Apple’s “1984,” Volkswagen’s “The Force” and Coca-Cola’s “Hey Kid, Catch!” top our list of the 10 best Super Bowl ads ever made. These are the commercials people talked about the next morning more than the game itself.
Updated November 1, 2026.
I’ve sat through enough Super Bowls to know the ad break is when half the room finally looks up from their phones. Plenty of guests at a Super Bowl party couldn’t name one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but they’ll argue about the commercials. A good spot has to win over a loud room full of people talking over a plate of nachos. That’s a much harder crowd than a quiet living room on a Tuesday night. If you’ve ever stayed in your seat just to catch the commercials, you know the best ones get talked about long after the final whistle. Here are the ten that stuck with us, and why.
Apple: “1984” (Super Bowl XVIII)
Many people call Apple’s “1984” one of the greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time. Ridley Scott directed it, and CBS ran it once nationally, during a third-quarter break of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. It shows a gray, scary future where everyone has been brainwashed. A runner hurls a sledgehammer at a giant screen showing a Big Brother figure, and the screen explodes in light and smoke. It launched the Macintosh. It also set the tone Apple kept for decades: the company that breaks the spell everyone else is under. The mix of sci-fi, rebellion and art is a big part of why people still talk about it.
Coca-Cola: “Hey Kid, Catch!” (Super Bowl XIV)
“Hey Kid, Catch!” first aired on ABC’s Monday Night Football on October 1, 1979. Its most famous airing came during Super Bowl XIV in 1980. A boy offers his Coke to Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene, Greene drinks the whole bottle, then tosses the kid his jersey. It’s Greene, not Terry Bradshaw, though that mix-up has floated around for years. The spot won a Clio as one of the best TV commercials of 1979. It’s a simple, feel-good ad about sharing a Coke, and it proves you don’t need a clever plot to make people feel something.
Budweiser: “Whassup?” (Super Bowl XXXIV)
The first “Whassup?” spot ran on Monday Night Football on December 20, 1999, and the campaign ran right after the Super Bowl XXXIV halftime show in 2000. A group of friends answering the phone with one stretched-out word turned into a catchphrase you still hear. It was loud, friendly and easy to relate to, and it hooked a whole new generation. There was no story beyond the hook, and the hook was enough. It won the Cannes Grand Prix and the Grand Clio. Most of us have heard someone yell that word across a room as a joke, even years later.
Old Spice: “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” (2010)
Strictly speaking, this one never ran during the game. It went online on February 4, 2010, and its TV debut was timed to follow Super Bowl XLIV. It belongs here anyway. The jokes come fast, the writing is sharp, and Isaiah Mustafa has the charm to pull it off. He moves from a shower to a boat to a horse in one unbroken take, which took three days of shooting to get right. It made a decades-old drugstore brand feel young. It also went viral online, and Old Spice kept it going with a run of follow-up spots.
Pepsi: “The Joy of Pepsi” (2001)
Britney Spears starred in “The Joy of Pepsi” in 2001, the same year she played the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show. It’s a high-energy spot packed with music and dancing. Pepsi then built its Super Bowl ads around her, and Elite Daily’s writer remembers taping the 2002 game spot and replaying it all spring. It leaned entirely on her star power and a catchy jingle. For a lot of people it marked a turning point in how brands use celebrities to reach young fans. As a snapshot of where pop culture stood that year, nothing beats it.
Volkswagen: “The Force” (Super Bowl XLV)
A kid in a Darth Vader costume tries to use the Force on everything in the house and fails every time. Plenty of us, as kids, stared at something and tried to move it with our minds. Then he aims it at the family’s 2012 Passat, and it starts, because his dad is inside with the remote. That’s the heartwarming part: the kid thinks he did it, and his dad is quietly in on the joke. It hit TV during Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011, after a week on YouTube. By January 2015 it had 61 million views and was still the most-viewed Super Bowl ad, per Wikipedia. It mixes Star Wars nostalgia with a family moment almost anyone gets, and it works best on anyone who grew up on the Star Wars films.
Google: “Parisian Love” (Super Bowl XLIV)
This ad tells a whole love story, from studying abroad to proposing, using nothing but Google searches typed on screen. It aired during Super Bowl XLIV in 2010, the game the New Orleans Saints won 31-17 over the Indianapolis Colts, per iSpot. Most of us have typed a few things into a search bar we’d never say out loud, so a love story told that way feels oddly familiar. A search bar turned out to be enough to make people tear up, as long as the writing behind it was good.
Doritos: “Crash the Super Bowl” Campaign (2006–2016)
Doritos let regular fans make their own commercials for a shot at a Super Bowl slot, and the contest ran eight times between 2006 and 2016. Everybody knows someone who’s sure they could make a better commercial than the ones on TV, and Doritos gave those people a real chance. The first winner, “Live the Flavor,” aired during Super Bowl XLI in 2007 as the first consumer-made ad ever shown during the game. The best of the bunch was 2009’s “Free Doritos,” which took first place in the USA Today Ad Meter. The fan-made spots had a scrappy feel that agency work can’t fake.
Chrysler: “Imported from Detroit” (Super Bowl XLV)
Eminem drives a Chrysler 200 through Detroit to the Fox Theatre while a choir sings and a narrator talks about what the city has been through. It ran a full two minutes during Super Bowl XLV in 2011, one of the longest commercials ever shown during the game, per Wikipedia. Wieden + Kennedy made it. Most car ads sell the car. This one sold a city, and the car came along for the ride.
M&M’s: “Love Ballad” (Super Bowl XLVII)
The red M&M sits down at a piano and sings Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” to his date. It aired during the Super Bowl on February 3, 2013, per Ultimate Classic Rock. A candy mascot belting a power ballad is a silly idea, and the commitment is what sells it. It’s a good reminder that a simple idea can go a long way when everyone involved goes all in.
Best Super Bowl Ads: Common Questions
Who was really in the “Hey Kid, Catch!” Coca-Cola ad?
It was Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene, not quarterback Terry Bradshaw, a common mix-up. A boy hands Greene his Coke, Greene drinks it and tosses the boy his jersey. The ad first aired on Monday Night Football on October 1, 1979, and became famous after it ran during Super Bowl XIV in 1980.
Which Super Bowl aired Apple’s “1984” ad?
Apple’s “1984” aired during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984, in a third-quarter break on CBS. That was its only national airing in the US. Ridley Scott directed it, and it introduced the Apple Macintosh with a runner smashing a giant screen that shows a Big Brother figure.
What made Volkswagen’s “The Force” so popular?
It paired a kid in a Darth Vader costume with one well-timed payoff: his dad starts the family Passat with a remote just as the boy points at it. The ad went up on YouTube a week before Super Bowl XLV in 2011 and had 61 million views by January 2015.
Was the Old Spice “Smell Like” ad a Super Bowl ad?
No. “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” went online on February 4, 2010, and its TV debut was timed to follow Super Bowl XLIV rather than air during the game. It earns a spot here anyway, because it was shot in one unbroken take and made Old Spice feel young again.