Million dollars for thirty seconds of airtime. That’s what brands pay to compete for attention during the Super Bowl, and every slot is sold out months before kickoff.
The math is simple: with 67% of U.S. consumers tuning in to football’s biggest night, the Super Bowl remains the single largest guaranteed audience in American television. But the real story isn’t just reach, it’s conversion.
Recent data shows 25% of viewers actively search for products they see advertised during the game, and 16% make purchases. For marketers, that transforms a brand awareness play into a direct response opportunity.
This year’s campaigns followed familiar patterns while revealing new priorities. Humour dominated, with brands from Pringles to Instacart deploying exaggerated scenarios to cut through the noise.
Celebrities remained ubiquitous, Lady Gaga appeared in a Pokémon tribute, while Sabrina Carpenter starred in a surreal Pringles romance.
Competitive jabs made their mark too, most notably Pepsi’s polar bear taste test mocking Coca-Cola’s mascot and Anthropic’s dystopian critique of AI advertising aimed squarely at OpenAI.
But something shifted beneath the spectacle. Where previous years leaned heavily on absurdist humour alone, 2026 saw brands emphasising warmth and community. Advertisers like Hims & Hers, Dove, and He Gets Us focused on societal welfare, while others highlighted personal care and authentic connections.
The approach reflects what research confirms: younger audiences find Super Bowl commercials genuinely entertaining rather than intrusive, with only 21% across generations reporting annoyance.
When a single ad can reach that scale while driving measurable action, the million-dollar price tag starts looking less like a gamble and more like a strategic investment. Here are a few ads from Super Bowl 2026.
Uber Eats
Xfinity
e.l.f cosmetics
Claude by Anthropic
Amazon
Pepsi
Squarespace
TurboTax
Pringles
Starbucks
MANSCAPED
Pokemon
Lays
Rocket and Redfin
Dunkin’
Poppi
Skittles
Instacart
Hellmann’s
Liquid Death
Hims & Hers
Dove
He Gets Us