The Best And Worst Beer Super Bowl Commercials Of All Time

Football and beer are a match made in heaven. After all, few things in life can top cracking open an ice-cold brewski while watching two teams battle for gridiron glory. And considering U.S. consumers spent an astronomical $1.3 billion on beer and cider leading up to Super Bowl LI in 2017 (via Good Morning America) — a number that's almost certainly risen in the ensuing years? Well, it's clear that belief is hardly unique.

Of course, anyone who's ever watched a Super Bowl understands an innate connection between beer and football exists. In fact, while we can't predict with absolute accuracy how much beer will be consumed during any given Super Bowl, we can safely assume a handful of beer commercials will always air during the big game. Frankly, it's not just death and taxes that are guaranteed in life. Because during each and every Super Bowl Sunday, without fail? Any number of nationally sold breweries will debut at least one commercial.

With who-knows how many beer Super Bowl commercials having aired over the past half-century, there've been some undeniable classics — and some clear-cut clunkers. With that in mind (and the big game right around the corner), we decided to highlight some of those winners and losers and present the best and worst beer Super Bowl commercials of all time.

Now, if you're looking for a slam-dunk reason this 1981 commercial from Pabst Blue Ribbon (which aired during Super Bowl XV, according to Ad Age) is one of the worst in Super Bowl history, we can't really give you one. Because realistically? Our displeasure with this advertisement mainly stems from the fact that, 40 years ago, Pabst Blue Ribbon was considered a viable option for the average U.S. beer drinker.

Goodness gracious, that's a depressing reality to consider. After all, in 2023, there are literally dozens, if not hundreds (or even thousands?), of superior beer options to Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Actually, with four decades of hindsight, the unintentional comedy of the commercial gushing about the "spirit that lives on" in each bottle of PBR is quite amusing. But the fact of the matter is we're not laughing with Pabst in the 21st century — we're laughing at it. Beer aficionados in 1981 may not have batted an eyelash at this commercial, but it's aged as poorly as a can of skunked PBR.

When a company finds itself struggling for new ideas and inspiration, it's fairly commonplace to return to a once-successful well. Yet just because it's a standard marketing practice doesn't mean it's ever a particularly strong choice. Sure, some reboots of once-prominent entities have produced legitimately worthwhile results. But Bud Light's decision to resurrect the rotting carcass of its once-beloved spokesdog Spuds Mackenzie in 2017 during Super Bowl LI (via Ad Age)? That ain't one of them.

Perhaps we'd have enjoyed this one more if we'd been old enough to enjoy the canine's original run during the late 1980s (via Mental Floss). But if you missed Spuds' heyday, well, his 2017 return hardly makes one pine for days gone by. In addition, while we'd never turn down free beer, the idea that someone bringing a case of Bud Light to a party would make them a hero is completely laughable — and not in the way the creators likely intended.

Since the Ghost Spuds commercial was ranked as one of the five worst from that year's game, according to the Washington Post, we're not the only ones turned off by this Super Bowl ad. In other words? Maybe Bud Light (and Spuds' memory) would have been better served by letting sleeping dogs lie.

In our humble opinion, ever since The Mitchell Report gave high-horse-riding voters a pass to blackball anyone even suspected of taking performance-enhancing drugs, the Baseball Hall of Fame has lost some credibility. After all, excluding those players seems to diminish the entire purpose of a museum chronicling baseball's history. Of course, just because we'd argue that, say, Alex Rodriguez merits a Hall of Fame induction, that doesn't mean we like the controversial athlete. And that's precisely why his starring turn in a 2020 Presidente commercial (shown during Super Bowl LIV, according to The Street) is one of the worst we've ever witnessed.

The lack of self-awareness by the former Major League Baseball MVP never ceases to amaze us, but the 2020 advertisement takes it to another level. Frankly, watching a jean-jacket-rocking A-Rod attempt to connect with consumers by discussing his Dominican heritage is as laughable as his continued exclusion from the Hall of Fame.

It's hard to imagine anyone enjoying this misguided commercial — a supportive shoutout from his then-fiancee Jennifer Lopez on Twitter notwithstanding. So while we'd like to see A-Rod earn his bronze bust in Cooperstown some day, we'd be satisfied if our eyes never need to see this awful beer Super Bowl commercial again.

To be clear, we can appreciate that this 2011 commercial from Stella Artois (which aired during Super Bowl XLV, according to Forward) isn't your run-of-the-mill beer advertisement. But the issue mainly comes down to casting. And the choice to have Adrian Brody play a crooner causing ladies to swoon by his very presence? It just doesn't work. We don't mean to knock Brody or his acting ability. But with him in the lead role, this beer ad comes across as a silly attempt at cinematic romanticism — one that completely misses the mark.

Now, since the commercial has a clear desire to present something unique, we can begrudgingly admit we respect what it's attempting without remotely enjoying it. Frankly, though, saying that makes us feel like Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) offering half-hearted compliments about Jenna's (Jane Krakowski) terrible movie on "30 Rock." Because the reality is this commercial was a complete swing and a miss.

In addition, the fact the commercial was a full minute long (rather than a more standard 30 seconds) didn't turn us on — it made us roll our eyes. So, ambitious or not, this beer Super Bowl commercial ranks alongside the worst ever.

We don't necessarily think a less-than-stellar advertisement should get a pass simply because the message is clear — meaning a commercial with zero ambiguity can still rank among the worst of all time. Along those lines, there's no confusion about the idea behind Michelob Ultra's 2018 commercial (which aired during Super Bowl LII, according to Ad Age), where a series of folks sing the Tom T. Hall song "I Like Beer." But a well-executed production can still produce an awful advertisement, after all, and this beer Super Bowl commercial is a textbook example.

We have to wonder: Why are so many healthy, active, exercising individuals so focused on their future chance to consume beer, let alone enamored with the possibility of drinking such a middling beer brand like Michelob Ultra? Sure, we here at Mashed like (nay, love) beer, so we understand the personal passion for a sudsy mug of the delectable, thirst-quenching beverage. But when we're working out, we're thinking about working out — not our future inebriation.

The idea to cast Chris Pratt as a glorified featured extra (via SB Nation) seems too clever by half as well. If it was Chris Evans? We may be more forgiving. As it stands, we just don't like this beer Super Bowl commercial.

Whether it's an advertisement for beer, food, or another commodity altogether, some Super Bowl commercials just don't work. Even the seemingly pitch-perfect execution of an underlying concept might simply miss the mark on occasion. Count the 1997 Miller Lite commercial, featuring a beaver-costumed man destroying a family's log cabin (shown during Super Bowl XXXI, according to Forbes), among that group.

Actually, the idea that Miller's Super Bowl commercials began with terrible ideas seemed to plague the beer brand throughout the 1990s. In fact, as Sharon Napier, co-founder of the advertising agency Partners + Napier, told Forbes in 2014, the beer brand's advertisements were "beyond horrible" during the decade, offering little more than "meaningless trash and sold it as 'surrealism.'"

Since that description fits the 1997 evil beaver advertisement to a T, we're confident this commercial's subpar reputation is well-deserved. Maybe you find the sight of a man-sized beaver riding a dirt bike whimsically delightful — in which case, all the power to you. As for us? We'll remember this beer Super Bowl commercial as one of the worst of all time.

If your immediate reaction is to scoff at this iconic 2000 Budweiser commercial (seen during Super Bowl XXXIV, according to Mel Magazine) being listed as one of the worst, then we'd question whether you were actually alive when it first aired. To be sure, the commercial is one of the most famous commercials — beer or otherwise — in Super Bowl history. But as we can attest, once the phrase "wasssup!" entered the cultural lexicon, it stuck around much longer than it should have — and ruined the commercial's initial fun over time as a result.

Frankly, we haven't found any incarnation of this commercial amusing since it was parodied in "Scary Movie" — a movie that came out in the year 2000. Still, the Michael Scotts of the world just couldn't let the "what's up" derivative stay in the past, and that ubiquity caused the commercial's appeal to age as well as raw chicken on a countertop.

Of course, we can respect anyone who continues to appreciate this viral-before-going-viral-existed commercial. But we'd emphatically disagree that it still holds up, and are confident in our declaration that this once-great beer Super Bowl commercial has officially crossed over to bad.