According to estimates, the price of a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl is now up to over $5.5 million. Therefore, you can understand why businesses put so much effort into their material. The commercial breaks have become almost as much of a spectacle as the game itself. In 2023, we will probably see companies like Amazon, Facebook, or King Kong USA featured on prime time TV for super bowl ads. Heck, GoDaddy owned it one year out of nowhere, so anything can happen. For now, here are three of the most creative and iconic commercials of all time.

HBO and Bud Light

If you’re looking for creativity, it came in abundance in 2019. One of the best things that you can do as a marketer is catching your audience off guard, and this is exactly what happened when HBO took over Bud Light’s commercial. The commercial starts with a traditional jousting event, and somebody carries a couple of crates of Bud Light across the screen. Immediately, viewers felt comfortable that this would be a silly commercial from the beer. However, things suddenly change, and a dragon floats down and breathes fire on a screaming crowd. ‘Game of Thrones – The Final Season’ appears on the screen, and this element of surprise makes it one of the most iconic Super Bowl commercials of all time.

Tide

One year before, the bar for Super Bowl advertising was already set high when Tide made a fantastic impression. Once again, the creative juices were flowing at Tide because it compiled several classic Super Bowl ads. However, it didn’t show the originals. Instead, it featured David Harbour from Stranger Things interrupting these classic moments and claiming that ‘it’s a Tide ad.’ Remember the Old Spice man on the back of a white horse? Well, in Tide’s version, this horse also held David Harbour, and the man in front was holding a bottle of Tide. This made people laugh, it brought nostalgia to millions, and it was an incredibly effective campaign. What better way to capture viewers’ attention than by playing around with memorable, classic commercials from the past?

E-Trade

Finally, talk about meta – E-Trade used its advertising opportunity to mock the cost of Super Bowl ads. Of course, it’s a self-deprecating ad since ETrade paid the fee to get the ad shown during the Super Bowl. The dancing monkey ridicules the $2 million that companies paid for commercial spaces in 2000. Why? The message was that E-Trade would look after your money effectively and make the most of every cent. One of the greatest things about this commercial is that most people were watching without knowing what was about to happen. The commercial starts with the monkey running into a house and then jumping up onto a box between two men. From here, the music starts, and the monkey starts dancing. After around 20 seconds, a message appears – well, we just wasted 2 million bucks. What are you doing with your money? Just as we saw with the Tide ad, it brought tears of laughter to millions of people and, ironically, the successful campaign probably brought a positive return, and it wasn’t a waste of two million bucks at all.

Summary

There we have it; three of the most creative Super Bowl ads were created by HBO and Bud Light, Tide, and E-Trade. If you want to continue your search (and watch some more amazing Super Bowl ads).

Here are some others:

• com (1999)
• McDonald’s (1993)
• Apple (1984)
• Coca-Cola (1980)

The Apple ad in 1984 went viral and appeared on news channels for many weeks. Eventually, it led to $150 million worth of Macintosh sales!