The 2026 Super Bowl ads: hits, misses, and what it all means for brand
Bananas, Jesus ads
Good morning to the peanut gallery! 🥜 Today’s musings are really just for fun—whether you watched or didn’t, take some talking points for your next meetings. I can’t do the halftime show justice here (so fun, so fresh), but I loved this recap that gets at a lot of the nods and cultural cues you might not have noticed.
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Another Super Bowl, another $8-10 million spent per 30-second spot. The Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots, but the competition we care about was all in the commercial breaks! Some brands nailed it. Others… well, let’s just say they proved that throwing money and celebrities at a problem doesn’t always work.
I think I watched every ad (you’re welcome), and I’m breaking down a few that actually worked, what fell flat, and what we can learn from both. As always, the best ads tapped into something real, whether that’s cultural anxiety, genuine nostalgia, or a product truth that matters. Did you have a fave?
The standouts
Redfin x Rocket Money
America Could Use a Neighbor
Possibly my favorite from this year?? This was the rare sentimental Super Bowl ad that didn’t feel maudlin. Two families—one white, one Latino—living next to each other get off on the wrong foot. Then one family’s dog runs away in a storm, the other family finds it and returns it, and suddenly there are hugs and tears and connection.
The tagline: “America could use a neighbor.” Add in Lady Gaga singing an understated version of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and you have something that felt like a short film rather than a real estate ad. We had a broadcast stuffed with celebrities, stunts, (and poop/toilet jokes—thanks for those, Liquid IV and Raisin Bran), but Redfin went deep with their storytelling and it paid off.
Watch: Redfin - America Could Use a Neighbor
Hims & Hers
Rich People Live Longer
Another contender for best ad of the night. Narrated by Common, it opened with a sharp bit of cultural commentary: “Rich people live longer.” The whole spot leaned into the health-wealth gap—showing billionaires getting plastic surgery, blasting off into space, accessing preventative care that most people can’t afford. Then the payoff: Hims & Hers offers that same access to everyone.
I feel like this one did what the He Gets Us ads did well without the religious pressuring—it tapped into timely cultural anxieties with strong storytelling and an emotional hook. But unlike those faith-based spots, Hims & Hers closed with a clear product explanation. Among all the GLP-1 ads this year, this was the only one that felt like it had something substantive to say beyond “we also sell weight loss drugs.”
The production was surreal and visually arresting (think Succession title sequence energy), and while Common isn’t a massive celebrity in the traditional sense, Hims & Hers has always leaned into influencer marketing as a core strategy. This felt like an evolution—using a trusted voice to make an uncomfortable argument that needed to be made.
Watch: Hims & Hers - Rich People Live Longer
Instacart
Bananas (ft. Benson Boone & Ben Stiller)
Directed by Spike Jonze (his first Super Bowl ad in 20+ years), this spot was pure absurdist joy. Benson Boone and Ben Stiller play disco-pop brothers in matching green suits, singing about Instacart’s banana ripeness selector. Boone nails a backflip; Stiller tries to one-up him and crashes spectacularly into a drum set.
The nostalgia worked because it wasn’t just surface-level. The production quality was there (shot on vintage tube cameras), the casting hit multiple generations (Boone for Gen Z, Stiller for everyone else), and the attention to detail elevated it beyond typical Super Bowl fare. It worked in both 30-second and extended formats, which is rare.
Also: Instacart’s top-selling item is bananas. 🍌 1.8 billion delivered since 2012. We love when absurdity actually has product truth behind it!
Squarespace
Unavailable (ft. Emma Stone)
Emma Stone smashing computers because “emmastone.com” is unavailable shouldn’t work as well as it did (is getting your domain name really still a thing?). But directed by her frequent collaborator Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness), shot on black-and-white film, this looked visually different from all the other ads—gothic, cinematic, playing into a very specific aesthetic that’s having a mainstream moment. (Loved Nosferatu, still need to watch Frankenstein.)
I was watching at a crowded Super Bowl party (at least for my first watch of many of these ads) and I thought this one worked well barely being able to hear the audio. You could watch this on mute at a bar and still get it. The visual storytelling was strong enough to carry the concept, and Emma Stone really nailed the comedic escalation (descent into madness over a domain name).
Squarespace has been doing cinematic Super Bowl spots for 12 years now, and this one proved they still understand how to leverage auteur directors and A-list talent without making the creative feel like a vanity project.
Watch: Squarespace - Unavailable
Good Will Dunkin'
ft. Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Tom Brady, and basically every ‘90s sitcom star
Ben Affleck directed his fourth straight Dunkin’ Super Bowl ad, and this one was his most ambitious: a shot-on-film, laugh-track-laden reimagining of Good Will Hunting as a ‘90s sitcom. Affleck plays Will (instead of his best friend Matt Damon), working at a Dunkin’ in Cambridge, arranging Munchkins in the Fibonacci sequence.
The cast was stacked: Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Jason Alexander, Ted Danson, Alfonso Ribeiro, Jaleel White, Jasmine Guy, and Tom Brady (who steals Affleck’s girl with the line “How do you like these nuts?”). The jokes came fast—some landed, some didn’t, but the sheer density of references and celebrity appearances made it feel like an event.
The risk here imo is that it’s easy to miss half the jokes if you’re not paying close attention, and the nostalgia play probably isn’t resonating with younger viewers who didn’t grow up on Friends and Seinfeld. Catnip for the target demo though!
Grubhub
Who Will Eat the Fees? (ft. George Clooney)
George Clooney at a dinner party, deadpan delivery: Grubhub is eating delivery and service fees on orders over $50. The joke started strong, even if it didn’t have much to build on as the spot went on. But it ended with a clear value prop, which is more than a lot of ads can say.
Watch: Grubhub - George Clooney
Pepsi
Polar Bear Taste Test
A Coca-Cola polar bear chooses Pepsi in a blind taste test. It was clever, immediately funny, and the Coldplay scandal reference got a laugh. But both of those elements mean Pepsi is “borrowing” rather than doing their own brand storytelling. They’re borrowing Coke’s iconic mascot, they’re borrowing a cultural moment. It works as a one-off joke, but it doesn’t necessarily build toward anything.
YouTube TV
Celebrity talent, safely deployed
I liked this one—funny use of celebrity, but also thought they played it safe. they didn’t really tap into what makes YouTube different—it kind of could’ve been any streaming TV service.
Coinbase
Unique format, demands attention
Coinbase wins again (remember the bouncing QR code 3 years ago?) for doing something visually different that demands attention during the live broadcast. Everyone at my house party was singing along. My only critique is that when the ad is all format, you don’t have a long shelf life afterward; you can’t really repurpose it. Without investing in longer-term brand narratives, these moments feel disconnected from a coherent story about what Coinbase actually is. But hey, when the production value is basically $0, you can find another way to to do that.
He Gets Us
Jesus ads all about being seen
“Is there more to life than more?” Killer line. Surprisingly relatable, unexpected advertiser, strong storytelling. Well-played on current cultural anxieties. Both the spots I saw were well-executed (“Be productive” really got me) even if not your thing (it’s not mine lol).
Claude
AI with personality
Not spending a ton of time here because these were Claude ads were great overall (especially preferred the online versions with workout guy and therapy guy), but the TV versions weren’t as strong. The storytelling that worked in longer digital formats felt truncated on broadcast. Still, more compelling than this jumble of b-roll in OpenAI’s Super Bowl spot, Codex.
The peanut gallery (my critiques)
Ring
Search Party
Cute concept: using Ring to keep tabs on your pets. But let’s be real—it’s surveillance. And if it works for pets, it works for people. The cuteness can’t fully mask the creepy implications, replete with their CEO walking down your neighborhood block.
Amazon Alexa+
I don’t know what else I expected from Amazon. The AI anxiety is real, and Amazon made light of it with a bunch of wealthy people using Alexa+ in aspirational scenarios.
Wegovy
Among the GLP-1 ads, this was the weakest on the meh-nu (get it)—no clear message, no emotional anchor.
Ro (ft. Serena Williams)
Celebrity placement with no substance behind it. Serena Williams, nice! But the ad didn’t give her much interesting to do or say. It felt like they cast her and then forgot to write the spot. (Nevermind the actual product scrutiny.)
Uber Eats (ft. Bradley Cooper & Matthew McConaughey)
This is probably me just being out of the loop and missing all the best jokes, but it felt like year’s ad relied entirely on star power with a lot of mumbly dialogue. imo the format didn’t work for a 30-second spot and it was indistinguishable from other years (maybe they peaked with Jennifer Coolidge?). Uber Eats has been doing celebrity-stuffed Super Bowl ads for years now, but they’re all starting to blur together.
Wix Harmony, Base44, Genspark.ai, and other AI SaaS tools
Nothing so bad here, but erred more generic “typing into a box” creative. If your entire value prop is AI, and your ad just shows someone typing into an interface, you haven’t differentiated at all. These felt more or less interchangeable.
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo is starting at a deficit of brand favor, but even if I were going easy on them, the “celebrations” featured in this spot were annoying/cringe and intrusive, not user-centric. If your brand promise is about being there for customers, maybe don’t show scenarios where you’re interrupting their lives?
What we can learn
The best Super Bowl ads this year had a few things in common:
They tapped into cultural truths. Hims & Hers tackled the health wealth gap. Redfin spoke to polarization and the need for community. You can sell a product and acknowledge real anxieties and offer a way forward.
They committed to a creative vision. Squarespace let Yorgos Lanthimos do his thing. Instacart brought in Spike Jonze and shot on vintage cameras. Good Will Dunkin’ went all-in on the ‘90s sitcom bit. When brands trust great creative directors and actually go there, it shows.
They had clear product truth. Even the most entertaining ads (Instacart, Grubhub) closed with a product benefit that mattered. The worst ads are all style, no substance.
They didn’t rely on celebrity alone. Yes, Emma Stone and George Clooney and Ben Affleck all showed up. But the ads that worked used them in service of an idea, not as a substitute for one. Ro and Uber Eats paraded famous faces around and hoped that would be enough. Was it?
And one more thing: the best storytelling didn’t feel like marketing. Budweiser, Lay’s, Hims & Hers, He Gets Us (lol), and Redfin all felt like short films that happened to have a brand message. That’s the standard now. If you’re spending $10 million on 30 seconds of airtime, it better be worth watching on its own merits.
What did you think of this year’s Super Bowl ads? Any I missed that you loved (or hated)? Drop a comment or hit reply—I actually read these! 🍇
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I would have LOVED to have been in the pitch meeting for the Coinbase ad. Bless that team and their bosses
Levi’s was my favorite. Coinbase’s was a good waste of money and the Jesus ads — the Church should maybe try that approach themselves.