The Super Bowl Ads, Ranked
This article originally appeared in the NY Times, February 6, 2026
Here is our critic’s survey of this year’s Super Bowl commercials, from best to worst to A.I.
What follows is my annual ranking of Super Bowl commercials. Do not look for my picks to correlate with any of the various emotion-meter rankings. (Clydesdales do not make my heart beat faster.)
NO. 1 Squarespace
NO. 2 Dove
NO. 3 Pringles
NO. 4 He Gets Us
NO. 5 Lay's
NO. 6 Kinder Bueno
“ … a grab bag of sci-fi and space-travel allusions, with William Fichtner happily munching a candy bar in mission control … kind of fun."
NO. 7 Pepsi
NO. 8 Instacart
NO. 9 Poppi
NO. 10 Ro
NO.11-59 featured in the full article