The King Of Commercials: The Top 10 Super Bowl Ads Of All Time

It’s a fact that millions of people around the world watch the Super Bowl not only for the game itself, but also for the commercials. Having a great Super Bowl ad will not only be a boon for the product or company being promoted, but will also be remembered years later. The ads have become big business over the years, as well. In 1967, a 30-second ad Super Bowl ad (the game was then known as The AFL-NFL Championship) cost $40,000. Now for Super Bowl LIV? A 30-second spot will run you $5.6 ​million. ​Unreal.

So yes, big business for sure. All this money means nothing if the ad isn’t memorable, however. If the ad is something that people will remember for a long time, then those millions spent on it will seem like a drop in the bucket. The bad ones outweigh the good, no doubt, but there have been several that have stood the test of time and still hold a place in our memories. (Want to bet on what ad will be the favorite? Check out 888 Sport for prop bets and other Super Bowl odds.)

Let’s take a look at the ten best.

10. Budweiser “Bud Bowl I”

Super Bowl XXIII (1989)

Budweiser can always be looked to to bring it when it comes to Super Bowl ads. Often funny, sometimes touching, their ads are some of the most memorable. This is where it all began. For some reason, watching beer bottles play football against each other was...entertaining? They kept it going for years after, and viewers actually looked forward to who would win the Bud Bowl that given year.

9. Volkswagen, “The Force”

Super Bowl XLV (2011)

This one gave Star Wars nerds and fans of cute kids all the feels. If you grew up in the era of the original Star Wars trilogy or even growing up now, who hasn’t pretended to open automatic doors at supermarkets as if they’re Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker using the Force? This ad touched on that nostalgia, and even to this day brings a smile nine years later. A great ad.

8. Budweiser, “Puppy Love”

Super Bowl XLVIII (2014)

Cute golden retriever puppy? Check. Budweiser Clydesdales? Check. This one brought together viewers love for puppies and horses, and did so in a way that had the entire nation saying a collective “Awwwww”. The bromance between puppy and horse is a bromance we never thought we needed, but glad we got it. Another Super Bowl commercial winner for Budweiser.

7. Doritos, “The Laundromat”

Super Bowl XXXI (1998)

To the detriment to some, it’s just a fact in the world of advertising that “sex sells”. People like to see beautiful people on television try to sell them things. There’s a long list of Super Bowl ads with that exact content, but none were more surprising, and entertaining, than this Doritos ad. Watching Ali Landry munch the short-lived Doritos 3D while they’re being shot out of a dryer while she does flips and splits was a sight to see.

6. Coca-Cola, “The Hilltop”

Super Bowl V (1971)

Peace! Love! Coke! The Coca-Cola Company has always had some of the most iconic ads of all of the major corporations. Arguably, none of those were more iconic than this one. If you’re of a certain age, you can still sing the ad’s jingle. For years, this was the most popular ad in the world. And for awhile it was the most expensive, at $250,000. For Coca-Cola, it was money well spent because they not only sold a lot soda after it, but they became a pop culture icon and Pepsi has been playing catch up ever since.

5. Noxzema, “Joe Namath”

Super Bowl VII (1973)

Just four short years after Joe Namath guaranteed a Super Bowl win for the New York Jets, he starred in a Noxzema ad with a then unknown Farrah Fawcett. Another example of sex selling, this one was full of sexual innuendos, and Namath is pretty much laughing throughout the entire thing.The game was terrible that year, but this commercial helped with the boredom.

4. Wendy’s, “Where’s The Beef?”

Super Bowl XVIII (1984)

The greatest ads leave their fingerprint on American pop culture long after they’re done being shown on television. This is one of those, whose catchphrase “Where’s the beef?” became apart of the pop culture lexicon. Three blue-haired little old ladies look at a flimsy burger, presumably McDonald’s or Burger King hamburger, and utter that iconic question. Even if you didn’t eat at Wendy’s, you wanted to try one. The phrase was also used by former presidential nominee Walter Mondale as a sick burn on Gary Hart during a 1984 Democratic primaries debate. Mondale eventually won the nomination, and using this phrase didn’t hurt.

3. McDonald’s, “The Showdown”

Super Bowl XXVII (1993)

This one had star power on a massive scale. Two of the all-time greatest basketball players, an in-his-prime Michael Jordan and the legendary Larry Bird, duking it out in the ultimate game of H.O.R.S.E. At stake? Why, a Big Mac, of course. Sure, the shots went from normal to absolutely ridiculous (“off the expressway, over the river, off the backboard etc etc”) and it was silly, but more importantly, it was fun. And just plain cool. There’s your beef, Wendy’s.

2. Apple, “1984”

Super Bowl XVIII (1984)

Before Apple beat us over our collective heads with incessant iPhone/iPad/iPod commercials and ubiquitous billboards and print ads everywhere you turn, they gave us this Orwellian classic. Directed by Ridley Scott (​Alien, Blade Runner, ​a million other classics), the ad showed a woman (Apple) with a sledgehammer being chased by police in riot gear, while at the same time an audience of bald men are watching a big screen with a Big Brother-figure (IBM) brainwashing them. She launches the sledgehammer at the big screen and it explodes, thus signifying a new dawn of computers, known as the Macintosh. No catchy jingles, no humor, just an epic in scope commercial that resulted in $150 million in Macintosh computer sales over the next three months. The best part? This commercial was shown only once, that’s it.

1. Coca-Cola, “Hey, kid. Catch!”

Super Bowl XIV (1980)

Coca-Cola again, and they get the #1 spot here. This is another one that pulls at the heartstrings. Every kid who’s grown up loving sports dreams of meeting their heroes. A kid giving up his Coke to the grizzled and limping “Mean” Joe Greene and wanting nothing in return, that act of kindness causing even the tough Greene to let down his guard to give the kid his game-worn jersey, is the stuff that still melts hearts everywhere. This ad is one of the first to actually tell a story--it has a beginning, a middle, and an ending, and most importantly, a payoff. These types of ads are common today, but this was the trailblazer. It was such a popular commercial, that they even made a television movie based on it.

Forty years later, it’s still the greatest Super Bowl commercial ever.

*Credit to the main photo of this article belongs to Mark Humphrey/Associated Press