The Super Bowl LX Ads I’ll Remember (And Why You Should Too)
How brands show up at the Super Bowl tells us everything about their strategy, their taste, and their understanding of culture.
The Super Bowl remains the most concentrated moment in advertising. It continues to prove audiences don’t experience brands in isolated moments. We experience them across platforms, formats, and contexts, often simultaneously. The brands that will win in 2026 understand that presence is cumulative, omnichannel is the baseline, and platform-native storytelling is no longer optional.
A PERSONAL ASIDE
When I was in college, the week after the Super Bowl was always my favourite. Every class dissected the game from a different angle. Strategy classes analyzed positioning and audience reach. Branding classes examined tone, identity, and execution. Media classes debated cost versus impact. Sports marketing explored the league’s influence on culture and commerce. Economics classes looked at advertising spend as a signal of market confidence and consumer demand. It was one event, viewed through completely different lenses. And that’s still true today.
So let’s talk about Super Bowl LX, and what stood out to me this year.
THE BIGGER SHIFT
The Super Bowl spot is no longer the whole story. It’s a moment within a broader ecosystem. The smartest brands understand that this isn’t just a high-priced media buy for eyeballs, it’s a cultural touchpoint that needs to connect seamlessly with everything else they’re doing.
Gone are the days when Super Bowl ads are revealed only during the game. In a digital-first world, brands now roll out creative weeks in advance, across social, PR, creator partnerships, and owned platforms.
ADS THAT GOT IT RIGHT
Fanatics Sportsbook
Context: Kendall Jenner addresses the so-called “Kardashian Curse,” a long-standing pop-culture narrative about athletes’ performance declining after dating someone in the Kardashian or Jenner family.
What I loved: This was entertainment-led storytelling rather than education-led messaging. Fanatics leaned into cultural criticism with self-awareness, positioning Kendall as fully in on the joke. That choice immediately disarms skepticism. The campaign also invited viewers to follow Kendall’s Super Bowl picks and choose whether to bet with her or against her, turning passive viewers into participants. Strategically, it also broadened the brand’s appeal to a more female audience, which is often overlooked in sports betting.
How to apply this to your brand: Be self-aware. If a narrative already exists about your category, your brand, or your spokesperson, acknowledge it intelligently. Give your audience a role to play. Participation builds memory far more effectively than persuasion.
Brand: Pringles
Context: Sabrina Carpenter once tweeted about Pringles in 2017, asking if there was an attractive way to eat them. Years later, Pringles partnered with her in a spot where she creates her “perfect man” out of Pringles.
What I loved: This ad worked because it respected continuity. It tied a genuine, long-standing moment of brand affinity to who Sabrina is today, without forcing relevance. The overlap between her current brand persona and Pringles’ playful irreverence felt natural. Most importantly, the product remained the punchline.
How to apply this to your brand: Partner where values and history overlap.When a collaborator has already expressed real affinity for your brand, credibility is baked in. The audience can feel the difference.
Squarespace
Context: Emma Stone appears in a series of cinematic vignettes, directed by a Director Yorgos Lanthimos who she’s worked with repeatedly, as she struggles to recover her own domain name.
What I loved: This taps directly into a real frustration many customers understand. Losing a domain, or discovering the name you want is unavailable, is instantly relatable. Even if it hasn’t happened to you, you understand the pain. The cinematic execution elevated what could have been a functional message, without obscuring the point.
How to apply this to your brand: Start with a real customer frustration. Make people feel seen before you sell them a solution.
DoorDash
Context: 50 Cent stars in “The Big Beef,” subtly calling out various people he’s had public feuds with through describing items he pulls from a DoorDash bag.
What I loved: The humor was clever and culturally literate. It didn’t explain the joke, they trusted the audience to get it.
How to apply this to your brand: Trust your audience’s intelligence. Over-explaining kills momentum. Subtlety can travel further than spectacle.
Lays
Context: “The Little Farmer,” inspired by real farming families who supply Lay’s, centers on a father and daughter working their land together one last time before the father retires.
What I loved: This ad earned its emotion. It positioned the farmers as the true stars of the brand, reinforcing authenticity and long-term commitment.
How to apply to your brand: If you want emotional resonance, root it in real people and real relationships. Audiences can feel the difference between manufactured sentiment and earned meaning.
Pepsi
Context: Pepsi playfully references Coca-Cola by using a polar bear, a widely recognized symbol associated with its competitor, in a Pepsi Challenge-style taste test, paired with the song “I Want to Break Free.”
What I loved: This was competitive without being crude. It acknowledged brand rivalry in a way that felt clever, culturally fluent, and confident. We all understood the reference.
How to apply this to your brand: If you’re going after competitors, do it with intelligence. Humour, cultural shorthand, and restraint are far more powerful than direct attacks.
Levi’s
Context: Levi’s focused on how their denim moves with the body, emphasizing comfort, quality, and longevity.
What I loved: They addressed a real pain point while reinforcing iconic brand equity. The red tag on the back pocket, the fit, the diversity of bodies, ages, and backgrounds, all quietly reinforced Levi’s legacy without nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake.
How to apply this to your brand: Lead with what’s uniquely yours rather than chasing relevance.
THE BIGGER TAKEAWAY
The best Super Bowl ads this year weren’t trying to be everything. They were intentional, clear, culturally fluent, and they respected the audience.