Super Bowl Commercials are definitely remarkable: with multiple companies paying up to $7 million for a 30-second advertisement, they must be worth the investment. A few of them manage to remain in everyone’s memories even after several years, so here are the best Super Bowl commercials of all time, the ones that significantly impacted our minds.

The Super Bowl – annual final game closing the National Football League‘s season – is an extravagant event for a number of reasons: the finalist teams fighting for the Vince Lombardi trophy – curiously designed and produced by Tiffany & Co. -, the highly anticipated halftime show performances, and – of course – the commercials. Commercial airtime during this iconic sports celebration is popularly known as the most expensive one all year long in American television – due to its massive viewership. Considering that the Super Bowl is one of the world’s most-watched single sporting events, with the largest audience among American broadcasts during the year, it could only be that way.

Data shows that, in 2021, companies paid up to $5.5 million for a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl. In 2022 however, that number still went up to a shocking $7 million per commercial spot on air. The question that remains is: is it all worth it? Here are the 5 best commercials of all time that aired during the Super Bowl:

1. Amazon 2018: Alexa Loses Her Voice

This Amazon ad aired on February 4th, 2018, during Super Bowl LII that took place in the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, an occasion in which the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots by 41-33. In the commercial, Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa loses her voice and gets replaced by some not-so-helpful people. Her replacements are legendary actor Anthony Hopkins, “Pitch Perfect” star Rebel Wilson, hip-hop singer Cardi B, and chef Gordon Ramsey. With this commercial, which cost Amazon around $15 million, the company intended to make obvious how immense Alexa’s value is.

2. Budweiser 1995: Frogs

Budweiser aired this commercial on January 29th, 1995, during Super Bowl XXIX, at the Joe Robbie Stadium, Miami, Florida, when the San Francisco 4ers beat the San Diego Chargers by 49-26. The ad is quite simple, it basically shows 3 frogs that happen to burp, in sequence, the syllables “Bud”, “Weis”, and “Er”. The 30-second ad cost the beer brand about $1.2 million.

3. Snickers 2010: Betty White Commercial

This Snickers commercial aired for the first time on February 7th, 2010, on the occasion of the Super Bowl XLIV, at the Sun Life Stadium, in Miami Gardens, Florida, when the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts by 31-17. The commercial starts with Betty White, aged 88 at the time, as a player being slammed on her back during a football game, for which a teammate screams “Mike, you’re playing like Betty White out there”. A friend then approaches Betty and gives her a bar of Snickers, making her suddenly become Mike again. This 30-second ad cost Snickers around $3.1 million.

4. Apple 1984:

Apple aired this commercial during Super Bowl XVIII, on January 22dn, 1984, at the Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida, when the Oakland Raiders beat Washington Redskins by 38-9. This ad was used by Apple to introduce its Macintosh computer. Set in a dystopian society, the advertisement shows a heroine – as an analogy to the Macintosh computer – saving the world from the conformity previously installed by Big Brother (IBM). Apple paid about $1 million for this 60-second commercial.

5. Pepsi 1992 and 2018: New Can (Two Kids) and This Is The Pepsi

This first Pepsi commercial aired on January 26th, 1992, during Super Bowl XXXVI, when the Washington Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills by 37-24 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This ad shows young and beautiful Cindy Crawford riding a red Lamborghini in a pair of jeans and a white tank top. She stops at a country roadside to drink a can of Pepsi while two young boys admire her and the new style can. The second one aired on February 4th, 2018, during Super Bowl LII that took place in the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots by 41-33. In the newer ad, the top model reapers after 26 years in the same iconic pose drinking her Pepsi alongside her son Presley. Both commercials were 60-second long and cost Pepsi $850,000 and 5,2 million consecutively.

Which one is your favourite Super Bowl commercial? Which of the above commercials do you remember?

Published by HOLR Magazine.