Yahoo Lifestyle 15 Best Super Bowl Commercials of All Time — Ranked
The Super Bowl is a mecca for more than just football. It touts the largest television audience of the year, more so than the Presidential Inauguration, Olympics, or Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — meaning it’s a jackpot for advertisers in more ways than one.
Advertisers will spend upwards of 7 million dollars for a mere 30 seconds of screen time, so they must make the most of it. In an effort to give flowers to the brands who succeeded in their endeavor, we rounded up a list of the best Super Bowl commercials of all time, dating as far back as 1974.
This array of commercials hits on everything from heartfelt stories to funny skits, but all have one thing in common — memorability.
'1984' (Apple, 1984)
Considered to be one of the greatest commercials of all time, not just for the Super Bowl, this ad for Apple's Macintosh computer signaled easier access to information, making for greater independent thought.
The commercial spoofed George Orwell's acclaimed dystopian novel 1984, showing a runner racing down an aisle amidst a sea of seated viewers, seemingly mesmerized by a Big Brother-like figure onscreen. The runner then swings a sledgehammer at the screen, breaking it, and a voiceover says, "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."
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'The Extra Point' (Budweiser, 1996)
The Budweiser Clydesdale horses have been a staple mascot for the brand for more than 80 years, appearing in 47 Super Bowl commercials as of 2025. But the commercial that's held in the highest regard is 'The Extra Point.'
A commercial in which two teams of Clydesdale horses face off against each other. One horse kicks the football between two Clydesdales like an extra point kick. Afterward, one cowboy says to another, "They usually go for two," speaking about grabbing two beers instead of one.
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'Tough Under Fire' (Master Lock, 1974)
Short and to the point, this 30-second ad is like a master class in demonstration advertising.
To showcase the strength of their locks, a man shoots a bullet at one of Master Lock's locks. It clears a half-inch hole all the way through the lock, and still, it stays latched, showcasing that the lock lives up to the slogan, "tough under fire."
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'So God Made a Farmer' (Ram, 2013)
A favorite for its appeal to the working class, and even more so to rural farmers, this ad pulls on the heartstrings and reminds viewers of family and a simpler time.
Set to the audio recording of famous radio broadcaster Paul Harvey's 1978 poem, "So God Made a Farmer," Ram made a photo essay with images of tractors, grain bins, fields, workers and more to convey the sacrifice and labor of love of the everyday American farmer.
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'Puppy Monkey Baby' (Mountain Dew, 2016)
For a dip into the absurd, there's Mountain Dew's 'Puppy Monkey Baby.' An ad that depicts just that: the head of a pug, the body of a monkey and the legs of a human baby.
The trio mashup offers a joke within a joke. A puppy baby monkey is funny in and of itself, but what's funnier is the combination of ad tropes often found in coveted Super Bowl time slots: puppies, babies and monkies. This self-aware ad has them all — and Mountain Dew too, of course.
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'It's a Tide Ad' (Tide, 2018)
Tide's 'It's a Tide Ad' walks viewers through iconic TV commercials and tropes, rebranding them as Tide ads. Their reasoning? The outfits are stain-free, so they must be Tide ads. It's an ingenious way to turn ads not made for or by Tide into Tide commercials.
Tropes mentioned are a car ad on an open road, a beer ad at a crowded bar, an angelic perfume ad, an insurance ad at a collision scene, a jewelry ad on a romantic date, a drink ad at a beach with friends, a mattress ad on a cloud-like surface and so on.
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'I'm Going to Disney World' (Disney, 1987)
The beginning of a decades-long series, Disney's 'I'm Going to Disney World' commercial shows a football player from the Super Bowl game, who after winning, says he's going to celebrate at Disney World.
New York Giants 1987 quarterback Phil Simms was the first athlete to start the series. He has since been followed by Denver Broncos' John Elway, New England Patriots Tom Brady, New Orleans Saints Drew Brees, Kansas City Chiefs Patrick Mahomes, and more. The series has even expanded outside of Super Bowl players to American Idol winners, World Series winners, and Stanley Cup finalists, among others.
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'Hey Kid, Catch!' (Coca-Cola, 1979)
The beauty of this Coca-Cola ad is that it showed a different side of 'Mean' Joe Greene, a defensive tackle on the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1969 to 1981 who earned his name by being a tough player for the North Texas State University's Mean Green team.
The commercial shows a small fan chatting with 'Mean' Joe Greene after a tough game. The boy offers Joe his Coke to cheer him up. After protesting, Joe takes the drink and downs it. Then tosses the bottle back to the boy, saying "Hey Kid, Catch!" It harked back to Coca-Cola's slogan at the time, "Have a Coke and a Smile."
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'Terry Tate: Official Linebacker' (Reebok, 2003)
Terry Tate: Official Linebacker was a series of ads created by Reebok, which starred a retired fictional linebacker, 'Terrible' Terry Tate.
He brings his cut-throat, athletic mindset to the office in the funny series, motivating workers to increase output by tackling them, yelling at them and body-slamming them when they slack off or fall short of goals.
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'Cast Away' (FedEx, 2003)
In an expert showcase of FedEx's dedication to delivery with a pulse on current culture, the brand took advantage of the premise of Tom Hanks's 2000 movie, Cast Away, a movie about a FedEx executive who crash lands on a deserted island, to underscore the brand's determination to deliver packages safely.
In the commercial, a disheveled FedEx employee arrives at a woman's house to deliver her the package he had been stranded on a desert island with. When she finally opens it, the package includes survival items, such as a satellite phone, GPS locater, fishing rod, water purifier and more. All of which could have been used to help him survive, but since he's so dedicated to safety and delivery, he never opened the package.
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'The Force' (Volkswagen, 2011)
Playing off of the childlike whimsy of having superpowers, Volkswagen used Star Wars' "the force" and a little kid dressed as Darth Vader to display their automatic start functionality.
In the commercial, mini Darth Vader goes around the house trying to move things by harnessing "the force." After many failed attempts, the child goes outside, using their force on the car, and to their surprise, it works. The car's engine starts, with no one around to help. Except for Dad, who mini Darth Vader doesn't know started it remotely from inside the house.
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'Born of Fire' (Chrysler, 2011)
This phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes story tells the tale of Chrysler's rise from bankruptcy, due in large part to the collapse of Detroit in 2009.
The commercial is a love letter to the resilience and heart of the Michigan city and its people. The ad is set to famous Detroitian Eminem's song "Lose Yourself" as the rapper drives a Chrysler through the city.
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'Cat Herders' (EDS, 2000)
In a play for memorability, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) came up with an outlandish commercial idea that would explain the concept of what the company does in an unforgettable way. What they landed on for that idea was cat herding.
Like cat herding, EDS rounds up and protects digital information. As shown in the commercial, it's not an easy task. Cats run away, they scratch and bite. But when taken care of by professionals like EDS information gets where it needs to go through the labor of love.
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'Free Doritos' (Doritos, 2009)
A funny ad goes a long way, or at least it did for two amateur advertisers who won Doritos' "Crash the Super Bowl" contest in 2009, an ad contest where the winning commercial was played during the Super Bowl for millions of viewers.
The premise of the advertisement is that a worker uses his snow globe "crystal ball" to see into the future, which foreshadows "free Doritos at the office." The vision comes true as the worker throws the snow globe at a Doritos vending machine, breaking it open for workers to grab free bags of chips.
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'Showdown' (Pepsi, 2012)
Beloved for not only the appearance of one of the world's biggest boybands, One Direction, but also for its appeal to different Super Bowl audiences. The audience that watches for football and the audience that watches for the musical performances.
Symbols for the two, One Direction and Drew Brees, quarterback for the New Orleans Saints at the time, are brought together in a standoff over the last can of Pepsi. Both have accolades deserving of the last can, but Brees gives up the drink to be in the band.
The advertisement is a sweet medley of icons, appealing to viewers young and old.
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