Super Bowl LX was a subdued affair, both in terms of offensive production and the number of advertisements on the part of the auto industry. If you were in the market for car insurance, a way to build a new website, or a fast, easy way to lose money through a sports betting app, Super Bowl LX had you covered. If you wanted to learn a little more about the latest cars, trucks, and SUVs, the ads were a little tougher to come by. The recent Super Bowl saw automotive brands largely stick to the sidelines, and while there were a few car ads of note, Baby Yoda’s Tauntaun-drawn sleigh looked like the coziest conveyance on offer.
Aside from the nostalgia-laden Xfinity ad and the star-studded “Good Will Dunkin” commercial with its ensemble cast of Ben Affleck, Jason Alexander, Jennifer Aniston, Ted Danson, and Tom Brady, the Super Bowl lacked a marquee marketing moment. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty to discuss. Join us as we rank all of the car ads from Super Bowl LX, discuss a few automotive cameos, and see what these commercials can tell us about the state of the US auto industry in early 2026.
What’s Going On?
The Super Bowl marked a new low for the country’s most popular sporting event from an automotive advertising perspective, and the numbers are tough to ignore. While automakers represented 40% of Super Bowl ads in 2012, that number dropped to just 7% for the most recent contest. It’s hard to blame brands for balking at paying $8 million for a 30-second spot, but the high price tag wasn’t the only deterrent. In today’s fractured media landscape, the vaunted Super Bowl ad isn’t what it once was.
Once upon a time, a blockbuster commercial could become an instant water cooler classic that would drive conversations—and sales—well into the new year. From Apple’s “1984” ad directed by Ridley Scott to Wendy’s iconic “Where’s the Beef” spot to any number of over-quoted Budweiser ads (see “Wassup” and the choir of “Bud-Wei-Ser” frogs), Super Bowl ads were once an all-American art form on par with jazz and rock & roll.
Then came the internet. Social media and the meme-ification of pop culture have changed the face of modern advertising, allowing companies to collect endless amounts of data and target hyper-specific ads at hyper-specific audiences through social media, streaming, and other digital platforms.
In a world where companies can easily pinpoint their intended audience, there’s simply no reason to burn the whole year’s advertising budget on a single spot, no matter how many viewers it might draw. Ad executives have endorsed the theory, telling CNBC that they were largely deterred by the high cost. “[The] Super Bowl is just a massive platform, but it has gotten so expensive,” said longtime automotive marketing exec Tim Mahoney. Stellantis Chief Marketing Officer Olivier Francois echoed the sentiment, saying, “We are going to really spread our efforts, so money and creativity, over a year. There’s no need for a peak or something in February.”
Larger economic factors have also seen a decline in ad dollars in the auto industry, as widespread uncertainty, market volatility, changing regulations, and slower-than-expected EV growth continue to rock the industry. “Autos are tightening their belts, and they’re probably pulling back on their budgets, and certainly that’s reflected. I think the Super Bowl is a good barometer for all of this,” said ad data executive Sean Muller in a recent interview with CNBC.
But there were still some car ads this year, and here are my rankings of them.
4th Place – Cadillac “The Mission Begins”
Cars Seen: 2026 Cadillac F1
Vibe: Houston, we have a car ad
Super Bowl LX saw Cadillac kick off its first Formula 1 campaign with the grand unveiling of its new livery. The ad, which is backed by an orchestral soundtrack and JFK’s famous “We choose to go to the Moon” speech, sees Cadillac technicians, engineers, and race team members work to assemble the company’s debut F1 model after its long path to joining the pinnacle of motorsports.
As the vehicle slowly comes together amid a cloud of floating parts against a hardpan desert landscape, NASA Mission Control cuts in with a countdown, followed by “we have liftoff” as Cadillac invites you to “follow America’s new team” for the 2026 F1 season. The ad serves to showcase the race car’s livery (F1 speak for the paint job and sponsor graphics), which sticks to a simple, classy, black-and-white scheme highlighted by all-American sponsors like Jim Beam and Tommy Hilfiger.
The spot has all of the low, dramatic lighting and quick cuts of a Hollywood blockbuster, but might have actually hewed to the formula a little too aggressively. Action director and master of big-budget explosions, Michael Bay, is reportedly suing GM for $1.5 million, accusing the automaker of co-opting his own work after the two parties briefly discussed a Super Bowl spot back in late 2025.
Only time will tell if Americans will get behind a homegrown F1 team, but the Super Bowl certainly represents a logical audience for such an ad.
3rd Place – Volkswagen “Drivers Wanted”
Cars Seen: The whole 2026 VW lineup
Vibe: Jump, jump, jump around
Volkswagen’s “Drivers Wanted” ad campaign has been driving the company’s marketing strategy since 1995. The tag line is revived for a recent Super Bowl spot that kicks things off with a high-pitched horn before launching into House of Pain’s 1992 classic “Jump Around”.
The ad is all youthful energy as fresh-faced drivers implore their friends to get off the couch and join in the fun. Dance in the rain, stalk that ice cream truck, write your number on the dusty windshield of a stranger’s car: the world is your oyster when you’re behind the wheel of a VW. The first model to grace the screen is the ID. Buzz, which is an odd choice, considering the fact that VW is skipping the 2026 model year due to slow sales. This ad could be the shot in the arm that the all-electric minivan needs, or it could be a last-ditch effort to find a market for the EV.
We see the rest of the VW lineup make an appearance through the 30-second spot, but again, this feels less like a car ad and more like a commercial that’s marketing a lifestyle that can be more easily accessed when you count a VW key fob amongst your possessions. While we understand that VW was looking to leverage a certain kind of youthful energy, the overreliance on shaky, handheld cameras can be a little nauseating at times.
This ad is bound to hit some buyers right in the FOMO, but could ultimately use a little more substance to match its considerable style.
2nd Place – Toyota “Superhero Belt”
Cars Seen: 1996 RAV4 & 2026 RAV4
Vibe: Riding In Cars With Grandpa
Toyota tugs the heartstrings with its lone 30-second ad on intergenerational safety lessons. The ad opens in the 1990s with a grandfather taking his grandson for a ride in his first-generation RAV4, but not before reminding his young passenger to affix his “superhero belt.” Fast-forward to the present day, and it’s the now-grown grandson who is encouraging grandad to buckle in to his 2026 RAV4, as a voiceover reminds us, “returning the favor is a gift.”
It’s about as heartfelt as they come, and manages to effectively sell viewers on the latest Toyota without specifically mentioning the brand or shoving any of the typical ad jargon and sonorous promises of “low APR financing” down your throat.
1st Place – Nissan “Dip Seat”
Cars Seen: 2026 Nissan Rogue
Vibe: 100% Pure Matheson
High-energy gourmand (and “Seven Layer Slayer”) Matty Matheson whips up a little gameday dip and, in classic infomercial fashion, asks us to imagine a problem that doesn’t really exist. We’ve all seen those late-night ads where an uncoordinated person tries to open a jar or mop a floor like it’s their first day in a human body, and Matheson brings a similar energy to this ad, where he introduces a specialized car seat designed to help fans transport their game day dip without any spillage.
The ad is designed to showcase the fact that the Nissan Rogue can accommodate a car seat in the second row’s middle seat, which is apparently something of a rarity in the SUV segment. Mathewson walks us through the dip seat’s features, including the separate compartments for “peppys” and “cheese?!?!” before handing the keys to auto YouTuber and race car driver Emelia Hartford. Hartford takes the Rogue for a high-speed spin around a closed track, dip et al, and delivers the seven-layer creation to Matheson, no worse for wear.
The ad has a charmingly unrehearsed quality with little bloopers and odd pronunciations that’ll be familiar to any longtime Matheson fans, though we could do without the ASMR-y crunching of chips. Before you ask: no, the dip seat is not real, although odds are there’s already some renders available online for your 3D printing convenience. The spot effectively markets the best-selling Rogue, but doesn’t overwhelm viewers with dry details and dramatic footage.
It’s silly, it’s fun, and it lives up to the wacky, absurdist bar that we’ve come to expect from America’s annual mid-winter spectacle.
Honorable Mentions
With slim pickings to choose from, we had to get a little creative when it came to rounding out our rankings. While the Super Bowl might have had few purely automotive ads, there were a number of commercials that saw some notable car cameos. It might be a stretch, but a little mini-ranking seems like a good way to cover these car-adjacent ads.
3rd Place – Uber Eats “Hungry for the Truth”
Car Seen: Vintage Ford pickup
Uber invited users to create their own Super Bowl ad through the app by splicing together clips that include real celebrity cameos. It’s all part of the Bradley Cooper-led campaign that’s been a fixture of the 25/26 NFL season, but the Super Bowl spot sees another A-lister join the party with Matthew McConaughey serving as Cooper’s foil.
The chronically drawling Texan has made a cottage industry out of talking to himself behind the wheel of a car, most famously in a 2014 Lincoln campaign, and he repeats the bit here as he lists different types of food while driving a vintage Ford pickup. This ad occupies the last-place finish for one simple reason: if you haven’t seen the previous Cooper-led ads, this one isn’t going to make a whole lot of sense. Still, we all know what Uber Eats is about at this point, so there’s not a lot of risk associated with going a little abstract.
2nd Place – Fanatics Sportsbook “Bet on Kendall”
Car Seen: 1960s Ferrari 330GT
It wouldn’t be the Super Bowl without at least one Kardashian or Jenner making an appearance. In this spot for Fanatics Sportsbook, Kendall Jenner makes light of an unfortunate trend in her dating history. The model, who counts NBA players Jordan Clarkson, Blake Griffin, Ben Simmons, and Devin Booker (as well as halftime performer Bad Bunny) amongst her exes, acknowledges the so-called “Kardashian Curse” that’s plagued the clan’s athletic beaus, and doesn’t seem that bothered by it.
In fact, she’s betting on it using the aforementioned Fanatics Sportsbook, which should probably raise a few eyebrows at NBA HQ from a collusion standpoint. Where does the car come in? As Jenner lists the luxury purchases she’s been able to finance by betting on loser boyfriends, we’re treated to a shot of her revving up a 1960s Ferrari 330GT. Sports betting ads were everywhere this year, and this isn’t the best of the bunch, but it’s also not the worst.
1st Place – Xfinity “Jurassic Park… Works”
Car Seen: 1992 Ford Explorer XLT
As a 1990s kid, it’s always nice to feel pandered to. “Jurassic Park” was the decade’s ultimate cultural touchstone, and is always a safe bet if you’re looking to tap into a rich vein of nostalgia. The ad takes the famous moment where the Jurassic Park-branded SUVs are marooned outside of the T-Rex enclosure as the resort’s computer system is attacked by a virus. Original footage sees Samuel L. Jackson informing Richard Attenborough that he “can’t get Jurassic Park back online…” before an Xfinity tech pops into frame and suggests plugging in the router.
This bit of tech support essentially circumvents all of the award-winning action that was to follow as the dinos remain safely in their cages, and Dr. Alan Grant gave the park his full-throated endorsement. The digitally de-aged cast is a bit unnerving, but it’s hard to be upset about any ad that makes room for a little Jeff Goldblum weirdness. Again, cars don’t feature too heavily, but the classic 1992 Ford Explorer XLT with its dinosaur-inspired paint job is always going to get us wistful for the action figures and playsets of our youth.
