Super Bowl advertising has never been more complex or more sprawling than right now. With brands dropping extended cuts, teasers, and online exclusives long before kickoff, audiences often see the director’s or extended cut of a campaign long before they ever hear a kickoff whistle. But that raises an inevitable question: when a spot lives online in multiple long formats, can it still land in the 30 seconds that actually matter, the ones millions watch live on game day?
Take the high-concept auteur work from Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone for Squarespace, or Taika Waititi’s whimsical Pepsi piece. In extended form, these spots are dazzling, cinematic, and endlessly rewatchable.
The same goes for Instacart: the longer cut featuring Ben Stiller and Benson Boone was genuinely hilarious, while the 30-second broadcast version barely cracked a smile. As Super Bowl ad prices climb north of $8 million for half a minute, the question isn’t just about ideas anymore, it’s about execution under the harshest constraint in advertising.
Strip them down to a 30-second broadcast version, though, and some of the nuance, the emotional core, the humor, the narrative payoff, can vanish almost entirely. As Super Bowl advertising continues to evolve beyond a single moment into full storytelling ecosystems, the real test isn’t just idea originality; it’s execution within the narrow, high-stakes window.
For Reel 360’s Top 10 Super Bowl LX commercials, that constraint was our guiding lens. The best work this year wasn’t always the most elaborate or the most viral online. It was the work that respected the format, embraced the 30-second crucible, and made something memorable in broadcast, not just in content strategy.
In a year where extended narratives dominate pre-game feeds, the spots that truly stood out were the ones that still felt complete, bold, and impactful in the moment that counts most: live, in front of millions, and under the bright lights of the Big Game.
Here are ten spots (yes some are extended) that we thought landed the airplane nicely.
1. BRAND: NFL | “Champion” | AGENCY: 72andSunny
What a lovely, powerful spot this was. With “Champion,” the NFL delivered one of its most moving Super Bowl brand films in recent memory, choosing restraint over spectacle and meaning over celebrity. The decision to center the story on a youth coach, rather than a star athlete, feels both intentional and deeply earned.
By opening on a child practicing a speech to his action figures, from Marvel’s Venom to the Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm, and then revealing the source of those words on the field, the film captured something universal: how belief is learned before it’s ever performed.
The moment lands not because it’s flashy, but because it’s true. When the spot closes on “Belief is a superpower. Thank you, coaches,” it feels less like a tagline and more like a sincere expression of gratitude. I love this spot.
2. BRAND: Uber Eats | “Hungry for the Truth” | AGENCY: Special US
Uber Eats has been slowly simmering a deliciously unhinged theory: what if football was never really about football at all, but a carefully orchestrated plan to sell food? From Matthew McConaughey’s original “Football Is For Food” hypothesis to time-warping Super Bowl moments and Bradley Cooper stepping in as the sport’s most passionate defender, the so-called “food-ball” evidence has been piling up for months.
Airing in the second quarter, this year’s Big Game spot brought McConaughey back to lay out his case once more, facing off against Cooper in a full-blown showdown over football’s true purpose. Joining the fray was Parker Posey, whose arrival pushed the rivalry into delightfully chaotic territory as the theory reaches its most unhinged peak yet.
Is the NFL trying to push food on us? I don’t know, but I sure do laugh at the theory.
3. BRAND: Budweiser | “American Icons” | AGENCY: Anomaly
Budweiser marked its 150th anniversary the only way it knew how, with a sweeping spot built on legacy, emotion, and unmistakably American imagery.
Titled “American Icons,” the new in-game commercial brought back the Budweiser Clydesdales for their 48th Super Bowl appearance and paired them with another enduring symbol of the nation, the American Bald Eagle. The result was a cinematic story that doubles as a tribute to Budweiser’s roots and a nod to America’s upcoming 250th birthday.
Set to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird, the spot followed the unlikely bond between a young Clydesdale foal and a baby bird. What begins as curiosity grows into friendship, as the two learn and mature side by side. As the years pass and the music swells, the foal becomes a powerful adult horse, and the bird finally takes flight, revealed in a climactic moment as a full-grown Bald Eagle soaring overhead.
4. BRAND: Bud Light | “Keg” | AGENCY: Anomaly
Bud Light’s Super Bowl spot, titled “Keg,” highlighted the extreme lengths fans will go to keep the celebration alive. A strategy I will always fall for if done well.
Set at a wedding, the commercial reunites longtime Bud Light collaborators Post Malone, Shane Gillis, and Peyton Manning. When a Bud Light keg breaks loose and rolls down a steep hill, the entire wedding party follows in chaotic pursuit as Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You plays. While guests tumble and slide in formalwear, Gillis calmly walks down the hill to save the day, tapping the keg and restoring the party.
5. BRAND: NFL | “You are Special” | AGENCY: 72andSunny
Inspired by the enduring warmth of Mr. Rogers, the film brings together Michael Strahan, Cam Heyward, and Christian McCaffrey with children from Harlem Children’s Zone, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and SMASH.
The group sings along to the iconic song You Are Special, turning a familiar message into a collective moment of affirmation. All three organizations are Inspire Change grant partners backed by the NFL. Another moving spot from 72andSunny.
6. BRAND: Dove | “The Game is Ours” | AGENCY: Ogilvy
Dove returned to football’s biggest night for the third consecutive year with a Big Game commercial focused on body confidence, resilience, and joy among girls in sports.
The new 30-second spot, titled “The Game Is Ours,” was developed in partnership with Ogilvy and ran during the second quarter of the Big Game on February 8. The campaign continues Dove’s long-running mission to challenge appearance-based pressure and encourage girls to stay active in the sports they love.
7. BRAND: Pringles | “Pringleleo” | AGENCY: BBDO, New York
Sometimes love means taking matters into your own hands, and maybe stacking a few crisps along the way. Sabrina Carpenter delivered a playful, unconventional, on-brand, romance in, “Pringleleo.“
The spot followed Carpenter as she built her ideal soulmate, Pringleleo, crisp by crisp. Guided by Mr. P himself, the romance unfolded with instant sparks, cheeky rendezvous, and a public debut that sends fans into a frenzy. But true love, as always, comes with complications, especially when the crowd gets hungry. And as anyone knows, we love SB here at Reel 360.
8. BRAND: State Farm | “Livin’ on a Prayer” | AGENCY: TMA
How do you go wrong assembling Keegan-Michael Key, Danny McBride, Hailee Steinfeld, Katseye and freakin’ Jon Bon Jovi? Well, you don’t. Here, the creative worked in long-form and short. The premise was simple and deliberately absurd. Hailee Steinfeld plays a customer shopping for coverage, only to be lured into Halfway There Insurance, a company that, much like the lyrics of the song it’s built around, never quite gets the job done.
Key and McBride’s characters sing, gesture, and confidently underdeliver, embodying the idea of coverage that looks good on paper but falls apart when it matters.
9. BRAND: Amazon | “Alexaaaa+” | AGENCY: In-house
Amazon is leaned straight into modern AI anxiety for its Alexa+ Super Bowl spot, with Avenger, Chris Hemsworth, embodying every worst-case scenario we’ve all half-joked about, robots turning on us included.
Created in-house at Amazon and directed by Hungryman’s Wayne McClammy, the 60-second film opened with Hemsworth entering his kitchen, snake in hand, only to discover his wife, Elsa Pataky, casually chatting with the new Alexa+. What should be a harmless domestic moment instantly triggers a spiral. To Hemsworth, Alexa+ isn’t a helpful assistant; it’s an imminent threat.
What followed was a rapid-fire montage of imagined catastrophes pulled straight from his action-hero brain. Alexa+ becomes the unseen mastermind behind increasingly unhinged scenarios, from snake encounters to a full-on bear fight, all unfolding with blockbuster intensity. Each fantasy escalates the paranoia, skewering the cultural unease surrounding artificial intelligence with absurdist flair.
10. BRAND: Dunkin’ | “Good Will Dunkin’” | AGENCY: Artists Equity
Ben Affleck assembled a “Justice League” of ’90s sitcom stars for Super Bowl LX. In the 60-second spot, Ben Affleck steps into Matt Damon’s iconic role, only this time he’s solving equations on a Dunkin’ window between coffee orders, not brooding on a chalkboard.
Shot on actual film and styled like a 1995 pilot that somehow never aired, the ad leans hard into classic sitcom grammar: broad reactions, cozy lighting, canned laughter, and that unmistakable “hang out after school and watch TV” energy.
TIE. BRAND: Fanatics | “Bet on Kendall’” | AGENCY: In-house
Kendall Jenner is clearly in on the joke. The 30-year-old model and reality TV fixture leans into one of the internet’s favorite conspiracy theories in a new Super Bowl spot for Fanatics Sportsbook, playfully addressing whether the so-called “Kardashian Kurse” is real, or just peak online mythology.
In the ad, titled Bet on Kendall, Jenner casually torches basketball jerseys like trash and jokes that her fortune isn’t just fashion-fueled, it’s built on sports betting. “The internet says I’m cursed,” Jenner deadpans. “Any basketball player who dates me kind of gets bad luck. While the world’s been talking about it, I’ve been betting on it.”
By embracing the meme rather than dodging it, Jenner turns one of pop culture’s most persistent rumors into the punchline — and a surprisingly self-aware Super Bowl moment.
Honorable Mentions: Xfinity, Anthropic, Lays, Squarespace (extended), Instacart (extended), Michelob (extended), Levi’s.
As for the worst spots, we’re not dragging anyone. Not because we didn’t notice them, but because every Super Bowl ad represents hundreds of people chasing something ambitious under impossible pressure. I know that feeling firsthand. I once worked on a Super Bowl spot, but I was removed before I could see it through.
When it finally aired, it barely resembled the vision I set out to make, and watching it during the game was genuinely heartbreaking. That ad went on to rank among the lowest-rated spots of the night. It was a hard lesson, but an important one: no creative sets out to make a bad Super Bowl commercial.
Especially not on the biggest stage in sports. Sometimes great ideas falter in execution, time, compromise, or the brutal reality of 30 seconds. And that’s worth remembering when we celebrate the wins.
We celebrate the wins. We don’t bask in the losses.
Colin Costello is the West Coast Editor of Reel 360 News. Contact him at colin@reel360.com or follow him on LinkedIn.
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