Come Monday, the two best NFL teams will clash in front of nearly 200 million fans around the globe. This means that the day is much more than just the 22 players on the field battling it out for the Lombardi Trophy, it is also a battleground for the biggest brands around the world to compete for millions of eyeballs.
In the minutes between bone rattling tackles and unforgettable touchdowns, the biggest brands line up shoulder-to-shoulder, funnelling eye-watering budgets into a single 30 second play. These cinematic blitzes can cost upwards of $25 million (AUD $36 million), so it is no surprise that the marketing teams pour an extra tens of millions into production, celebrity talent, and extended media assets to claim their spot on advertising’s biggest stage.
Like a hail Mary in the final seconds, every brand hopes their ad becomes the one fans talk about after the final whistle. But so desperate are brands to get their moment in the sun that the Super Bowl ad shenanigans start well before the first kick these days.
Without further ado lets look at the best 2026 NFL Super Bowl ads.
Pepsi
Pepsi has pitted itself against it’s biggest rival in its Super Bowl LX spot, ‘The Choice’. Directed by filmmaker Taika Waititi, the ad pokes fun at Coke, exposing what the brand believes is a simple truth that it always one ups its biggest competitor on taste.
The ad follows a cola-loving polar bear who steps up to the iconic Pepsi Challenge and, with only taste on the table, chooses Pepsi Zero Sugar over Coke Zero Sugar. Set to Queen’s anthemic “I Want to Break Free,” the surprise choice sparks a journey from shock to self-discovery, as he sheds long-held assumptions and proudly claims his identity as a Pepsi lover.
The spot even pokes fun at the viral Coldplay Kiss Cam moment.
e.l.f. Cosmetics
Just after Puerto Rican rapper and singer, Bad Bunny was announced as the headline act for the Super Bowl’s halftime show, he challenged the viewers to learn Spanish.
E.l.f. decided to play ball and took the challenge head-on with its fourth consecutive Super Bowl spot. The makeup and beauty brand has released a two-minute ad with 72andSunny Amsterdam, which stars comedian and actress Melissa McCarthy. In the telenovela-style film McCarthy learns to roll her Rs in order to prepare for “the world’s biggest reggaeton show.”
She partakes in rigorous lessons with TV doctor Nicholas Gonzalez, in which the only thing that helps her with her pronunciation is e.l.f Cosmetics’ lip gloss.
Amazon
One of Australia’s favourite sons, Chris Hemsworth has been tapped by Amazon in a hilarious Super Bowl spot. Hemsworth or more commonly known as Thor, has battled Thanos, Loki and Gorr (intergalactic tyrants), but in this film that also features his wife Elsa Pataky, he fears he may have to fight Amazon’s AI, as a result of Pataky bringing home the alexa+.
After imagining himself in countless fights with a roller door, pool cover, a bear and even an exploded house, his wife finally calms him down, resulting in Hemsworth succumbing to the powers of the AI and letting it book him a cinnamon scrub massage.
Toyota
Toyota are the only automaker set to display an ad during half-time. The spot ‘Superhero Belt’, created by Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Rodrigo Saavedra at Pulse Film, turns the back the clock to demonstrate that even the smallest moments have meaning.
The ad opens in a scene from decades ago, with a young boy riding in his grandfather’s Toyota RAV4. When the child resists buckling up, his grandfather reframes the seatbelt as something far more exciting—a ‘superhero belt’.
Fast forward more than 30 years, the ad cuts to the boy (who is now a grown man), driving his own 2026 RAV 4. This time, roles are reversed and he takes his grandfather for a ride. Throwing back to cherished childhood memories, the boy asks his grandfather to put on his “superhero” belt.
Toyota rolled out a very similar ad in Australia this week, turning back the clock and tapping into nostalgia in order to prove the quality, durability and reliability of its cars.
Regardless of how much money brands are willing to spend on a Super Bowl ad, some just fail to make a first and down. Reader, if you are not a fan of the NFL and have no idea what we are talking about, this just means the ad is not that crash hot.
Bud Light
Bud Light has brought back last year’s ‘Big Men on Cul-de-Sac’ trio—Shane Gillis, Post Malone and Peyton Manning—for another Super Bowl spot. In the teaser, they are driving to a wedding while hauling a keg and singing along to Limp Bizkit. The ‘Big Men on Cul-de-Sac’ featured in Bud Light’s 2025 Super Bowl ad, but this time they’re trading the suburbs for a wedding.
It’s clear Bud Light are extremely worried about having another 2023 marketing cockup, where the alcohol brand took a hit to its US sales after working with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Now, fast forward a few years and Bud Light are appealing to its blokey, beer drinking market by utilising male celebrities who don’t leave the car, making for a simple ad.
MANSCAPED
In its very first Super Bowl ad, MANSCAPED has taken a completely different approach and has thrown the celebrity playbook out the window. Rather than tapping the hottest new celeb, the men’s grooming company has utilised grotesque-yet-weirdly-lovable singing hairball monsters who are ultimately chopped off and thrown away.
The 30-second spot, ‘Hair Ballad’ created by Quality Meats, features clumps of anthropomorphized human hair, freshly shaved off of various body parts, singing a melancholic ballad about their brief relationships with their male counterparts.
Manscaped partnered with Can Can Club to bring each of the hilarious hair balls to life.
