The NFL season is officially over, wrapping up with the Seahawks being crowned champions, which means it’s time to look back on the best commercials that aired during Super Bowl LX.
Over the decades, the big game has become a cultural touchstone. Not just a football game, but an event where everything from the halftime show to the advertisements themselves are meant to entertain.
It’s not cheap to produce these ads either, and costs continue to rise. After the average cost of a 30-second commercial in 2025 sat around $7 million USD, the price went up in 2026, as NBCUniversal charged $8 million USD. It also included an $8 million match across other properties on the network, including the 2026 Winter Olympics and the NBA. Could we see $10 million ads for a 30-second spot in the near future? It doesn’t seem that far-fetched.
Despite the high price tag, not many were dissuaded. Super Bowl ad inventory was reportedly sold out as early as the first week of September, a month earlier than FOX had managed a year earlier with Super Bowl LIX.
The commercials this year also brought back many familiar faces, including Uber Eats, Google, Pringles, Pepsi, Dunkin Donuts, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, T-Mobile, and Xfinity — just to name a few.
Perhaps the most surprising angle of this year’s ads was the positivity. Super Bowl commercials tend to lean into social commentary on recent trends and issues, and yet most brands opted for joy, nostalgia, and sheer absurdity, as you’ll see below.
Here’s my top 15 list for the best Super Bowl ads in 2026:
15. Skittles
If there was one brand that leaned as hard into absurdity as possible, it was Skittles. Known for thinking outside the box, Elijah Wood plays a magical creature that can be summoned by a single blow of a horn — his own former horn, from the looks of it. The less-traditional aspect of this commercial was that it was actually live — Wood performed this during the Super Bowl itself at a lucky winner’s house. It might not entirely land, but… points for trying?
14. Dunkin Donuts
Ben Affleck is back with the famous coffee brand for his fourth straight year, and this time he’s dialing up the nostalgia to 11. Not only does the commercial allude to his breakout role in 1997’s Good Will Hunting, it also evokes almost every major sitcom of the 1990s. It includes Jaleel White, Alfonso Ribeiro, and Jasmine Guy from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc from Friends, Jason Alexander from Seinfeld and Ted Danson from Cheers. Tom Brady is there too, though he’s more familiar with the Super Bowl itself than sitcoms.
13. Ritz Crackers
Most of these commercials work solely on the power of celebrity and bank on your own brand recognition. Here, Emmy winner Jon Hamm and long-time SNL cast member Bowen Yang are salty at not being invited to eat Ritz crackers at a beach party, only to be invited by Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson. Simple and effective — and hinges entirely on your knowledge of both the product and the actors involved.
12. SquareSpace
Someone at SquareSpace must really like movies. After previous commercials with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Spike Jonze, they’re back in the Super Bowl ad space for a 12th straight year, this time with two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone as the star, and her frequent collaborator, Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos behind the camera. Beyond the ad itself, they also treated the lead-up to its release like a movie launch, with extra films including this fictionalized account that depicts Stone trying to get her domain from the original owner. Can I log this commercial on Letterboxd?
11. Michelob Ultra
It’s a star-studded ad for Michelob Ultra this year, as iconic actor Kurt Russell pairs up with up-and-coming actor Lewis Pullman on the slopes. With the Winter Olympics underway, two-time Olympic gold medallist snowboarder Chloe Kim makes an appearance as well as Olympian TJ Oshie, who was a member of the USA’s 2014 men’s hockey roster in Sochi. As NBCUniversal is airing both the Super Bowl and 2026 Winter Olympics south of the border, they’re likely getting a good return on their investment this year.
10. TurboTax
Known for playing mostly moody, intense roles, two-time Oscar winner Adrien Brody is back… as a tax expert. As TurboTax is attempting to sell users on a painless experience, there’s no drama to be had. In the end, he does ask for a dog and more rain, refuses to smile, and then leaves after smashing a window. When you combine the tongue-in-cheek nature of Brody poking fun at himself with the concise messaging from the tax software, it’s pretty effective.
9. Raisin Bran
Sometimes a simple play on words is all you need. Legendary Canadian actor William Shatner is back in the captain’s chair as ‘Will Shat’, as he brings Raisin Bran to people in need of more fibre around the world. Not only that, but he also powerbombs through a table at age 94, Bills style. Pretty impressive.
8. Pepsi
This was a hard choice as a self-professed Coca-Cola aficionado, but it’s hard not to appreciate Pepsi’s strategy here. Directed by Oscar winner Taika Waititi (who also cameos in his own commercial) the cola wars continue as Pepsi takes a direct shot at their rivals by having a polar bear — Coke’s long-time mascot — pick a Pepsi Zero Sugar over a Coke Zero.
7. Uber Eats
Who doesn’t like a good conspiracy theory? Matthew McConaughey sure seems to — he’s trying his hardest to convince fellow actor (and Uber Eats commercial veteran) Bradley Cooper that everything in football exists for the sole purpose of selling people food. They get cameos from a variety of celebrities, including musician Addison Rae, actors Tramell Tillman and Parker Posey, and Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice. While I’m not sure I’d go as far as McConaughey, I will concede the point that the Pro Football Hall of Fame does in fact look like a juicer.
6. Amazon
Artificial Intelligence was a heavy theme in 2025’s batch of commercials, so it’s no surprise Amazon leaned heavily into that once more in 2026. Starring real life couple Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky as husband and wife, Hemsworth gets to imagine all the ways AI can be both dangerous and beneficial.
5. DoorDash
It’s always fun to get some pettiness and trolling in certain ads, and who better to deliver on that than 50 Cent? The famous rapper pulls a variety of items out of his DoorDash bag, all references to other artists he’s feuded with over the years. Considering some of these ‘beefs’ span almost three decades, it seems the self-professed ‘King of Trolls’ has earned the nickname.
4. Novartis
Novartis, the official pharmaceutical partner of the NFL, is back for a second straight year in the world of Super Bowl ads — and they brought some big names with them to help raise awareness for prostate cancer testing. In a commercial titled ‘Relax Your Tight End’, current and former tight ends Colby Parkinson, Greg Olsen, Tony Gonzalez, Delanie Walker, and Rob Gronkowski can be seen laying by the pool, doing yoga, and painting, amongst other things. Even Gronk’s former coach Bruce Arians — a prostate cancer survivor himself — shows up to describe how easy a test can be, only to ride off into the sunset.
3. Pringles
Can you make a boyfriend out of Pringles? While the answer to that question does not seem to be a definitive ‘yes’ after viewing this commercial, it is fun to see pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter lend her whimsical brand of humour to the famous chip brand. The implications of how things end for Carpenter and her new beau are somewhat troubling, but entertaining nonetheless.
2. Hellmann’s
Absurdity, as mentioned earlier, is often right in the wheelhouse of Andy Samberg. Starring as ‘Meal Diamond’ — a certain play on legendary singer Neil Diamond — Samberg delivers all sorts of rhymes on the word ‘mayo’, as actress Elle Fanning attempts to enjoy a sandwich.
1. Xfinity
What would Jurassic Park have been like had John Hammond simply invested in better internet? Xfinity imagines a more positive end for everyone involved, as Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum all reprise their roles from the 1993 classic and re-do some of their famous scenes – with some help of digital de-aging technology 33 years later.
