ADdicted: Super Bowl 2026 Edition
- David Pullara
- 2 days ago
- 10 min read
This year, I didn't watch the Super Bowl advertising as a marketer.
I was able to watch as a consumer.
In past years, as a Canadian, I didn't have access to the US "Big Game" ads as they aired. I was always thankful for advertisers that chose to release their ads ahead of time (and I always watched and commented on those ads before the game), but I had to wait until the day after the Super Bowl (when all the ads were available on YouTube) to form an educated opinion on "who did it best".
It was always an artificial assessment: I was a trained marketer actively seeking out the ads to watch and assess, which means my attention was at 100%. But that's just not real life.
This year was different... because I was able to watch the Super Bowl on a US feed.
Which means, for the first time in a long time, I watched all the Super Bowl ads aired in my family room, on my big screen TV, in real time... just like a regular consumer.
As such, I decided this year, I'd write my "ADdicted: Super Bowl 2026 Edition" differently...
... by writing it based only on what I could recall about the ads two days after the game.
Which means if an ad didn't make enough of a positive impression for me to remember it two days later, it simply can't make my list.
If I remember a creative spot, but can't remember the advertiser who ran it or what they wanted me to do after seeing it, it can't be a good ad. Creativity is ABSOLUTELY an amplifier when it comes to marketing, but marketing exists to SELL STUFF. And it's much more difficult for me to buy anything from you if I can't remember who you are.
And if the only reason I remember an ad was because it was nonsensical, or didn't make any sense for the brand, or focused on "creativity for creativity's sake" without any regard to ROI, then I may mention those too.
So, without further delay, the following are my dpThoughts on this year's Super Bowl ads.
Note: everything that follows was written entirely from memory two days after the event to test my recall of these spots, so the names of the spots are almost certainly not the proper names given to them by the creators. Also, I tried very (very, very) hard to stay off social media from Sunday evening until the time this was written so that my comments would not be influenced (intentionally or not) by others' thoughts... so any similarities to anything else you may have read are entirely coincidental.
Biggest WTF! Ad: Ring Doorbell
This ad tells me I can use all the doorbell cameras in my neighbourhood to look for my lost dog. Amazing!
Except... most of us do not want to live in a surveillance state where all the neighbourhood cameras can be activated and used for search purposes of any kind, especially when these cameras are manufactured and distributed by a $3 trillion corporation.
I don't care about the details of how this program works, who (if anybody) has access to the video feeds, or whether you need to opt-in or opt-out of this program... this is creepy.
Ads are supposed to get people to buy things, not get people who already have these things to destroy them. If you needed a playbook on how to obliterate the consumer trust you've built over a decade in under a minute, now you have one.
Biggest WTF Ad (Runner Up): Liquid IV - Check Your Pee
I had no idea what this literal toilet-humour spot was advertising until the very end, when the reveal finally happened. And then, I had no idea why a brand you drink wants to be so closely associated with urine. Why? Seriously, why?!?
Biggest Self-Own Ad: TD
If the creative idea of the ad is "More Human" and the implication is that a human touch is better than a world where machines are running the place, why does the entire ad seem to be focused on an automated delivery robot?
Best "Poking the Bear" Ad: Pepsi Polar Bear
Disclosure: This is one of only four Super Bowl ads I watched before it aired during the big game. But my opinion of it hasn't changed.
As a former Coca-Cola employee, I didn't want to love this ad. But I DID love this ad. Pepsi took a classic Coke icon (the Polar Bear) and made it participate in one of its own most well-known assets (the Pepsi Challenge)... and made the bear choose Pepsi. Some have argued that mentioning a competitor in your advertising gives unnecessary attention to that competitor. Fair point, except Pepsi is a challenger brand (not the market leader), and so that's far more acceptable than if the situation had been reversed. (It's also why it was smart for Coke NOT to issue any official response to Pepsi's bait... the last time they did that, we got New Coke!).
Lastly, the System1 report for this ad showed that consumers clearly recognized this spot as a Pepsi ad, not a Coke commercial, so while Coke may have gotten some free exposure in the Super Bowl courtesy of Pepsi's ad spend, the overall winner here was the Blue Team.
Best Reinforcement of an Existing Fear Ad: Alexa+ with Chris Hemsworth
I wanted to LOVE this ad! It stars Chris Hemsworth, an actor I really like. It was very funny and, as a bonus, it was funny in a dark humour sort of way!
But the marketer in me kept thinking, "The exaggerated 'I'm going to kill you' scenarios they're depicting in jest are only a slight exaggeration of the type of 'I don't trust the machines' fears I've heard people express when I ask them why they refuse to have these devices in their home... So why would you spend $10 million+ dollars for an ad that reinforces a fear of your product?"
Sure, the ad ends with Hemsworth accepting the device's offer to book a massage... but isn't that exactly what you'd expect an evil machine to do if it wants to build your trust?
All jokes aside, the biggest mental barrier people have about putting AI-powered "listening devices" in their homes is the fear that this information will be somehow used against them... so why would an ad play UP those fears, even in an exaggerated, humorous way?
Best Random Early 90's Throwback: Xfinity Jurassic Park
The idea that everything would have been just fine at Jurassic Park if they had only had better *ahem* XFinity *ahem* connectivity is hilarious, and this ad executes that idea brilliantly. This ad introduced a nice hit of nostalgia for a film that's almost universally loved.
Best Random Late 90's Throwback: Verizon Backstreet Boys
Tell me why... the Backstreet Boys are back on air
Tell me why... oh, nevermind, I just don't care!
Tell me why, Verizon whatcha trying to say?
And what's with Machine Gun Kelllll-ay?!?
(I remember the musicians from this ad, and I remember it was a Verizon ad... but I remember NOTHING else about it. But, hey, Backstreet's back tonight!)
Biggest "Can We Catch Lightening in a Bottle Twice" Fail: Coinbase Karaoke
In 2022, Coinbase set the marketing world ablaze by paying millions of dollars to run a stupid bouncing QR code on air during the Super Bowl.
At the time, I wrote a detailed post outlining what I thought about that ad; my conclusion was that the ad didn't tickle my creative fancy, but was likely effective in achieving its primary goal of getting people to visit the website.
This year's ad was different. When the karaoke lyrics appeared on screen, my entire family stopped and said, "WTF is this!?" Then, a few lines in, we started to sing. Fun!
And when the reveal happened? Nothing else happened.
No visit to the website this time around, which means the only achievement of this ad was to get people to briefly think about Coinbase. And given that Coinbase's brand recognition among an audience as wide as "Super Bowl viewers" is likely very low, that's not much of an achievement at all. (Asking you to think about hydrocarbons only requires me to say the word, but asking you to understand what they are and why you should care about them is both more important and more difficult.)
Will Coinbase win a Cannes Lion for this absurd waste of marketing spend? Perhaps. But even that is more likely than anybody taking an action beneficial to Coinbase after watching this spot.
Least Creative but Most Effective Ad: AI.com
This was a boring ad. But when it suggested that I visit the site to "claim my name", I did just that... even entering my credit card number (once they assured me I wouldn't be charged anything) to seal the deal.
And apparently, I wasn't alone in visiting the site, because when I visited AI.com immediately after watching the ad, it had crashed...
(I had to go back later to secure my name... which is really a double-win for the brand.)
This ad won't win any Cannes Lions, but it might win something more important: new users.
(Well, assuming they managed to keep their site up. Spending millions of dollars on a Super Bowl ad but not ensuring your website can handle the increased traffic that results from it is terrible planning. Did the technical folks not believe the ad would be effective?)
Biggest Unexpected Laugh: Raisin Bran - William Shat
Did you watch the ad? Do I need to say anything more? Laugh-out-loud funny, and a strong association with the, um, benefits of eating more bran.
Biggest Waste of Perfectly Good Celebrities: Dunkin Donuts - Good Will Dunkin
I love "Good Will Hunting". I like every single celebrity featured in this ad. I just have no idea why Dunkin Donuts thought putting them all in the same place at the same time for a screwball parody of an iconic film was a good idea... Or why they thought it would sell any more donuts.
This ad felt like either Dunkin Donuts' CMO really wanted to work with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston, or members of the creative team had a pool going to see how many celebrities they could get the client to agree to hire for a single spot.
Best use of a Super Bowl Ad Spend: Anthropic - There Ain't No Ads Here
Okay, I'm absolutely certain that wasn't the title of this campaign. But that was the effective message... and it was REALLY effective.
While marketers may love advertising, the average consumer doesn't... and they certainly don't want paid sponsors influencing the answers they get when they ask AI questions. And while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has called the ad "dishonest" because he claims ChatGPT isn't going to integrate ads the way Anthropic is suggesting they will, the average consumer has been taught to believe that when a tech CEO says "NEVER!", it often means "not yet, anyway".
Again, this was a very effective way to position Anthropic's "Claude" as a better, less biased alternative to the more popular (and more well-known) ChatGPT.
Best Overall Super Bowl Ads: THREE-WAY TIE
1. Google Gemini: "Moving"
I love when an ad can clearly demonstrate the benefits of what's being sold while STILL eliciting a strong emotion. And what's more emotional than a parent trying to let a child know that an upcoming move will be great? Oh, wait, I know...
1. Redfin | Rocket "Won't you be my neighbour?"
... Reuniting a lost dog with its worried owner! Everything about this ad was terrific, from the Lady Gaga reimagining of the Mr. Rogers theme song, to "cold" neighbours warming up to a new family in town... A terrific spot that actually had something to do with the product being sold!
1. Lays Potato Farmer
It's not quite a parent consoling a child or a girl being reunited with her furry friend, but a proud Dad handing the keys to his potato empire to his daughter is worthy of an emotional sniffle or two. (And that soundtrack!)
Honourable Mention: Hellman's Sweet Sandwich Time
This ad adapts a song that EVERYBODY ON EARTH knows in a way that somehow manages not to offend us for messing with a classic. Andy Samberg as a "Meal Diamond" singer is perfect, but the ad wasn't just goofy... it actually made the product the hero.
Other Ads I Vaguely Recall (but may have had to look at my notes for this write-up):
Kendall Jenner starred in an ad for... something. I remember Jenner because she's tough to forget, but whatever it was she was trying to advertise was lost on me.
Emma Stone did an ad. I love Emma Stone. She was really upset about something, but I can't remember what. What a waste of Emma Stone's immense talent.
Adrian Broody did an ad. I like Adrian Broody. But I think somebody at that tax software company REALLY likes Adrian Broody, because I see no other reason why he was chosen to be a spokesperson for tax software.
Levi's had an ad featuring a lot of butts in jeans. I liked the ad "in the moment", but forgot about it as I was writing this post. Then remembered it at the last minute and came back to give it a mention because I DID like the creative idea, even though apparently it wasn't as memorable (for me, at least) as it should have been.
The Microsoft Co-Pilot X NFL spot wasn't a sexy ad, but it did show one way to use a tool currently installed (and likely still underutilized) on millions of devices worldwide. Although if NFL scouts are really using Co-Pilot like this, it serves as a scary example of how AI is going to make most jobs as they exist today disappear.
The Matthew "Ferris Bueller" Broderick's ad was interesting... but not in a good way. I say this because if you were to offer me $1 million right now to tell you the name of the (AI?) service he was advertising, I couldn't collect. So I think this was a terrible ad. But it was nice to have Broderick back on screen, if only for a little while.
There was a funny Bud Light ad starring Peyton Manning at a wedding. I laughed out loud. But since Bud Light can barely be classified as a beer, that's about all the ad can do for me.
There was an ad with a bunch of football players ("Tight Ends", as it turns out) telling me to check my prostate using a new non-invasive method. I had to check my notes to remember why I laughed out loud: it was the "relax your tight end" line that did it for me. I had absolutely no idea who ran this ad until I searched "Super Bowl commercial check your prostate" on YouTube. (It was Novartis.)
Finally, I heard a lot about the Instacart Banana Ad, but somehow missed it during the Big Game... so I went to look it up today. This was a very entertaining ad, but I'd be surprised if anybody not working in marketing could remember it was an Instacart ad... and if I'm right, it was a waste of money for the brand.
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