After 60 years of Super Bowl advertising, delivering something wildly original is a tall order. This year’s most memorable spots weren’t the loudest or the most expensive, they were the ones that surprised us with insight or craft, saying or doing something we never expected to see on the Super Bowl stage.

The Bigger Super Bowl LX Takeaway: Wildly Original, Re-Defined

This year’s Super Bowl ads signaled a shift:

• Insight can replace budget
• Strategy is critical to mesh with the zeitgeist 
• Emotion works best when it’s earned, not overly engineered
• AI, while a good tool, can creatively compete with the message

“The ads that won weren’t the loudest, the most expensive, or the most star-studded ideas….they were simply wildly original.” says Tuesday Poliak, RP3’s Chief Creative Officer.

Category One: “Wait…They Bought a Super Bowl Ad?”

Manscaped – Hair Ballad

This ​​gross-but-funny ad by Manscaped featured a talking clump of shower hair, a combo designed to make viewers laugh and squirm. It’s also a milestone moment as this is the first Super Bowl appearance by this brand, asking the consumer to “Mancare Your Everywhere.”

Category Two: “Did They Just Talk About ‘That’?”

Novartis – Relax Your Tight End

Novartis deserves credit for tackling prostate screening with humor that didn’t undermine the message. By using football language and real NFL Tight Ends to address an uncomfortable topic, the ad was disarming, memorable, and culturally smart, making awareness feel accessible and urgent.

Category Three: “Did They Just Launch a Product?”

Ring – Search Party

Ring quietly pulled off one of the smartest product launches of the night. Search Party reframed neighborhood watch culture by showing how lost dogs are more likely to be found when neighbors pitch in using Ring. And who doesn’t want to find lost neighborhood dogs! It was emotionally grounded, highly relatable, and deeply human. This ad showed proof that usefulness can be just as powerful as spectacle.

Category Four: “No Celebrity Crutch?”

Liquid I.V. – Take A Look

Liquid I.V. won with one brutally honest insight: the color of your pee. Slightly taboo, instantly relatable, and refreshingly direct. No sprawling narrative, no forced humor, just a sharp idea that clearly communicated value. A reminder that a great insight can outperform celebrity overload (and yes, an impressive number of toilets in one short ad).

Category Five: “The Return of a Legend?”

Levi's – Backstory

Levi’s hasn’t had a superbowl spot for 20 years. The iconic brand reappeared with a fresh “don’t take your eyes off that back pocket” film and we didn’t. Celebrating diversity in the most literal way possible: butts. With the backdrop of James Brown’s “Get Up Offa That Thing,” the brand confidently acknowledged its history of making butts look great in a way that felt joyful, modern, and timeless. 

Category Six: “When Celebrity Is the Idea”

Pepsi – Polar Bear

Pepsi’s Polar Bear may have been one of the smartest “celebrity” uses of the night. The Coca-Cola icon wasn’t new, but the positioning was. After choosing Pepsi in a blind taste test, the bear spirals, seeking therapy, yearning to be free. It tapped into collective burnout and identity fatigue with surprising tenderness. The ending, echoing the infamous Coldplay concert mishap, grounded the spot in pop culture self-awareness. Funny, emotional, and remarkably human for a CGI bear.

TurboTax – The Expert

Playing a humorous version of himself as a TurboTax expert, Adrien Brody brings his dramatic acting persona to the spot while reinforcing the idea that TurboTax makes tax season stress-free. 

Category Seven: “Emotional Storytelling That Earned It”

Lay’s – Last Harvest

Emotion showed up this year – but quietly. Lay’s delivered one of the strongest tugs with a farmer-led story rooted in heritage and simplicity. Without saying “real food,” it communicated respect for the local growers, the land, the process, and farming’s future, letting authenticity do the work instead of manufactured sentiment.