Activative’s ‘Top 15 All-Time Best Big Game Ads’

As 2023 marketers flock to hand over up to $7m for 30-seconds of Fox airtime in the telecast of this year’s Super Bowl – which takes place on 12 February in Glendale (Arizona) – the Activative team has debated, discussed, argued over and finally put together out ‘Top 15 All-Time Best Big Game Ads’. After fighting over 1967’s ‘Get Tang’ and Mountain Dew’s 2016 ‘PuppyMonkeyBaby’ horror, here is out list. Will any 2023 efforts make the list next year?

Coca-Cola ‘Hilltop’ (1972) – McCann Erickson
The commercial that defined an era of advertising and of culture – much remastered and reworked, but never equalled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VM2eLhvsSM
 
Coca-Cola ‘Hey Kid, Catch‘ (1979) – McCann Erickson
Pittsburgh Steelers’ feared and ferocious defensive tackle Mean Joe Greene’s heart is melted by the kindness of a Coke-giving cute kid in a stadium tunnel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITDFgsRIryg
 
Wendy’s ‘Where’s The Beef’ (1984) – In-House / Dancer Fitzgerald Sample / Burson-Marsteller
Copywriters dream of penning a brand tagline that crosses over into the conversational mainstream and Wendy’s ‘Where’s The Beef’ did that in 1984 and introduced a phrase used by everyone to question the substance of an idea/event/proposition ever since. If it hadn’t, Gary Hart might have been President.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FZNYXKHwNw
 
Apple ‘1984’ (1984) – Chiat/Day
Inspired by George Orwell’s frightening novel about the future, this Ridley Scot helmed epic is the ultimate cinematic commercial from a time when TV ads ruled marketing and marked the start of Apple’s bid to take over the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I
 
Pepsi ‘Cindy Crawford’ (1992) – BBDO
A super model exiting a red Lamborghini became an all-American ad classic from the moment it aired. It’s impossible to imagine anyone making a spot like this today! Isn’t it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtK-yq-BQDU
 
McDonald’s ‘The Showdown’ (1993) – Leo Burnett
This was a ‘nothing but net’ spot which saw NBA all-time-greats Larry Bird and Michael Jordan play HORSE for a Big Mac and fries. Arguably the greatest Super Bowl commercial featuring playing pro athletes and its spawned several versions and might even have been the idea behind the movie ‘Space Jam’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1shK-j_u6LI
 
Budweiser ‘Frogs’ (1995) – DMB&B/St. Louis
The spot that ushered in an era when being memorable was all that mattered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVcbasIb8lQ
 
Budweiser ‘Whassup’ (2000) – DDB
Playful and simple, this invented phrase of an ad spawned a guttural soundwave that echoed again and again and again and again around the world for years to come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJmqCKtJnxM
 
Reebok ‘Terry Tate: Office Linebacker’ (2000) – Rawson Marshall Thurber
Clever, funny and memorably offbeat, this spot checked all the Big Game boxes and started a long-running series. Just don’t try it at work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tooY9nLezL0
 
Doritos ‘Crash The Super Bowl‘ (2007) – Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
This revolutionary, annual fan-made contest was a wake-up call to a new era of advertising when agency creatives were no longer the only option and marketers began mixing consumer-creation across digital, mobile and traditional TV. Things would never be the same again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0JV8LrsPio
 
Old Spice ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ (2010) – Wieden+Kennedy
A long overdue spot that turned Isaiah Mustafa into a celebrity and introduced the ad world and Super Bowl spot strategists to the female gaze.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE
 
VW ‘The Force’ (2011) – Deutsch
When successful Super Bowl spots were all about being adorable, this was the most adorable of them all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h6Hgn7tTvo
 
Budweiser ‘Puppy Love’ (2014) – Anomaly
So often voted the most popular Super Bowl ad of all time, this story about an unbreakable friendship between a horse and a puppy almost out-adored VW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlNO2trC-mk
 
Always ‘Like a Girl‘ (2015) – Leo Burnett
Was this the moment that marketers belatedly woke up to the fact that 49% of NFL fans are women?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_Ep0O5fWN4
 
Tide ‘It’s a Tide Ad’ (2018) – Saatchi & Saatchi NY
The most meta ad in the age of meta advertising. It was fun up until Facebook assimilated the word and obliterated the trend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t03iGOrPhHU