The Best Super Bowl Commercials of 2026

Grownup celebrities from George Clooney and Spike Lee to Sofia Vergara and Ben Affleck bring their Big Games to TV’s highest-profile night of advertising

Chris Nashawaty,

AARP

Comments

Published February 08, 2026

Grownups winning the Super Bowl ad game, from left: Brian Baumgartner, Parker Posey, Kathryn Hahn, George Clooney, Spike Lee, Ben Affleck, Sofia Vergara, Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key, William Shatner.

Courtesy (from left) Ramp, Uber Eats, Oikos, Grubhub, Oakley-Meta, Dunkin' Donuts, Skechers, State Farm, Kellogg's

Super Bowl LX is officially history. But now that the Big Game is over, we can finally shift our focus to the evening’s real winners. That’s right, we’re talking about which star-studded commercials made the biggest splash. Was it a memorable crop of ads this year? It better have been. After all, each brand shelled out roughly $8 million for a mere 30 seconds of airtime — making this the most precious real estate in all of television.

This year, we got to see a parade of celebrity pitchmen and women over 50: Matthew McConaughey conferring poolside with Parker Posey and chasing down Bradley Cooper, Sofia Vergara high-kicking sneakers, Ben Stiller and Keegan-Michael Key as ’80s rock ‘n’ rollers (in different ads for different companies), Ben Affleck and the “other” Jen and Matt (Friends reference incoming), Spike Lee filming with his sunglasses, George Clooney being, well, George Clooney, and the great William Shatner making high-fiber diet jokes. Oh, and some millennials and GenZers were in the mix as well. Here are our top picks.

Most Likely to ‘Pahk the Cah’: Ben Affleck for Dunkin’

When it comes to must-see Super Bowl commercials, Ben Affleck’s spots for Dunkin’ are the new Budweiser Clydesdales. This time around, Affleck, 53, adopts a chowdah-thick Boston accent and a blonde, Ken-doll wig to pitch the coffee chain alongside a who’s who of former small-screen stars — Friends’ Jennifer Aniston, 56, and Matt LeBlanc, 58; Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander, 66; The Fresh Prince’s Alfonso Ribeiro, 54; A Different World’s Jasmine Guy, 63; Family Matters’ Jaleel White and Cheers’ Ted Danson, 78. The premise: A parody of Good Will Hunting if it had been a laugh-track sitcom back in the ’90s. And who was that guy making a brief cameo in a Dunkin' uniform? None other than seven-time Super Bowl champ, Tom Brady. Affleck’s beloved Pats could have used him during the game.

Best Conspiracy Theorists: Matthew McConaughey, Bradley Cooper and Parker Posey for Uber Eats

I’m not entirely sold on Uber Eats’ latest ad campaign featuring Bradley Cooper, 51, as a conspiracy theorist trying to debunk professional football’s cozy relationship with selling food. But the spots do have star power. The company’s barrage of new commercials pit Cooper against Matthew McConaughey, 56, and Parker Posey, 57, whose counterargument consists of taunting Cooper with all of the food-related terms used in the sport (scramble, pancake block, etc.), capped by a shot of them outside of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which McConaughey points out looks exactly like an orange juicer. He’s got a point.

Most Orthopedic: Sofia Vergara for Skechers

Does the Modern Family star actually wear the same brand of easy-on sneakers as my mom and her mah-jongg pals? I have my doubts. But it’s hard to nitpick when Vergara, 53, makes such a convincing case for the ease and comfort of Skechers’ Hands Free Slip-Ins. As for the pool boy in the ad who’s trying to avoid being pelted by her old, useless lace-up sneakers, he’s got a solid case if he’s in the mood to sue.

Best ’80s Rock Throwback: Keegan-Michael Key and Danny McBride for State Farm

Guitar thrashing in the key of off-brand Bon Jovi, funny men Key, 54, and McBride, 49, pair up as bumbling, buffoonish reps from a disreputable, bargain-basement State Farm competitor you’d be a fool to trust. When Hailee Steinfeld asks if their coverage is as good as State Farm’s, the ad takes a hilarious turn as the pair bust out a version of the Bon Jovi classic, “Livin’ on a Prayer” — what you’ll need to do when you discover the coverage is only halfway there.

Other Best ’80s Rock Throwback: Ben Stiller and Benson Boone for Instacart

It was a GenX rock nostalgia fest at the Super Bowl this year with another music parody: this one of 1980s Europop starring Severance director (and Zoolander icon) Stiller, 60, and chart-topping singer-songwriter Boone, 23. The age gap is the comic seed of the ads, in which older brother Stiller vies to perform stunts — from hairflips to backflips — to keep up with his younger brother on stage. The vintage-style, antic spot was directed by Spike Jonze, 56.

Most Deliciously Bizarre: William Shatner for Kellogg’s Raisin Bran and Sabrina Carpenter for Pringles

Bracketing the generations in this year’s Super Bowl commercials, William Shatner, 94, and Sabrina Carpenter, 26, both deliver committed-to-the-bit pitches for classic cereal and snack brands. Leaning scatological, “Will Shat” teleports to game-day parties to offer earnest (albeit pun-laden) advice on how to achieve a fiber-rich diet with Raisin Bran (the first time the cereal has appeared in a Super Bowl commercial). Meanwhile, Carpenter builds a boyfriend out of Pringles. The spot, fittingly called “Love at First Bite,” not only makes you want to bust open a container of the salty, nesting-doll-stacked chips, it feels like it could have been a scene from the recent Naked Gun remake, especially when Carpenter plays footsie with her Pringles Beau under the table of a restaurant.

Bravest Neil Diamond Tribute: Andy Samberg for Hellmann’s

During last year’s Super Bowl, Hellmann’s pulled off a tangy coup by reuniting When Harry Met Sally stars Billy Crystal, 77, and Meg Ryan, 64. This time, the mayo maker went for a slightly different brand of nostalgia: Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Andy Samberg, 47, as a pushy Neil Diamond impersonator foisting the beloved condiment on a deli full of startled diners to the sing-along strains of “Sweet Caroline.” I don’t know what Neil Diamond has to do with mayo either, but this infectiously playful spot (featuring a crooning bologna!) does make you stop and pay attention, which is half the battle.

Best Clap-back to ‘The Office’ Glory Days: Brian Baumgartner for Ramp

You may not know anything about Ramp, a maker of business software, but every American who watched The Office (and who didn’t?) will instantly recognize the character Kevin Malone (Baumgartner, 53), who struggles comically in a faceless corporate office cubicle (sound familiar?) until the software duplicates him over and over to get the jobs done.

Best Sports Moves: Spike Lee for Oakley-Meta and Kathryn Hahn and Derrick Henry for Oikos

Famed director Spike Lee can do just about anything — which now includes filming a slam dunk with his glasses in this high-tech-meets-sports-cool pairing in Meta and Oakley’s “Athletic Intelligence” sports glasses featuring elite athletes. And when Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry and Kathryn Hahn, 52, stall out mid-hill on a San Francisco trolley tour, Hahn goes full athletic beast to get the trolley going up the hill with brute strength (if you’ve watched Hahn tear up the scenery as a crazed marketing executive on The Studio, you’ll already know and love her capacity for physical comedy). Why the super-strength? Evidently, it’s because she drinks the protein-packed shake drink, which she calls for and Henry delivers with a perfect bomb spiral. Best move indeed.

Best Cameo as Oneself: George Clooney for Grubhub

Who needs George Clooney, 64, to portray anyone else when he can just be himself and nail the assignment? In this Yorgos Lanthimos spot that feels like a cross between the director’s film The Favourite and a scene from a Knives Out sequel, a banquet table is lined with quirky aristocrats who are asked who will eat the delivery and service fees for all their food. Slow pan to the man of the hour, who says with his characteristic panache, “Grubhub. Grubhub will eat the fees.”

Most Comforting: NFL Tight Ends for Novartis

Three cheers for the folks who came up with this unexpectedly sly public service announcement for getting a finger-free prostate exam. Featuring a roll call of some of the NFL’s greatest tight ends (including retired Patriots veteran Rob Gronkowski in his Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey), the spot amusingly urges these he-men to relax, unclench and let the medical professionals do their jobs screening for prostate cancer with a simple blood test instead of the manual, old-fashioned way (tight ends … get it?). This was easily the most unexpected Super Bowl ad in my household and it garnered the biggest laughs as well. Well done, Novartis.

Most Iconic: Budweiser Clydesdales

To celebrate its 150th anniversary, the St. Louis suds behemoth once again trotted out its iconic mascot, the Budweiser Clydesdale. Only this time around, the brand added an extra dollop of feel-good, red-white-and-blue patriotism with the help of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Southern-rock anthem “Free Bird” as an awkward little baby chick grows up to be a majestic bald eagle (as well as the Clydesdale’s best pal). Budweiser has been working this equation for decades now and it never seems to grow old: Football + Beer = America. It’s enough to get a grizzled old pair of farmers choked up in the spot’s final shot.

%{postComment}%

Chris Nashawaty, former film critic for Entertainment Weekly, is the author of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story and a contributor to Esquire, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.