Jeep “Billy Bass goes to the river”
What at first seems like a fairly mundane car ad takes a decidedly epic turn that turns this place into a classic.
If you listen to the Super Bowl episode of Fast Company’s “Brand New World” podcast (do it!), you know I talked to the people who created it, Mark Gross and Chad Broude, co-founders and co-chief creative officer of Chicago-based independent advertising agency Highdive. They have hundreds of Super Bowl ads between them, and this latest piece 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, which reimagines the classic 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day.”
The level of difficulty is high here: no nostalgic soundtrack, no celebrity, no gimmick. Just a piece of old-fashioned copywriting, perfect casting and comedic timing, straight into the veins.
Rocket x Redfin “America needs neighbors like you”
With the amount of money needed just for Super Bowl airtime (reportedly $8 million, plus a required additional matching ad buy for other NBC sports) brands need to make sure they get your attention.
This year, Rocket and Redfin did that by combining three things that would create a large Venn diagram: Lady Gaga playing Mr. Rogers’ “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” sings; a heart-warming commercial broadcast during the game; and, most importantly, giving viewers the chance to win a million-dollar house.
But it’s all about the place, which was a well-crafted, heartwarming shift in mood from all the comedies and celebrity fare.
I spoke with CMO Jonathan Mildenhall about this triple threat approach.
“The only way to win at the Super Bowl is to win a disproportionate share of the pre- and during-game conversations, and increasingly, progressive brands are talking about post-game conversations,” Mildenhall says. “For us, the pregame was Lady Gaga backstage, then during the game there’s the venue, and we’re announcing the Great American house hunt for people to participate in in the days after the game.”
Hellmann’s “Meal Diamond”
The Boston Red Sox and every karaoke bar in the world effectively use Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” to bring a crowd together, put an arm around each other… and scream “SO GOOD! SO GOOD! SO GOOD!” in unison.
Here we get that 1969 hit remixed for mayonnaise thanks to Andy Samberg as Meal Diamond. This of course looks and sounds ridiculous. But it actually continues a strategy that Hellmann’s started in 2024.
“Mayo Cat” played Kate McKinnon and could put one word in every cat’s mouth: “Mayyo.” The ambition to embed itself in our brains in such an insidious way that we hear it every time a cat meows was commendable. It is clear that that ambition remains.
Now, as you prepare lunch, you may find yourself humming a familiar tune and whispering to yourself, “Haaaam, touch ham…” until it reaches a crescendo: “Sweet Sandwich Time!” Bah-bah-baaaaa.
Bud Light “Keg”
Bud Light was in a dark place not too long ago. It was unfairly punished for its one-off collaboration with Dylan Mulvaney, which became an unlikely lightning rod for anti-trans lunatics and Kid Rock “fans.”
Fortunately, the brand, together with Shane Gillis, has rebuilt its beer advertising pedigree by creating commercials that are extremely funny. His impressive series 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 barrel is knocked over and rolls down a hill, the entire wedding party does their best, Princess Bride “As you wish” impression. Silly, fun and exactly what you expect from a Bud Light ad.
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