What Worked, What Didn’t, and What It Says About Marketing in 2026
Forget about the Seahawks putting up the trophy and Bad Bunny’s captivating halftime performance. Now is the moment you’ve all been waiting for… the 2026 Marketing Qubed Super Bowl commercial review. All jokes aside, in this one, we’re going to break down the commercials from the big game and talk about everything from the patterns we noticed, what we liked, what we disliked, and how this will affect marketing in 2026.
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The AI and Gambling Ad Problem at the 2026 Super Bowl
As expected, AI ads showed up in nearly every commercial break. The promise was that this is the future, it will automate your workflow, and somehow our chatbot is totally different and smarter than the one you just saw advertised five minutes ago. The irony is that most of these spots blended together. Leaning hard into the AI label is risky.
Amazon’s Alexa ad directly leaned into this aspect. If you didn’t see it, the ad involved Chris Hemsworth being put in exaggerated situations caused by Alexa’s mishaps. It ended with it all being a joke and Alexa is actually a convenient tool. Except people didn’t connect with it. Many people commented on the actual concern we have that AI will turn against us and questioned whether now is the time to make light of that anxiety.
On the flip side, Google did a fantastic job of highlighting their AI. In the Gemini spot, we were told a believable story about a family moving into a new home, using Gemini to help a child visualize the space and feel comfortable. It wasn’t flashy, but it worked because it centered on a human moment instead of the technology itself. Ring followed a similar approach, telling a story about using AI to reunite a lost dog with its owner through the videos captured by cameras in the neighborhood. While they could have just said the benefit, they added the AI label to it and there was backlash online. The lesson to be learned here is to talk less about the AI label and instead sell the outcome.
In addition to the AI ads we expected, gambling was guaranteed to happen as well. They were all pretty much indistinguishable from one another. Hey you, did you know you can bet on the game live and win big? No, I did not. I definitely haven’t been bombarded with gambling ads all over my feed at all in the past year. Thanks for letting me know! The gambling category can be described with a simile. It’s a lot like a toilet plunger. We know its function, and it’s not pretty. So gambling brands, please just give us a break.
The Ones That Understood the Assignment
Uber Eats continued its long-running “football is trying to sell you food” concept, and for good reason. The insight is strong, the execution is familiar, and Matthew McConaughey’s delivery makes it hard not to land. When a concept works this well, don’t change it.
Liquid Death delivered one of the clearest wins of the night with its fake pharma spot about “not losing your head.” It cut through the noise by being simple, absurd, and unmistakably on-brand. The benefits were explained quickly at the end, and the confidence carried it.
Budweiser came in with an ad that embodied the American spirit, focusing on an animal-centered story that paired a horse and an eagle. It’s safe to say they nailed it, finishing #1 on the USA Today Ad-Meter. Budweiser is simply trying to give viewers some entertainment between timeouts, and everyone is on board with that.
Bosch’s Guy Fieri spot was another crowd-pleaser. Watching Guy Fieri flip from himself to a regular guy was effective. The celebrity choice made sense, and it connected without trying to reinvent anything.
Pepsi took the confrontational route and went straight for Coke. It sparked reactions with people all over the internet and at Marketing Qubed. Our managing partner, AJ, said, “Pepsi was petty for coming after Coke like that,” while our account manager Makayela asked, “Why did they have to bring the polar bears into their beef?” But when you’ve had a 100+ year rivalry with another cola brand, it’s bound to get violent. These actions are unfortunate but inevitable.
Novartis made a statement with their “Relax Your Tight End” ad, which handled the topic of prostate cancer with ease. By using football terminology, it stayed relevant, informative, and lighthearted. This spot was undeniably great.
Pringles gave us a story where Sabrina Carpenter falls in love with a man made of Pringles. Until he crumples and everyone eats him. It was absurd enough that it actually stuck. In a night full of AI ads and playing it safe, this one took a swing and didn’t overthink it.
The Redfin / Rocket Mortgage ad, which was our account manager’s favorite, was quite wholesome and necessary for the times we’re in. It leaned into the community aspect of homeownership and emphasized being a neighbor. This one felt understanding because it communicated their brand’s values and didn’t try to sell anything. Doing this allowed the spot to land with many.
Dunkin leaned hard into nostalgia by using celebrities and digitally de-aging them to the 1990s. Some viewers found it uncanny, while others on the internet loved it. Our team member Mari called it pure nostalgia and the best commercial of the night, hands down. Love it or hate it, Dunkin and Ben Affleck have continued to find a way to deliver a solid ad the past couple of years.
The Ones That Missed
Poppi showed a strong understanding of its audience by casting Charli XCX and Rachel Sennott, but the execution never went anywhere. It felt more like a moodboard, leaving little to be remembered once it ended. But I suppose that was the point of the commercial.
Squarespace ran into a similar issue. The Emma Stone spot was stylish, but the premise stopped at “this domain is unavailable.” Ironically, the video on www.emmastone.com had a better story, so we’re left wondering why it wasn’t used instead.
Dove’s ad was fine, but that was kind of the problem. For a brand that’s historically bold and demanding of attention, this one felt muted. Celebrating women in sports was a good route because of the recent wins by female athletes, but the ad didn’t have the same emotional impact as those in the past.
Coinbase was a head-scratcher. Crypto is confusing for a lot of people, and at this scale, you can’t afford to confuse anyone. Perhaps a short ad with a familiar face explaining the benefits of cryptocurrency, like how they explained financial complexities in The Big Short, would’ve been the way to go.
What the 2026 Super Bowl Ads Reveal About the Future of Marketing
The takeaway from Super Bowl 60 isn’t that brands need bigger ideas or louder messaging. It’s that audiences can tell when a brand actually understands them. The ads that worked weren’t trying to announce how modern they were. They showed up simple, clear, and with taste.
We saw more AI ads than ever this year, along with plenty of brands relying on celebrities and nostalgia to capitalize on the moment. But just because you use something people already like doesn’t mean they’ll connect with it. It still has to make sense for your brand, and it has to cut through. Going into 2026, brands need to slow down and evaluate their message. They need to know when to explain, when to entertain, and when to stop talking altogether. That’s where taste actually comes from.