Best and worst Super Bowl commercials of 2026 as rated by experts
(CBS NEWS) – According to CBS News, Super Bowl 60 saw the Seattle Seahawks claim victory over the New England Patriots, but there were plenty of other winners — and losers — off the field during the game, with some brands scoring with their commercials and others fumbling their attempts for a loss.
The stakes are high for advertisers, with 30 seconds of airtime fetching as much as $10 million in Sunday’s game. Brands pay additional millions to craft their commercials, hire celebrity spokespeople and market their ads before the game.
The most effective Super Bowl ads this year delivered an emotional or humorous punch while also clearly conveying the importance or utility of their products, according to Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. The annual post-game ad breakdown ranked Google’s spot for its Gemini artificial intelligence service as the best this year because it tugged at the heartstrings while also showing how the platform could be used to picture a newly bought home with fresh paint, a redecorated child’s bedroom, and a cozy garden.
“Google’s ad was really a product demonstration more than anything — most of the successful companies really communicated something about the brand,” Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing and co-lead of the Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review, told CBS News.
AI-related products also dominated Super Bowl 60 commercials, with nearly a quarter of the game’s pre-released ads dealing with artificial intelligence in some way, according to an analysis from ad research firm iSpot.
Coinbase, meanwhile, earned a failing grade from Kellogg’s ad review for using a Backstreet Boys song with karaoke-like lyrics. The ad failed to show viewers what Coinbase does or why they might want to use it, the business school said.
“It wasn’t clear what they were advertising or what the benefit was,” Calkins said. “Ultimately, a Super Bowl spot is about building the business and building the brand — you have to be clear about what the product is and why someone should buy it.”
The Super Bowl 60 commercials leaned heavily on themes of kindness and community, with the ads ranked as the most heartwarming in more than five years, according to an analysis by Daivid, an AI-based advertising company. It adjudged the Rocket commercial, featuring Lady Gaga singing Mr. Rogers’ theme song, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” as the most emotionally engaging Super Bowl ad this year.
Nine commercials earned “A” grades from Kellogg’s review panel, while two earned “F” ratings.
Best: Anthropic Super Bowl ad
Anthropic’s spot for its Claude chatbot stood out among the multiple Super Bowl ads for AI-related services, according to Kellogg’s review panel.
In the ad — Anthropic’s first Super Bowl commercial — a young man asks the personification of an AI chatbot for help with a workout, but the chatbot tries to sell him some shoes he doesn’t want. “Ads are coming to AI,” the ad states. “But not to Claude.”
“Anthropic did a good job with a differentiating message — it was clear what it was and why you should do it,” Calkins noted.
Best: Bosch Super Bowl commercial
Bosch’s Super Bowl ad featured Guy Fieri as “just a guy,” with dark hair and a button-down shirt. But when he uses Bosch appliances, he’s transformed into the iconic bleached-hair Food Network host.
“Love him or hate him, this hits. The audience and timing are right (as I reach for more food), and the two-in-one messaging for both product lines absolutely makes the most of the investment,” Seth Hargrave, CEO of advertising firm MediaTwo, told Adweek.
Best: Google Super Bowl ad
Google’s ad, titled “New Home,” touted the tech giant’s AI capabilities, showing a mom and young son using its Gemini app to depict what their new house would look like with a new garden and different colored walls. The ad oozes cuteness, featuring an adorable baby, a charming house and a faithful family dog.
The Kellogg panel, which ranks the ads with grades from A to F, gave the Google ad an “A.”
Best: Levi’s Super Bowl commercial
Levi’s Super Bowl commercial celebrates jeans-covered backsides as they swagger to the soundtrack of James Brown’s “Get Up Offa That Thing.”
“An iconic James Brown track and a fun, playful parade of memorable butts,” Jason Harris, CEO of ad company Mekanism, told Adweek. “This ad was refreshingly simple and charming, without being overcomplicated by gimmicks.”
Harris added, “It just showed us the main benefit of a great pair of jeans: to make your backside look good. It reminds us that Levi’s will forever be a brand icon.”
Best: Michelob Ultra Super Bowl commercial
Michelob’s “The ULTRA Instructor” stars actor Kurt Russell as a mysterious ski instructor who takes a slow skier under his wing to teach him how to be the first one of his friends down the slope — and avoid getting stuck buying everyone’s apres-ski drinks. The ad also makes a nod to the Winter Olympics, which began on Feb. 6.
The ad ranked as one of USA Today’s Ad Meter’s top five Super Bowl ads, with the survey declaring it as one of the most memorable spots of the game.
Best: NFL Super Bowl commercial
This inspirational spot for the NFL depicts a little boy giving himself a pep talk in front of his superhero action figures, a speech that’s echoed by a football coach to his players.
“A star is born. In the NFL’s new Super Bowl ad, there are no celebrities. There are no NFL athletes. Instead, there’s an unknown child actor carrying the weight of a 60-second Super Bowl commercial right before Bad Bunny performs onstage,” noted Adweek.
Best: Pepsi Super Bowl commercial
Pepsi’s commercial had a “very simple premise,” with a polar bear — an icon associated with rival Coca-Cola — picking Pepsi in a blind taste test, Calkins told CBS News.
Later in the ad, two polar bears are captured drinking Pepsi Zero Sugar sodas on a kisscam, referencing the infamous Coldplay kisscam moment from 2025. Rather than shrinking from the spotlight, the bears embrace the moment, lifting their Pepsi cans for all to see.
“The ad makes people feel good about Pepsi — that is really the goal, for people who drink Pepsi to feel good,” Calkins noted. “Some might debate if it helped Coke as well because the polar bears are so associated with Coke, but it brought you into the spot, and it had that great Coldplay moment.”
Best: TurboTax Super Bowl ad
TurboTax’s Super Bowl commercial features Academy Award winner Adrien Brody as he prepares for his role as a tax preparer — and takes it a bit too seriously. “I just want to tap into the pain of taxes,” Brody exclaims. A TurboTax expert hired to coach Brody reminds him, “We take the pain out of taxes, remember?”
The commercial “wins on star power and lols,” noted Adweek. “Brody’s onscreen gravitas draws attention on its own, but the strategic decision to cast him as a tongue-in-cheek version of himself pushing up against a too-chill role packs a real punch.”
It added, “And the message doesn’t get lost in the fun: TurboTax is the drama-free, anti-Brody.”
Worst: Coinbase Super Bowl ad
Coinbase’s ad got a failing grade from the Kellogg review panel because the pared-down commercial was unclear about what the crypto exchange does — or even that it has anything to do with cryptocurrency.
Worst: Ai.com Super Bowl commercial
Ai.com’s ad earned a failing grade from the Kellogg review because its panelists said they were left unsure of what the service could do — a weakness when other AI-related ads provided strong messaging about the value of their products, Calkins said.
“Anthropic did a good job with differentiating its message — it was clear what it was and why you should use it,” Calkins said. “Ai.com was a super confusing spot because it wasn’t clear what the product is, or why you should go and use it.”
Full ratings for Super Bowl 60 ads
Below is the full list of Super Bowl commercial ratings from the Kellogg panel, which rates the commercials on their marketing effectiveness.
A-rated ads
- Bosch
- Novartis
- Anthropic (Claude)
- Michelob ULTRA
- NFL
- Pepsi
- TurboTax
- Levi’s
B-rated Super Bowl ads
- Fanatics Sportsbook
- Lay’s
- Ring
- Xfinity
- T-Mobile
- Uber Eats
- Hellmann’s
- Microsoft Copilot
- Squarespace
- Grubhub
- Wix
- Budweiser
- Pokémon
- Meta
- Liquid Death
- Red Bull
C-rated Super Bowl ads
- Apartments.com
- Homes.com
- Liquid I.V.
- Toyota
- Dove
- Universal Orlando Resort
- Pringles
- Blue Square Alliance Against Hate
- Hims & Hers
- Wegovy
- Nerds
- Base44
- Ro
- Dunkin’
- Bud Light
- Toyota
- Genspark
- State Farm
- DraftKings
- Boehringer Ingelheim
- Cadillac
- Kinder Bueno
- WeatherTech
- Amazon (Alexa)
- OpenAI
D-rated Super Bowl ads
- Ritz
- The MAHA Center
- Poppi
- Instacart
- Redfin/Rocket
- Salesforce
- He Gets Us
- Svedka
- Volkswagen
F-rated Super Bowl ads
- Coinbase
- ai.com
