YouTube/Budweiser
- Every year, several brands try to outwit each other with their Super Bowl commercials.
- But some ads left a more indelible impression than others.
- Here's our list of the most unforgettable Super Bowl commercials of all time, including ads from Apple, Amazon, and Pepsi.
The Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles both have their eyes set on the Lombardi trophy.
But off the field, brands from Uber to BIC will attempt to outwit each other with their Super Bowl commercials.
While we wait to see which ads come out on top, it's as good a time as any to take a walk down memory lane.
Here are 17 of the Super Bowl ads we thought were the most unforgettable, because they were heartwarming, funny, sad or downright weird, with the most recent first.
Bud Light
Guy Fieri graced viewers' screens between plays during the 2022 Super Bowl, bringing us all to "The Land of Loud Flavors." The celebrity chef boasted about the taste of Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda, declaring the drink had "the loudest flavors of all time."
Screenshot
MC Hammer, a popular rapper in the 1990s, leaned on his 1990 classic "U Can't Touch This" to sell Cheetos Popcorn, in an ad that played on the common experience of "Cheetos fingers" while eating the snack.
Bud Light/HBO
In what turned out to be one of the biggest Super Bowl surprises ever, HBO hijacked Bud Light's Super Bowl ad in 2019 to tout the final season of Game of Thrones, giving fans a weird crossover of the hit show and Dilly Dilly.
Fans were caught off guard, social media went crazy, and the two brands clocked one of the biggest Super Bowl successes.
See it below:
Amazon
Amazon's star-studded 90-second spot in the 2018 Super Bowl had people buzzing days before the big game and was an instant recipe for success.
It featured a host of celebrities, including Rebel Wilson, Gordon Ramsay, Anthony Hopkins, and even Amazon's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos.
Watch it below:
Tide
Tide hit a home run in 2018 with a series of Super Bowl ads featuring "Stranger Things" star David Harbour interrupting other memorable ads — like the Old Spice guy — to proclaim that, technically, every ad qualifies as a Tide ad.
Watch it below:
Always
By recasting a phrase often used as an insult as an empowering message, the award-winning Procter and Gamble spot won hearts everywhere.
Although a continuation of a campaign that began the previous summer, the spot stood out among a sea of hyper-masculine ads, and won heaps of praise for changing the conversation about what it means to run, throw and do pretty much anything "like a girl."
Since then, P&G has continuing to tread on the path of taking stands on important issues, with its Gillette "We Believe" ad being another example.
Watch it below:
Budweiser
What do you get when you put an adorable golden retriever puppy and a majestic Clydesdale horse in one frame? A heartwarming romance.
Budweiser is a brand that has always aced the Super Bowl, but this iconic ad from 2014 was perhaps its crowning glory.
Set to the tune of Passenger's "Let Her Go," this cute story spotlighting the friendship between the two animals racked up 10s of millions of views online and became instantly memorable.
Watch it below:
Volkswagen
This 2011 endearing spot by Volkswagen features a kid reprising the role of Darth Vader.
It went viral right after being released and has received 10s of millions of views since.
Watch the ad below:
Snickers
This 2010 spot featuring an 88-year-old Betty White was where Snickers' now-familiar "You're not you when you're hungry" tagline was born.
It became a viral hit and continued with other stars like the late Robin Williams in other versions.
Snickers is returning to the big game after 2017 this year to celebrate its 90th anniversary and the 10th anniversary of the campaign.
Watch the ad below:
Doritos
This 2007 spot was the first ever crowdsourced Super Bowl spot, and it let Doritos cut costs while engaging some of its most loyal customers.
Watch it below:
E-Trade
Trading platform E-Trade's 2010 spot featuring a dancing monkey was a lesson in subversive advertising and ridiculed the insane cost of running a Super Bowl ad while simultaneously driving home the brand's premise of helping users make the most of their money.
Watch the ad below:
Monster.com
This hard-hitting ad by agency MullenLowe in 1999 featured children sharing the gripes of unhappy employees.
It instantly struck a chord, and cemented Monster.com's position as a job-search player.
Watch it below:
McDonald's
This 1993 ad — while ludicrous — pitted rivals Larry Bird and Michael Jordan against each other for a Big Mac and became an instant hit.
It not only popularized a basketball saying "nothing but net" during the biggest football game of the year, but also led to many a remake.
Watch the ad here:
Pepsi
This 1992 ad worked so well that Pepsi brought Crawford back for 2018's Super Bowl.
It capitalized on the supermodel's popularity while turning viewers' attention to Pepsi's newly redesigned can.
Watch it below:
Apple
Apple's much-hailed yet very bizarre commercial from 1984 was technically the very first viral ad — making Super Bowl commercials a true phenomenon.
The ad aired only once, but was replayed on news channels across the world for weeks, and contributed to the sale of about $150 million worth of Macintoshes in barely three months.
Talk about a return on investment.
Watch it below:
Wendy's
Wendy's has been taking potshots at McDonald's since 1984, but this jab was perhaps one of its most successful one, helping the fast-food brand boost its revenue 31% that year.
Watch the ad below:
Coca-Cola
This Coca-Cola ad that aired in 1980 is considered an all-time classic.
The ad where Joe Greene drinks a little boy's Coke became so popular that it spurred an NBC TV movie based on the ad, and international versions, such as some featuring soccer star Diego Maradona.
Watch it below: