This year’s Super Bowl had some memorable ads. We’re looking at you, Tubi head hats, Coffee mate tongues, and Mountain Dew Seal seal.
Every year, a handful of ads get the country talking for the days following the Super Bowl, but few withstand the test of time and stick with people for years to come. Budweiser and its Clydesdales not only won this year’s USA Today Ad Meter, but also live on in the minds of marketers, regardless of their performance each year.
Budweiser isn’t the only Super Bowl advertiser the industry remembers fondly. Marketing Brew asked some of this year’s advertisers to share their gold-star Super Bowl ads from years past, not including ones from their own brands. Here’s what they said.
“1984,” Apple, 1984
“I’m a child of Steve Jobs…The 1984 Apple spot will forever be like the dopest Super Bowl spot,” Dan Kenger, chief design officer at Hims & Hers, told Marketing Brew. “It’s cliché, it’s trite…And I just feel like that spot was just so impactful, and it resonated with me a lot growing up.”
“Horse Head,” Audi, 2008
“The Audi horse head will forever cement itself in my brain, because it was just such a great moment in that brand’s history,” Danielle Hawley, Uber’s global head of creative and brand, said. “I actually worked on the brand for many years when I was on the agency side, and that irreverence and that boldness to really take on the competition as a challenger brand, I think, is a powerful statement that you can make in an environment like the Super Bowl.”
“Talking Stain,” Tide, 2008
“I think the consumer insight is just so real, and the execution was brought to life so cleverly, and it’s just entertaining,” said Jessica Ettelson, brand director for P&G's weed killer Spruce, which ran a regional Super Bowl ad in 19 southern markets this year. “And, not that there’s anything wrong with this, but it did not rely on celebrity or music. It has an element of just really great advertising.”
“Game,” Snickers, 2010
“It hits on everything needed to make a standout Super Bowl ad—a perfectly simple and clear brand message, humor (and, of course, Betty White talking trash),” Rachel Jaiven, marketing director at Häagen-Dazs, wrote in an email. “It was so memorable and still stands out to me as a top campaign.”
“The Force,” Volkswagen, 2011
“I just melt every time I think about that ad,” Stacy Taffet, SVP of marketing for PepsiCo Beverages North America, said. “I think it was surprising and heartwarming and [had] that emotional tug, different than a lot of other ads.”
“Forever,” The Farmer’s Dog, 2023
“Super Bowl ads, I kind of feel like they take two approaches,” said Paul Coffey, senior brand manager of Tullamore DEW Irish Whiskey, which ran its first Super Bowl ad regionally in Chicago this year. “You can tug at the heartstrings, which Farmer’s Dog did very well, or you can go for humor. I think Bud Light’s ‘Dilly Dilly,’ that kind of stuff, managed the humor side of things for the last few years, but Farmer’s Dog is one that comes to mind as that pulling of the heartstrings.”
“Michael CeraVe,” CeraVe, 2024
“The way they seeded it on social and then brought it to life and brought it home at the Super Bowl, to me, was really making the Super Bowl more than an ad,” said Laura Knebusch, VP of marketing at Georgia-Pacific, parent company of Angel Soft, which ran its first Super Bowl campaign this year.
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“It’s a simple play on the name of a company and a brand willing to make fun of itself, in a way,” said Matthew Woodhams-Roberts, COO and partner at Special Group US, the agency behind Uber Eats’s Super Bowl campaigns. “The simplicity of the idea is just brilliant.”