Best And Worst Ads of Super Bowl XL – 2026

For the 19th year in a row, I’m chit-chatting with radio, TV, and print reporters today, breaking down the Three Best (and Three Worst) Super Bowl Ads. I was in the WTVR CBS-6 studio at 4:40 am this morning, which means I only had 3.2 hours of sleep, so forgive me if my picks don’t match your picks.

First off, some big themes in this year’s Super Bowl of Advertising. 

Artificial Intelligence: AI was a central theme, with 7 different companies touting AI websites and products. Amazon’s Alexa tries to kill Chris Hemsworth in several diabolical ways – not a great way to position a product that most people fear already.

Pre-Release: 27 of the 54 ads that played during the game were released before the game. That makes my job easier, but I think many of them fizzled before they aired. Plus, a two-minute spot on YouTube is hard to cut down to :30 seconds.

Animals Make a Comeback: Horses, eagles, lost dogs, Polar bears, animated gophers, and dinosaurs. After a few years of warm fuzzies, it was nice to see a few ads with doggies.

Here’s my picks:

TOP THREE ADS

• Budweiser – American Icons
• Dunkin – Good Will Dunkin
• Hellmann’s – Sweet Sandwich Time

I think Budweiser’s spot might be one of the best of all time. Freebird. Tempo change. Cute story and triumph. It gave me chills.

Dunkin’s brought back the 90’s sitcom vibe. It was wicked good. They must’ve stuffed 30 celebrities into that :30 second ad.

For Hellmann’s, I have only two words: Andy Samberg. “Sweet Sandwich Time! Banh, Banh, Banh!”

(Xfinity – Jurassic Park…Works gets the Honorable Mention)

Love the concept, but not a fan of the brand, so it didn’t make my top 3.

BOTTOM THREE ADS

• Ritz – Ritz Island 
• T-Mobile – Tell Me Why
• Genspark – Take The Day Off

The Ritz ad was dry as a saltine cracker. Lots of talent, but not lots of jokes.

The T-Mobile spot was bad – from its’ Pepto Bismol color and design to the uninspiring music. The Backstreet Boys must be hard up for cash these days.

Genspark AI is a first time super bowl advertiser. It might be their last. Wasted use of Matthew Broderick and a vanilla spot that sounds like it was written by AI. (That’s actually true…it was written by AI and done by their in-house Marketing Team. They wasted $20 million because it played TWICE!)

(Wegovy (Novo Nordisk) gets the Dishonorable Mention)

The last thing I want to think about while I stuff my face with nachos is the 45 seconds of   nauseating side effects of Wegovy. It includes nausea and 37 other maladies and conditions.

In all, a much better showing for Madison Avenue this year. The trend towards funnier (Tight Ends – Novartis), riskier (Pepsi) and bolder (Liquid IV) seems to be taking root in the advertising industry, a decade of blah and “safe spaces.”

Watch the play-by-play on WTVR!