Whassup, the Budweiser frogs, puppy monkey baby, where’s the beef…all of these are examples of some of the most iconic Super Bowl commercials. What happened to the game I love?

We are about two weeks coming off the Super Bowl and the commercials witnessed will never compare to what used to be. Every commercial felt lifeless and I think that is because of a few factors: confusing creative choices, emphasizing celebrity cameos and of course, artificial intelligence.

Let us start with confusing creative choices. A handful of the commercials I saw did not really show what was actually being advertised. Instead, we got ads from brands like Coinbase that were just 25 seconds of karaoke and then the Coinbase logo. That was it, they paid roughly 8-10 million dollars for 25 seconds of karaoke. The Svedka ad was, first of all, creepy. But it also did not show much of the product, instead we got two robots dancing for 30 seconds. At least they were holding a fake Svedka bottle while doing it! 

Do not even get me started on that Manscaped ad, watching body hair that is CGI’d to sing is just disgusting and does not make me want to buy any of their products. Get talented people back on these marketing teams because these massive corporations have gone stale and lazy.

Speaking of stale and lazy, a lot of the ads just had celebrity involvement with no actual substance to the commercials. Ritz crackers had celebrities like Joe Hamm and Bowen Yang to star in their commercial, but the story of the “Ritz party” made no sense at all. State Farm usually brings celebrities for all of their commercials and this one was no different. Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key were there alongside Hailee Steinfeld, but did any of you know they were promoting insurance? The commercial is entertaining because of McBride and Key, but it again made no sense to me in terms of what they were selling. 

I understand it is the Super Bowl and most of the commercials have celebrity involvement, but what happened to the days of Michael Jordan vs. Larry Bird for a big mac or Cindy Crawford drinking a Pepsi? It has all gone downhill.

I saved what is likely the top complaint for last and that is the unbelievable amount of AI commercials we had to endure. Super Bowl commercials get more and more expensive each year and now it seems only the tech bros can afford them. I was audibly groaning as each OpenAI, Anthropic and Google commercial were pushed through. The Amazon Ring ad was terrifying, “we can find your lost dog!” but I know the AI surveillance system they created will not be used to find lost dogs.

Paying for AI products is stupid, but it is not as stupid as the brands who used AI to create their commercials. Are we that lazy in 2026 that brands cannot hire a team of artists to create commercials for them? Sorry Dunkin, making all those celebrities look 30 years younger does not make me feel warm inside, it is creepy and I do not think anyone enjoyed that. I have seen the Kalshi ads before, they are pushed during any football game, but every time they come on I look down on my phone. No, I do not want to see AI Paul Revere telling me to “check the group chat,” it is simply not funny or quirky at all. I could go on and on about AI in the Super Bowl, but maybe that is because a simple google search will tell you around one quarter of the ad’s during the game were AI, which is completely ridiculous.

Overall, I hope we move away from the unfunny, lazy commercials we saw during this year’s Super Bowl. The commercials are an integral part of watching the game and if they continue to be like this, less and less people will be tuned in once the broadcast cuts to a break.