‘I’m just watching for the commercials’: The politics and history behind Super Bowl ads

How Super Bowl ads took their place in football iconography and what they represent to past and present Americana.

Photo by Haley Scull/The Barnard Bulletin

By Margaret O’Halloran

March 25, 2026

In 1968, one minute of commercial time during the Super Bowl cost $150,000. This year, a 30-second ad costs more than $6 million. In only a handful of decades, Super Bowl ads have transformed sports’ biggest championship into marketing’s biggest night. How did we get here, and why is it the one day a year when people look forward to advertisements? 

On February 8, the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX. In the aftermath of a fairly predictable game, the conversation turned toward this year’s commercials, which centered mainly around community, health, and artificial intelligence. Consistently the most-watched American sporting event — AP News reported 124.9 million viewers across different streaming platforms in 2026 — the Super Bowl’s commercial roster is hard-fought for. After all, even if football is not your thing, its iconic commercials offer something for everyone.

Super Bowl commercials themselves are not your typical daytime television ads; instead, they are dazzling short films, often packed with A-listers, witty humor, and designed to make the biggest cultural impact possible in 30-second time slots. They are made to keep conversation going long after the confetti falls — and maybe keep people watching even after the halftime show. 

This year featured Peyton Manning and Post Malone leading a wedding party down a cliff for Bud Light; Sabrina Carpenter building her soulmate out of Pringles; and Jennifer Anniston, Matt LeBlanc, Tom Brady, and Ben Affleck doing a riff on “Good Will Hunting” for Dunkin’, among many others. 

However, Super Bowl commercials have not always been the high-production, high-profile affairs we recognize today, though they have been around since the first 1967 Super Bowl.

The first massively viral Super Bowl commercial was aired by Coca-Cola in 1980 and featured famous NFL player “Mean” Joe Greene. The ad showed the player leaving the field after a tough game. A young boy offers him a Coke, which boosts his mood and prompts him to throw the boy his towel, saying the now-famous line: “Hey Kid, Catch!” The ad and phrase soon became classics, later being referenced by shows like “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” and remade by Coca-Cola to promote Coke Zero in 2009.

The first commercial with the high production value we see in modern Super Bowl ads is often credited to Apple’s famous 1984 advertisement. Directed by “Alien” and “Blade Runner” director Ridley Scott, it shows a female runner running through a room of male workers while being chased by a military riot squad. She launches a hammer at a screen in front of the men, cutting off the omnipotent propaganda figure — à la George Orwell’s “1984” — whose voice had been permeating the room. The screen then cuts to the message: “On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’”

In 1983, Apple Computer Company was losing in its fierce competition with IBM. Steve Jobs’ new Macintosh computer had to succeed; the company needed a spectacle. Thus, an iconic Super Bowl ad was born, casting IBM as Big Brother and bringing the dystopian edge of the Cold War ’80s to daytime television (National Museum of American History). Though only aired once during the game, the ad was an overnight sensation, being replayed throughout the country, earning Apple $150 million in the first three months of Macintosh’s launch. Most importantly, by mixing capital gains with political messaging, the ad cemented the Super Bowl as advertising’s biggest night of the year.

Following Apple’s lead, Super Bowl commercials only continued to get larger and more spectacular. Soon, Pepsi was signing supermodel Cindy Crawford to launch its new product design, and McDonald’s was using the game to advertise the iconic Big Mac (History). The ads themselves evolved into stylized, polished short films — cinematic spectacles that have since become the norm.

Super Bowl commercials also began incorporating political undertones, like the Cold War-era tensions and authoritarian fears that Apple’s ad alluded to. Over the years, advertisers increasingly created ads that reflected the cultural and political climate of America at the time, weaving in partisan themes and nods to different social movements and historic events. 

One of the most memorable was Budweiser’s 2002 tribute to 9/11. The ad, which only aired once in order to not come off as exploitation of the tragedy, shows its famous Clydesdale horses kneeling before the New York City skyline. A decade later, Chrysler’s “Halftime in America” addressed economic hardship in the wake of the recession. “We’ve lost our heart at times,” Clint Eastwood narrates. “The fog, discourse, the division, blame…” He goes on to paint a picture of American resilience and community.

Budweiser’s 2017 ad “Born the Hard Way” came out in the midst of mass immigration struggles and policy reform at the beginning of the first Trump administration. It shows the story of Adolphus Busch, the German immigrant who founded the Budweiser beer company, and his grueling journey to America, where he was immediately met with shouts of “Go back home! You’re not wanted here!” 

Similarly, Airbnb’s “We Accept” ad was a direct reaction to President Trump’s proposed travel ban to seven majority-Muslim countries. The ad flashes the faces of people of dozens of different races, ethnicities, and religions with text overlay: “We believe no matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept.”

This year’s Super Bowl ads played it safe politically, at least on the surface level. Instead, they put their fingers on the pulse of American anxiety. One moment, they platformed GLP-1s and hired Mike Tyson to encourage us to “eat real food.” In the same breath, Matthew McConaughey peddled Uber Eats to Bradley Cooper. There were more than a dozen ads for different AI chatbots, showing them helping with small, daily tasks and pivoting from the total AI takeover that has been so prevalent in recent American consciousness (New York Times). 

Even when not overtly political, Super Bowl commercials mirror American culture and the issues that they are aired alongside. Their place in cultural relevance has long been cemented, but their position as conversation starters and methods of activism has grown throughout the past few decades. The ads in 2026 show us that corporations are willing to tap into America’s fears — from downplaying artificial intelligence’s potential impact in our day-to-day lives to bringing in major athletes to encourage drastic weight loss. 

One of the biggest nights of the year, the Super Bowl provides a rare space where capitalism, culture, and politics collide on a single stage. In 30-second intervals, corporations attempt to sell not only products but also their spin on the nation itself — what Americans fear, value, and hope for. From Apple’s 1984 ad that put them on the map, to the star-studded AI commercials of today, Super Bowl commercials are no longer just interruptions to the game; they are part of the spectacle.