I watch Super Bowl advertising as an ad practitioner, not as a fan compiling a popularity list. After years of working with ideas, briefs and presentations, I am interested in what remains when the celebrity, licensed music and production budget are stripped away.
These are my selections and judgments; I did not work on the campaigns below, and factual claims about the work are checked against first-party or authoritative reporting.
Super Bowl LX produced dozens of big-budget commercials, but the most useful examples are not simply the funniest or most celebrity-heavy. The better question for marketers is what each ad made easy to understand, remember or talk about—and which part of that idea could survive without a Super Bowl-sized media budget.
This is my selective analysis, not a definitive ranking. I chose the seven campaigns below because their core mechanics are well documented by first-party sources or strong contemporaneous reporting and because each offers a distinct lesson in creative strategy.
The best Super Bowl ads turn one strategic idea into an instantly legible creative device. Celebrity, production value and media scale can amplify that device, but they cannot replace it.
1. Pepsi Zero Sugar — “The Choice”
Pepsi used a familiar category rivalry and made it literal. In “The Choice,” directed by Taika Waititi, a cola-loving polar bear takes a blind taste test and chooses Pepsi Zero Sugar. The creative then turns that choice into an identity crisis and a comic journey of self-discovery.
What I think makes it work: the ad borrows a piece of cultural memory—the polar bear as a cola symbol—and flips it into a challenger-brand story. The joke is understandable before the viewer knows every campaign detail, while the blind-test device keeps the product claim at the center.
What I would take from it: if your category has a default assumption, design a demonstration that lets the audience watch that assumption get challenged. Product proof is stronger when it creates the story instead of appearing after the story.
2. Squarespace — “Unavailable”
Squarespace built its Super Bowl spot around a simple anxiety: discovering that your own name is already taken online. Emma Stone repeatedly tries to register emmastone.com in a black-and-white film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, turning domain ownership into a miniature suspense story.
What I think makes it work: the product problem is immediately understandable. Squarespace does not need a long feature explanation because the conflict itself—someone else owns the domain you want—creates urgency and makes the product relevant.
What I would take from it: find the moment when a customer suddenly realizes the cost of waiting. A good problem-first campaign can make a mundane service feel consequential without inventing a fake crisis.
Squarespace described the game-day spot as the centerpiece of a larger campaign with additional films. That is a useful reminder that a Super Bowl commercial can be the launch point for a campaign world rather than a one-night asset.
3. Xfinity — “Jurassic Park…Works”
Xfinity reimagined Jurassic Park with the original trio of Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum. The premise asks what would have happened if the park’s connectivity and systems had actually worked, turning the famous failure of the 1993 film into a product demonstration for Xfinity’s connected ecosystem.
What I think makes it work: the brand does not simply rent nostalgia. It uses the original story’s central problem as the bridge to the modern product. Comcast also extended the campaign into San Francisco with themed rides, projections and an interactive billboard.
What I would take from it: if you use a familiar cultural property, make the brand solve a problem inside that world. Recognition gets attention; relevance is what makes the borrowed culture useful.
4. Budweiser — “American Icons”
Budweiser paired two long-running brand symbols: the Clydesdale and American heritage. The 60-second “American Icons” spot follows a Clydesdale and a young bird that ultimately becomes a bald eagle, while marking Budweiser’s 150th anniversary and the United States’ 250th birthday.
What I think makes it work: the creative connects multiple milestones through a simple emotional relationship. The brand’s heritage is not delivered as a timeline of dates; it is embodied by recognizable symbols and a story designed to build toward a reveal.
What I would take from it: when a brand has history, dramatize what that history means instead of listing how long the company has existed. Heritage becomes useful when it supports a current emotional idea.
5. Liquid I.V. — “Take a Look”
Liquid I.V.’s first Super Bowl commercial made hydration unusually hard to ignore. A chorus of toilets and urinals sings a version of Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds,” prompting viewers to look at urine color as a basic hydration cue.
What I think makes it work: the execution is intentionally divisive, but the message is unusually sticky. The strange visual device is directly tied to the product category rather than being random weirdness added for attention.
What I would take from it: if you choose an outrageous execution, make sure the weirdness points back to a useful product truth. Memorable is not the same as relevant.
Attention is not automatically effectiveness. Liquid I.V.’s ad generated strong reactions, including disgust and criticism. A polarizing device can increase memory while also creating brand risk, so the creative team should decide in advance which kind of reaction it is willing to own.
6. Rocket + Redfin — “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Rocket and Redfin used Lady Gaga’s rendition of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” to introduce a campaign about home, community and belonging. The campaign drew on the cultural meaning associated with Mister Rogers rather than trying to make mortgage mechanics emotionally moving on their own.
What I think makes it work: the creative broadens the category from transaction to belonging. That gives a functional service a human frame while still remaining connected to the idea of home.
What I would take from it: when a category is emotionally cold, identify the human outcome behind the transaction. Finance, logistics and software often become more interesting when the campaign focuses on what the service enables rather than the interface itself.
7. Dove — “The Game Is Ours”
Dove used its sports platform to focus on girls’ body confidence and staying in sport. The brand’s current FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign says one in two girls who quit sport are criticized for their body type and connects the message to resources, partnerships and participation beyond the ad itself.
What I think makes it work: the cause is linked to an established brand territory rather than added as a generic purpose message. The campaign also gives the idea somewhere to go after awareness through resources and partner activity.
What I would take from it: purpose-led advertising is stronger when the issue connects to what the brand has already been working on and when the campaign includes an action beyond the film.
What the seven ads have in common
- Each can be explained in one sentence without describing the production budget.
- The brand or product has a clear role in the idea rather than appearing only at the end.
- The execution creates a memory device: a polar bear taste test, a missing domain, a functioning Jurassic Park, a Clydesdale and eagle, singing toilets, a familiar neighborhood song or a girls-in-sport platform.
- Most extend beyond one 30- or 60-second film through additional content, activations, product experiences or ongoing campaigns.
How to use the lessons without a Super Bowl budget
- Start with the one thing you want the audience to remember, not the channel you want to buy.
- Turn that idea into a device people can understand quickly: a demonstration, reversal, reveal, question, cultural reference or emotional contrast.
- Check whether the brand is essential to the story. If a competitor could replace your logo without changing the idea, the concept probably needs more work.
- Plan the second and third executions before approving the first. A campaign is more valuable when the idea can expand without repeating the same film.
- Measure the result that matters to the objective. Attention, search lift, visits, sales and brand preference are different outcomes.
Remove the celebrity, licensed song and production polish from the concept on paper. If the underlying idea is still interesting, you probably have a campaign mechanic worth developing. If it collapses, the execution may be doing all the strategic work.
How this fits with the best campaigns of 2025
For a wider benchmark beyond the Super Bowl, see my review of 11 innovative marketing campaigns from 2025 worth studying. That article covers a broader mix of channels and campaign types; this one is intentionally narrower, using Super Bowl LX as a concentrated study of high-stakes creative choices.
The bottom line
The lesson from Super Bowl 2026 is not that marketers need more celebrities, nostalgia or spectacle. It is that expensive attention rewards simple ideas. Pepsi created a challenger demonstration. Squarespace dramatized the cost of waiting. Xfinity made nostalgia solve a product problem. Budweiser turned heritage into a relationship. Liquid I.V. made a product cue impossible to forget. Rocket made home feel human. Dove connected purpose to an ongoing brand platform.
The transferable skill is to find a strategic idea strong enough that the execution can become bigger without becoming less clear.
