A Tier:
The Dunkin’ sitcom ad “Good Will Dunkin’”: It is a funny concept, hawking a beverage company, with a really overqualified cast (Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Alfonso Ribeiro, Jaleel White and Tom Brady to name a few). The ad is funny, plays into powerful nostalgia and makes you remember to buy Dunkin’. This is what Super Bowl ads used to be; what they should all strive to be.
B Tier:
Pepsi’s polar bear ad “The Choice”: In a landscape where Coca Cola can get away with doubling down on AI usage, it is refreshing to see something simple, sweet and mildly provocative from Pepsi. Pepsi can do better and has done better at the Super Bowl, but it was sweet and fit well with their branding, all while egging on their competitor.
Cadillac Formula 1 ad “The Mission Begins”: This ad perfectly carried out its job: publicly revealing the livery that the Cadillac F1 team will be sporting for the 2026 season. It’s a cool livery and the prospect of seeing a fully-fledged American team in F1 again is exciting, but there isn’t much to say beside that.
C Tier:
Sabrina Carpenter’s Pringles ad “Pringleleo”: While it certainly fits with Carpenter’s sense of humor—who else would build themselves a Pringle boyfriend?—it works more as an advertisement for her than the chips. The ad leaves an impression, but it doesn’t necessarily make you want to buy Pringles.
Poppi ad “Vibes”: This ad had the appropriate level of celebrity with Charli xcx and Rachel Sennott, who play wonderfully together, but the ad does not have a lot of substance. This ad also sticks in your head, but not for long. It is momentarily exciting.
D Tier:
Coinbase karaoke ad “Everybody Coinbase”: we were having so much fun and then promptly weren’t. It is never not fun to sing along to the Back Street Boys, but to have it ruined by crypto was terrible. This ad only breeds more hate for cryptocurrency.
Anthropic (Claude) ad “Can I get a six pack quickly?”: This ad took some solid shots at OpenAI’s plans to integrate ads within ChatGPT conversations, so much so that Sam Altman felt compelled to respond. The only problem is, what’s stopping Claude from also inserting ads within the next year or so?
F Tier:
Every other ad about AI: Special shout out to the Ring ad “Search Party from Ring | Be A Hero In Your Neighborhood” that promotes using surveillance technology and AI to find your dog. Fears were immediately raised about potential other uses for AI facial recognition. While they are likely unfounded at this moment, now is not the time to play with AI doom. Especially not when even Vodka ads are AI-generated.
Every ad about sports betting: As online sports books get more and more accessible, this addiction only gets worse. Enjoy the game on its own; protect yourselves and your wallets.
Every ad about weight loss: One of the weight loss ads was based on superficially overcoming wealth disparities, and the other attempted to harness the good name of Kenan Thompson. The only positive of seeing these two ads is knowing that Novo Nordisk (the company behind Wegovy) is suing Hims & Hers over their product. The infighting is great.
Mr. Beast’s ad for Salesforce “@MrBeast’s Vault”: It made no sense. The concept was over-complicated and Mr. Beast is not enough of a celebrity outside of the internet to sell a product on his own. It was extremely confusing.