The Best Superbowl Commercials, Ranked

#1 – 1984, by Apple

  • Creativity: 5/5
  • Results: 5/5
  • Cultural Relevance: 5/5
  • Wow Factor: 5/5

Apple’s 1984 commercial was an allusion to George Orwell’s book “1984” and depicted a woman running at a televised dictator, “big brother,” while being pursued by police. The woman, donning the Apple logo, then smashed the television with a sledgehammer.

The ad was meant to represent the launch of the Apple Macintosh as humanity’s saviour from “conformity” and technological dystopia. The advertisement hit on a cultural zeitgeist, coming at a time when many feared IBM’s monopoly of computer technology and its control of the new information age. Underdog of the time, Apple wanted the Mac to symbolize empowerment, presenting the Mac personal computer as a tool for combating conformity and affirming creativity. This ad perfectly aligned with Apple’s brand purpose of “think differently.” 

Apple’s 1984 aired at Superbowl XVIII in 1984 and has since become one of the most critically acclaimed ads of all time. It has won countless awards and generated millions of dollars of publicity. The ad also generated 3.5 million dollars in Mac sales just after it ran, a resounding commercial success. 

Ironically, Apple has now taken IBM’s place as a technological big brother. Critics have described the ad as heralding a new era of oppression rather than liberation. To quote social critic Rebecca Solnit: 

“Apple is not different. That industry is going to give rise to innumerable forms of triviality and misogyny, to the concentration of wealth and the dispersal of mental concentration. To suicidal, underpaid Chinese factory workers whose reality must be like that of the shuffling workers in the commercial. If you think a crowd of people staring at one screen is bad, wait until you have created a world in which billions of people stare at their own screens even while walking, driving, eating in the company of friends—all of them eternally elsewhere.”

#2 – The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, by Old Spice

  • Creativity: 5/5
  • Results: 5/5
  • Cultural Relevance: 5/5
  • Wow Factor: 5/5

In 2010, Old Spice had a problem. The brand was fading as a leader in men’s body wash and deodorant; The brand had fallen out of fashion and become washed-up. Advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy had an idea driven by one key insight: 60% of body wash purchases are made by women. So to save Old Spice, they would woo the women. 

This campaign had immediate results. Three months after airing, surpassing their goal of increasing body wash sales by 15%, sales of Old Spice Red Zone Body Wash had risen by 60% from the previous year. Two more months and sales doubled.

The ad was followed by the “responses” campaign. The producing agency created 186 video responses to fans and celebrities based on questions from various social media channels. These real-time messages were then posted on YouTube, sparking history’s fastest-growing and most popular interactive campaign.

Advertising Age has named “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” one of the best ad campaigns of the 21st century. It has also won numerous awards, including the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions and a Primetime Emmy award. 

#3 – You’re Not You When You’re Hungry, by Snickers

  • Creativity: 5/5
  • Results: 5/5
  • Cultural Relevance: 5/5
  • Wow Factor: 5/5

Snickers ads have long used humour to be memorable, but they faced one burning problem – few people remembered that the campaigns were for Snickers. According to data from the Ehrenberg Bass Institute, only 16% of people can accurately remember what product an ad was for. This was bad news for Snickers, who, between 2006 and 2009, lost nearly 10% of its global market share. 

They needed a comeback. They needed people to remember Snickers. And they did it by attaching their name to a feeling everyone knows all too well: Hunger. 

The campaign’s concept was simple: when you’re hungry, you’re not acting like yourself, but when you eat a Snickers bar, you return to your “normal” self. The campaign first debuted in 2010 and depicted a group of men playing football, including Betty White, who gets suplexed into a mud puddle. “Betty White” then eats a snickers bar and transforms back into the original player. 

The results of this campaign are self-evident. Within two years, global sales increased by 15%, and in the US, Snickers’ market share has doubled since 2012. 

#4 – Wassup, by Budweiser 

  • Creativity: 5/5
  • Results: 5/5
  • Cultural Relevance: 5/5
  • Wow Factor: 5/5

It’s Friday night, you’re chillin’, watchin’ the game, havin’ a bud, then your buddy comes in and says _____.

You can probably fill in the blank.

Budweiser’s groundbreaking (and uproarious) Superbowl commercial takes the ultimate WTF spin on friend group banter with Wassup. Aired during Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000, DDB’s creative team artfully and humorously connected the intuitive comradery amongst buds with the ever-popular beer giant Budweiser.

Originally based on the short film True, written and directed by Charles Stone III, the spot took a life of its own, with countless parodies, renditions, and even a redux in 2020 by Uber & Budweiser.

Not only was this commercial’s cultural effect significant and lasting, but it was also a massive boon for sales. As stated by New York Times, Beer Marketer’s Insights reported sales grew by 2.4 million barrels to 99.2 million barrels.

#5 – Don’t Miss Out, by FTX

  • Creativity: 5/5
  • Results: 0/5
  • Cultural Relevance: 5/5
  • Wow Factor: 5/5

Leave it to Larry David to make arguably the funniest Superbowl ad of all time. Airing at Superbowl LVI in 2021, the “Don’t Miss Out” campaign from now-bankrupt FTX depicted Seinfeld creator Larry David being presented with various historical inventions.

From the invention of the wheel to the fork, the toilet, coffee, and even putting a man on the moon, Larry shoots down each technological leap. “We’re not animals,” he shouts at the inventor of the toilet “we go outside!” 

In the final scene, Larry is presented with the crypto trading platform FTX, to which he responds, “I don’t think so, and I’m never wrong about this stuff. Never.” Ironically, Larry was right about FTX. In November of 2022, the company filed for bankruptcy after losing roughly $8 billion of customers’ money. 

#6 – Trading Baby, by E*Trade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4GZfvXx9Js&ab_channel=everythingjaydotcom

  • Creativity: 4/5
  • Results: 5/5
  • Cultural Relevance: 3/5
  • Wow Factor: 4/5

A baby trading stocks. It’s the perfect way to show how easy it is to trade stocks with E*Trade. This ad also came at the perfect time, when cute babies and kittens ruled internet memes. 

The ad debuted at Superbowl XLII in 2008. The day after, E*Trade registered more new accounts than any other day in the company’s history. The ad aired again in 2009, and only one week after the commercial aired, the company got a 19% increase in online account applications and an 86% increase in website traffic. The campaign proved so successful that the investing baby made several more TV appearances, most recently in Superbowl LVI. 

2008 was unfortunate timing for the ad, and some viewed the talking baby ad as a symbol of financial excess and reckless speculation before the global financial crisis. 

#7 – Parisian Love, by Google

  • Creativity: 4/5
  • Results: 5/5
  • Cultural Relevance: 3/5
  • Wow Factor: 2/5 

In 2010, Google did little advertising. Besides a few TV ads for Chrome the year before, Google was new to the TV space. However, that all changed when they released their romantic short film, Parisian Love.

A straightforward concept, the ad followed several Google searches tracking the progression of a man visiting Paris and falling in love. As the searches progress, a story is told; you start to see the searches include advice on how to have a long-distance relationship, then how to get a job in Paris, where to live in Paris, where to get married, and finally, how to assemble a crib. I bet you never expected to have your heart warmed by a search engine.

From a marketing standpoint, this ad checks all of the best practice boxes. It does a fantastic job of selling Google’s features while telling an inspiring and emotionally provoking story, which is surprising considering the whole thing is a screen recording of Google searches. 

Several measures of online buzz ranked Google’s “Parisian Love” at No. 2 in web buzz during Superbowl XLIV and ranked as the second most liked ad on Hulu.

Best 2023 Superbowl Commercials Ranked

#1 – Rihanna’s Superbowl Performance, Fenty

Rihanna Fenty Superbowl Commercial Product Placement

  • Creativity: 5/5
  • Results: 5/5
  • Cultural Relevance: 5/5
  • Wow Factor: 5/5

What if the best 2023 Superbowl ad wasn’t even a commercial?

Yeah, Rihanna’s Superbowl Halftime show was the best marketing display in the NFL’s 2023 football extravaganza. Here’s what she did:

Leading up to the game, she engaged her entire audience by dropping her own line of Superbowl x Fenty merch, including this awesome shirt plugged by Cara Delevigne.

Cara-D-Wears-Team-Rihanna-Shirt-at-Super-Bowl-1 (1)

Rihanna pulled off the ultimate product plug for her Fenty Beauty brand, applying her Fenty Beauty Invisimatte Instant Setting and Blotting Powder amidst her set, the ultimate product placement for an electric performance. Who says you need to spend millions of dollars on a Superbowl ad?

To top it all off, Rihanna concluded her performance with a subtle reference of her second pregnancy, making the show all the more impressive and inspiring for those who look up to her.

Not only was the performance’s cultural impact immediately noticeable, but so were the results:

A mere two days after the Halftime Show, Rihanna gained three-million Instagram followers and search volume for the Fenty brand increased 833%.

By bringing a new audience to the game through her brand and performance, genius brand marketing tactics and an emphatic cultural statement. Rihanna & Fenty won out at Superbowl Superbowl LVII.

#2 – Break Into Something Good, by PopCorners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMlemd6U24Y&ab_channel=PopCorners

  • Creativity: 5/5
  • Results: ??
  • Cultural Relevance: 5/5
  • Wow Factor: 5/5

Any Breaking Bad fan will tell you how much they love this commercial. This year, PopCorners summoned Walter White, Jesse Pinkman and Tuco Salamanca to cook up something new for the brand’s first-ever Superbowl ad – popcorn chips. 

Produced by D3, Frito-Lay’s in-house agency, this TV spot rides the hype train of the Breaking Bad universe, as series prequel Better Call Saul recently wrapped up its six-season run, tying a bow on arguably the best television series of all time.

The ad hits every nostalgia note perfectly, reenacting some of Walt & Jesse’s most iconic RV scenes making their famous “product” – that being the seven delicious flavours of PopCorners, of course.

As of this writing, the ad has 1.9 million views on YouTube. Ahead of Superbowl Sunday, it’s poised to be one of this year’s most beloved ads. 

#3 – Rockstar, by Workday

  • Creativity: 5/5
  • Results: ??
  • Cultural Relevance: 4/5
  • Wow Factor: 4/5

This year, Workday gave the classic move of getting a bunch of famous people in an ad and gave it a fun twist. This star-studded cast included Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol, Joan Jett, Gary Clark and Paul Stanley.

Workday wanted to make a point: our software is so great, it makes you a “rockstar”, and made this point memorable and entertaining by pitting real rockstars against the “corporate types.” “you’re not a rockstar,” they say. “we are.”

#4 – One Hit For Uber One, by Uber

  • Creativity: 3/5
  • Results: ??
  • Cultural Relevance: 4/5
  • Wow Factor: 3/5

Diddy may not do “jingles,” but he sure can make hits. This year, Sean Combs returned to the Superbowl stage for the third appearance of “One Hit For Uber One.” Featuring the likes of Montell Jordan, Kelis, Donna Lewis, and Haddaway, this hilarious commercial had one goal: get the jingle stuck in your head.

As of this writing, the teaser video has 1.5 million views on YouTube, and the full 60-second commercial has 1.1 million. It’s safe to say that Uber One’s spinoff of Haddaway’s “What is Love?” will be stuck in viewers’ heads for some time to come. This ad is both funny and musically entertaining. If you haven’t already checked it out, be sure to give it a watch.