You watched the game. You saw the ads. Some made you laugh, some made you think, and some left you wondering what you just watched. Super Bowl LX delivered over 60 commercials, each costing brands between $8 and $10 million for 30 seconds of airtime. That’s more than $260,000 per second.
With stakes that high, you’d think every ad would be a home run. They weren’t. Some brands nailed the assignment with authentic storytelling and clear messaging. Others burned millions on confusing concepts that left viewers scratching their heads. Here’s what separated the winners from the expensive mistakes, and what these lessons mean for anyone thinking about their own marketing strategy.
The 3 Best Super Bowl LX Commercials of 2026
The best Super Bowl commercials this year didn’t just entertain. They connected. They had a clear point of view, respected the audience’s intelligence, and gave people something worth talking about long after the game ended. No gimmicks, no empty celebrity cameos, no vague concepts hoping curiosity would do the heavy lifting.
Let’s look at the three commercials that got it right and why they worked.
1. Pokémon: What’s Your Favorite?
Out of all the Super Bowl LX commercials this year, one stood out above the rest for me, and no, it wasn’t selling beer, trucks, or AI. It was Pokémon’s 30th anniversary spot, “What’s Your Favorite?” And honestly? It might be the most universally relatable ad to ever air during the Big Game.
Here’s the thing about Pokémon. It doesn’t matter how old you are. Whether you came out of the womb yesterday, you’re grinding through your 9-to-5, or you’re living the good retired life down in Florida, there is a Pokémon for you. And I mean everyone.
That’s exactly what this commercial nailed. The celebrity lineup wasn’t just star power for the sake of star power, it was proof of concept. Every single person in that ad came from a completely different world, and yet they all had one thing in common: a Pokémon that speaks to who they are.
Trevor Noah kicked things off strolling down a boardwalk with the one and only Psyduck, the perpetually confused, headache-prone duck that somehow just gets it. Noah grew up with Pokémon in South Africa, trading cards as a kid and playing Red, Blue, and Yellow on the Game Boy. He put it best: “Every single time you met a new Pokémon, it felt like you met a new part of yourself.”
Lady Gaga chose Jigglypuff, obviously. A performer with a 12-octave vocal range who always finds a way to make it funny? That’s not just a Pokémon pick, that’s a self-portrait. And then she actually sang the Jigglypuff lullaby in a recording studio duet. Iconic.
Charles Leclerc, the Formula One driver, went with Arcanine, the lightning-fast, fiercely loyal fire-type. When your whole life is built around speed, of course your Pokémon is one of the fastest creatures in the game.
Jisoo from BLACKPINK picked Eevee, the Pokémon famous for being able to evolve into multiple different forms. For a global K-pop star who reinvents herself across music, fashion, and acting, the fit couldn’t be more perfect.
Young Miko, the Puerto Rican rapper, chose Gengar, the mischievous ghost-type. As she said, “He’s mischievous, but that’s sort of his love language.” Say less.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, star of Never Have I Ever and Freakier Friday, went with Luxray, the electric lion-type. Her reason? “He likes to sleep. Just like me.” Luxray was the best card in her very first Pokémon card pack, and she still has it to this day.
And Lamine Yamal, the young Spanish soccer phenom, was paired with Zygarde, the powerful legendary Pokémon. For a teenager already dominating on the world’s biggest stages, a legendary partner just makes sense.
Pokémon is one of the only franchises on the planet whose target audience is genuinely the entire world. Not a demographic. Not an age group. Not a region. Everyone. That’s a claim almost no other brand can make, and this commercial proved it by pulling together a comedian, a pop icon, an F1 driver, a K-pop star, a rapper, an actress, and a teenage soccer star, all from different countries, different generations, different walks of life.
And the genius of the ad’s central question, “What’s your favorite?”, is that it’s not really about Pokémon at all. It’s about identity. Pokémon reflect our emotions, our quirks, our personalities. The lazy ones, the loud ones, the fast ones, the mischievous ones. When you pick your favorite Pokémon, you’re telling the world a little something about yourself.
That’s why this was my favorite commercial of Super Bowl LX. No gimmicks, no AI slop, no hard sell. Just a simple, universal truth: there’s a Pokémon for everyone. And after 30 years, that still hits.
So, what’s your favorite?
2. Good Will Dunkin’
Dunkin’ absolutely nailed it with this one. Ben Affleck returned for his fourth Dunkin’ Super Bowl commercial, and this time he brought the whole squad.
The ad is a sitcom parody of the 1997 classic Good Will Hunting set inside a Dunkin’ Donuts in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the 90s sitcom legends just kept rolling in. Matt LeBlanc’s Joey from Friends. Jason Alexander’s George from Seinfeld. Ted Danson’s Sam from Cheers. Alfonso Ribeiro’s Carlton from Fresh Prince. Jaleel White’s Urkel from Family Matters. Jasmine Guy’s Whitley from A Different World. Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel from Friends. And to cap it all off, Tom Brady showed up at the end as Aniston’s new boyfriend delivering the perfect punchline. Arguably the most star-studded cast in Super Bowl ad history.
What makes this ad so brilliant is how smartly it leans into nostalgia without feeling lazy about it. Nostalgia is one of the most common plays in Super Bowl advertising, and we see it every year with brands trotting out old movie stars and TV icons. But nobody has ever done it on this scale. Every single person in this ad represents a show that defined an entire generation of television, and if you grew up in the 90s, this was hands down your favorite commercial of the night. Chances are you’ve watched at least one of these shows, and if you somehow haven’t, you’ve been living under a rock for the past 30 years.
On top of that, choosing to parody Good Will Hunting was a stroke of genius. It ties directly to Affleck, ties directly to Boston, and ties directly to Dunkin’s identity as a brand. If you didn’t catch the references, I need you to stop whatever you’re doing and go watch one of the greatest films ever made. Dunkin’ has been building this partnership with Affleck since 2023, and with this ad, they proved that nobody is doing it better when it comes to celebrity-driven Super Bowl commercials.
3. Pepsi: The Choice
Pepsi did something in their Super Bowl LX spot that I’ve never seen a brand do before. They took Coca-Cola’s iconic polar bear, one of the most recognizable mascots in advertising, and used it against them.
The ad, called “The Choice” and directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi, follows a polar bear who takes a blind taste test between Coke Zero Sugar and Pepsi Zero Sugar. The bear chooses Pepsi. What follows is a full-blown existential crisis.
The bear ends up on a therapist’s couch, played by Waititi himself, questioning everything he thought he knew. He’s then seen sadly watching people enjoy Pepsi through a restaurant window before eventually finding another polar bear who hands him a Pepsi, all set to Queen’s “I Want to Break Free.” The whole thing wraps up with the two bears appearing together on a kiss cam at a concert, recreating the infamous Astronomer incident from 2025 where the company’s CEO and head of HR were caught on Coldplay’s kiss cam at Gillette Stadium, a moment that went mega-viral and led to both of them resigning. Except this time, the bears lean into it and celebrate with Pepsi cans instead of ducking for cover.
What makes this ad truly stand out is that Pepsi barely needed any words to tell the story. The narrative is almost entirely visual, and that says everything about the quality of the filmmaking. Any director will tell you that the best storytelling happens when you can convey a message without relying on dialogue, and Waititi absolutely delivered on that here.
But great filmmaking alone doesn’t make a great Super Bowl ad. You also need to feel connected to the moment, and Pepsi nailed that by weaving in the Astronomer scandal. By referencing something that millions of people were already familiar with, Pepsi made sure the ad felt timely and culturally aware. Playing off trending moments in pop culture will always make for a great ad, and that kind of awareness is what separates a good commercial from a great one.
And then there’s the boldest move of all. Brands call out their competitors all the time, and those ads always get people talking because competition breeds publicity. But I have never seen a company straight up take their rival’s mascot and flip it against them on the biggest advertising stage in the world. This is the ad people were still talking about days after the game, and for good reason. Pepsi didn’t just run a commercial, they made a statement.
The 3 Worst Super Bowl LX Commercials of 2026
Not every brand got it right. Some commercials were confusing, others were tone-deaf, and a few were just plain lazy despite massive budgets. The worst performers shared the same problem: they forgot to tell you what they were selling or why you should care.
The Super Bowl is the most expensive advertising real estate on the planet. You have millions of eyeballs for 30 to 60 seconds. If your strategy is “be as vague as possible and hope curiosity does the work,” that’s not clever. That’s lazy. Here are the three commercials that missed the mark and what went wrong.
1. AI.com
Now for the worst ad of the night. AI.com.
I’m going to keep this short because, frankly, the commercial didn’t give me much to work with. The entire ad was essentially “go to this website and make a handle.” That’s it. No explanation of what AI.com actually is. No reason why I should care. No visual hook. No voiceover. Just a URL and a vague prompt.
And here’s the thing, even when you go to the website, you’re still confused. I got there and I was literally thinking, “what am I making a handle for?” The site tells you to reserve a name and even asks for a credit card, but the product isn’t even fully live yet. There’s nothing to actually use. You’re essentially claiming a username for something that doesn’t exist yet and hoping it matters someday.
This is the Coinbase problem all over again. Their ad this year was the same energy: a lo-fi karaoke sing-along to a Backstreet Boys song with bare-bones graphics and zero explanation of why anyone should care about crypto. No visual hook, no voiceover, no real call to action.
The Super Bowl is the most expensive advertising real estate on the planet. You have millions of eyeballs for 30 to 60 seconds. And your strategy is “be as vague as possible and hope curiosity does the work”? That’s not clever. That’s lazy. Tell me what you are. Tell me why I need it. Give me a reason to act. AI.com did none of that, and that’s why it was the worst ad of the night.
2. SVEDKA Vodka — “Shake Your Bots Off”
If there was one theme that dominated Super Bowl LX, it was AI, and SVEDKA Vodka definitely didn’t get it right. For their first-ever Super Bowl commercial, SVEDKA revived their Fembot mascot, a robotic character that had been the face of the brand since 2005 before being shelved for over a decade. She returned alongside a new sidekick called BroBot, and the entire ad was created primarily through AI, making it one of the first Super Bowl commercials produced that way.
The two AI-generated robots danced to “Super Freak” while partying with a crowd of humans, and at one point, BroBot actually drinks SVEDKA on camera before short-circuiting. And that’s where the whole thing falls apart.
Let’s start with the obvious: a robot mascot for an alcohol brand has never really made sense. Robots can’t drink. Enough said. So building your brand identity around one is a strange foundation to begin with. But the real issue with this ad is what the robot allowed them to do.
TV networks have long maintained a standard where humans can’t be shown actually drinking alcohol on camera in commercials. So having BroBot take a sip instead? That’s a clever workaround on paper, but it completely misses the mark in practice. Robots don’t drink. They can’t taste anything. There is zero connection between an AI-generated machine consuming vodka and the actual experience of enjoying a cocktail, so why would watching one do it make anyone want to grab a bottle?
Add in the fact that the AI-generated visuals gave the whole thing an unsettling, uncanny quality, and you’re left with an ad that feels more like a tech demo than a Super Bowl commercial. In a game already saturated with AI, SVEDKA delivered one of the most soulless uses of the technology, an ad about drinking that forgot the most human part of why people drink in the first place.
3. Everybody Coinbase
Coinbase came back to the Super Bowl for the first time in four years and decided to run a 60-second karaoke singalong. That’s it. The entire ad was the Backstreet Boys’ 1997 hit “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” with the lyrics displayed on screen using lo-fi graphics that looked like something out of a karaoke bar. No visuals, no voiceover, no celebrities, no storyline. Just text on a screen for a full minute. They did swap out some of the original lyrics with crypto-themed lines, like changing “Am I original?” to “Am I the original crypto exchange?” but having a Super Bowl ad with no visual hook is like showing up to the beach without a bathing suit or a towel. You’re just there with nothing.
The bigger problem is that Coinbase didn’t reveal who the ad was even for until the final two frames, where the words “Coinbase” and “Crypto. For Everybody.” flashed on screen. A lot of Super Bowl ads hold their branding until the end, and when done right it creates suspense and builds anticipation that pays off in a satisfying reveal. But that only works when the ad itself gives you enough to stay engaged along the way. The crypto hints in the lyrics were technically there, but burying your product messaging inside a karaoke singalong and hoping people pick up on it is not exactly a strong branding strategy. There was no buildup, no payoff, just a minute of reading followed by a logo. If you’re going to ask over 100 million viewers to sit through a minute of text on a screen, you need a voiceover or some kind of visual element to grab their attention.
Let’s be realistic, at least half of the Super Bowl audience has had a few drinks by the time commercials roll, and the other half is scrolling on their phone. Without something to pull their eyes to the screen and keep them there, you’ve already lost them. Coinbase clearly wanted to recreate the magic of their viral QR code ad from 2022, but there’s a difference between minimalist and empty. This was empty.
What Super Bowl Commercials Teach Us About Effective Marketing
Super Bowl LX proved that the size of your budget doesn’t determine the quality of your ad. Pokémon, Dunkin’, and Pepsi all succeeded because they understood who they were talking to and gave people something real to connect with. Whether it was nostalgia rooted in identity, celebrity partnerships built over years, or a visual story bold enough to steal a competitor’s mascot, the winners had a clear message and the creative confidence to deliver it.
The worst ads—AI.com, SVEDKA, and Coinbase—all made the same mistake. They forgot to tell people what they were selling and why it mattered. Vague concepts, AI gimmicks, and bare-bones visuals don’t cut it when you’re paying more than a quarter million dollars per second.
These lessons apply whether you’re spending $10 million or $1,000. Know what you’re selling. Respect your audience. Give people a reason to care. And if you’re ready to create marketing that actually connects with your audience and drives real results, we can help you develop strategies that work for your business and your market.
