The Super Bowl is the pinnacle of sporting events in the United States, with the NFL’s championship game attracting millions of viewers, with Super Bowl LX just this past Sunday garnering over 120 million viewers. But people don’t just watch the big game for football, or even the halftime show, as the commercials are an iconic part of the Super Bowl, with companies finding unique ways to advertise their products, whether it be celebrity endorsements, powerful messaging, or even killing off their own company’s mascot, just for him to be reborn later in the night. Many commercials are iconic within pop culture, but what really is the best Super Bowl commercial of all time?
Of course there have been so many Super Bowl commercials, so it’s hard to find just one that can be crowned the best of all time. First there are the ads that are weird, so weird in fact that it gives them an iconic status, commercials such as Mountain Dew’s “Puppy Monkey Baby” from 2016, Doritos’ “Finger Cleaner” from 2014, and who could forget Kanye West’s 2025 commercial that was filmed from his IPhone, as he spent all of the money for the commercial on his new teeth.
Now, of course, the most memorable commercials are the ones that feature celebrities, these ones include Dunkin’ Donuts’ 2025 ad that featured Boston icons Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Tom Brady as “The DunKings”, which was followed up in 2025 and 2026 with many more celebrity appearances. There are hundreds more, notable ones include Coca-Cola’s iconic 1980 ad featuring Mean Joe Greene, McDonald’s’ 1993 ad pitting basketball legends Michael Jordan and Larry Bird competing for a Big Mac meal, and Pringles’ 2026 ad where artist Sabrina Carpenter falls in love with a man made out of Pringles chips.
But the best Super Bowl ads are the ones where companies don’t rely on celebrities, or weirdness, but instead give their own spin on a traditional ad all by themselves. A few that immediately come to mind are E*Trade’s Talking Babies from 2008, who became iconic parts of the company, Budweiser’s many Super Bowl ads that are still some of the best to this day, Paramount+’s Mountain of Entertainment from 2024, which showed multiple characters from their shows interacting on the peak of a mountain, and WWE’s 1999 commercial which showcased wrestlers like The Rock, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and The Undertaker walking through their headquarters while talking about how the company’s entertainment is non-violent and family-friendly, while their statements are quickly contradicted in the background.
All of these previously mentioned commercials are great, but they aren’t the best commercials of all time. The greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time comes down to two, at least in our opinion. The first one is Apple’s 1984 commercial, which was used to advertise the Apple MacIntosh computer by parodying the book by George Orwell, and it has always been ranked as one of the best commercials of all time.
But the winner is the 2019 NFL 100th Anniversary commercial from Super Bowl LIII, which showed a dinner between the NFL’s best past and present, when a football gets loose and gets passed around between players like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Terry Bradshaw, Saquon Barkley, and more. There are also appearances by defensive players, like Ed Reed, Richard Sherman, and Aaron Donald. This commercial is the perfect showcase of the NFL, and it’s fitting that it aired on the biggest stage in the game.
Commercials are not only used for advertising, they can bring awareness to issues, or offer entertainment to people during an intense football game, or even inspire change. These commercials are the foundation of the Super Bowl, and the popularity it brings of all races, religions, and people. There will continue to be great Super Bowl commercials, and who knows, maybe the best commercial of all time has yet to air during the big game.