Super Bowl Sunday is, quite famously, a big deal for bona fide sports fans—but let’s not forget that it’s also huge for people who don’t really get football but love to watch extremely famous celebrities appear in fast-food commercials. (And then, of course, there are the Swifties.)
If you’re merely tuning in on Sunday to watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles, then more power to you; for the rest of us, the day is all about (a) various and sundry dips, (b) halftime performer Kendrick Lamar taking his Drake beef to the world’s biggest stage, and (c) keeping track of the commercials that pack the most celebrity cameo power and witty execution into their roughly one-minute run time.
Here, in the final countdown before the big game, a roundup of the very best commercials from LIX (so far).
Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, and Sydney Sweeney for Hellman’s mayonnaise
I’ll take a When Harry Met Sally… reunion pretty much any day of the week—even if it takes the form of an extremely brief mayo ad costarring Sydney Sweeney.
Putting Charli XCX and Martha Stewart—two women who unquestionably ruled 2024—into the same ad was a stroke of branding genius on Uber Eats’s part…even if the “we listen and we don’t judge” TikTok trend is a little stale at this point.
Barry Keoghan hanging out with a donkey on the coast of Ireland? What could possibly go wrong (besides everything that happens in The Banshees of Inisherin, of course)? Squarespace is always on its Super Bowl commercial game—remember last year’s ad featuring Martin and Francesca Scorsese?—and this year appears to be no different.
I love whales, but I don’t love when whales are given responsibilities beyond simply frolicking in open water (there’s a reason I’ve seen Blackfish upwards of 15 times). That said, watching a beluga whale voiced by Kieran Culkin unnerve a traveler in this NerdWallet spot is eminently enjoyable.
The nice thing about this one is that I can easily imagine David Beckham actually being a Stella Artois man. In a new ad for the beer brand, Beckham…discovers that he has a long-lost twin called “Other David”? (Hey, we could use a spare!) Is said twin also a Stella guy? We may just have to wait until game day to find out.
Not to be outdone by Stella, Michelob Ultra nabbed Catherine O’Hara and Willem DeFoe (not to mention NFL legend Randy Moss, Olympic shot-put and discus star Ryan Crouser, and WNBA champion Sabrina Ionescu) for a pickleball-themed commercial that has me desperately longing to drink with Moira Rose.
Before Doja Cat appeared in an ad for a Los Angeles florist during the 2025 Grammy Awards, she turned up in this pretty funny Taco Bell spot, photobombing fans trying out the fast-food brand’s new “Live Más Drive-Thru Cams.” Doja, do the Crunchwrap Supreme With Me challenge!
If I go on a cruise and inevitably get norovirus, I’m blaming Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom for being so damn charming, gathered around a piano in this ad for MSC Cruises. (In fact, the visual makes me wonder: If we were ever to get a Music & Lyrics sequel, who might Bloom play? The long-lost sixth member of PoP?!)
Post Malone and comedian Shane Gillis mostly just say “C’mon!” into a security camera while dressed as suburban dads in this ad for Bud Light…but whatever, I’m charmed!
I know it’s probably time to see actor and comedian Timothy Simons as a separate entity from the pariah politico he played on HBO’s Veep, but the sight of him flopping on the set of a fictional sitcom in this Coors Light spot instantly brings me back to the Jonad Files.