Super Bowl Food Commercials That Left Celebs Looking Unrecognizable

When it comes to the Super Bowl, celebrity-filled commercials are as much of a draw as the action on the field. According to Adweek, the cost of running a 30-second spot during Super Bowl LX costs a staggering $8 million. Food and beverage companies want to get as many eyes on their commercials as possible, and including a mega-star celebrity is one surefire way to do so. Certain companies have been so creative with incorporating celebs into advertisements that viewers barely even recognize them. In some past Super Bowl ads, the featured celeb was obscured by a full-blown transformation. In others, the guest appearance of a beloved personality in a high-profile ad revealed a change in physical characteristics that once defined them to audiences. 

Both the best and the worst Super Bowl food commercials offer the spectacle that football fans expect when watching the big game. Sure, you can drop superstars like Matt Damon, Chris Hemsworth, or Betty White into a commercial and call it a day, but where's the fun in that? Super Bowl LX, which airs on February 8, 2026, will be a showdown between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. Regardless of the outcome, we're looking forward to this year's ads for all the fun surprises they'll surely have in store — unrecognizable celebs and all.

Doja Cat could be categorized as one of the R&B popstars who is more famous for her outrageous attire than her music. While the singer has plenty of hits under her belt, she's also a bona fide style icon who loves experimenting with bold looks and intricate costumes on and off the stage. Doja Cat's playful personality is on full display in her carefully crafted outfits, whether she's dressed in cow print, pretending to be an alien, or covered head-to-toe in 30,000 Swarovski crystals. It's these mercurial attributes that made the singer the perfect pick for Taco Bell's Super Bowl LVI ad (via YouTube), which places the "Say So" star in a clown school seemingly affiliated with a fast food restaurant known for having a perpetually out-of-service ice cream machine. 

It's clear that the commercial is meant to be a playful dig at McDonald's, and Doja Cat's presence in the ad exemplifies the youthful, bombastic reputation Taco Bell has worked so hard to curate. In the spot, Doja Cat appears in full clown regalia, grease-paint and all. A chance discovery (spoiler: it's a packet of Taco Bell Fire Sauce) leads her to break free from the confines of clown school, at which point she sheds her costume and assumes the much cooler appearance we're familiar with. Along with her crew of fellow absconding clowns, the singer heads to Taco Bell to celebrate their newfound freedom. 

In the early 2020s, cold foam, a sweet, floaty form of milk that gets its frothiness from aeration, was trending hard. Cold foam pairs beautifully with cocktails as well as coffee drinks, and in 2025, Coffee mate hopped on the home-barista bandwagon, introducing a line of cold foams in flavors like Italian Sweet Crème and French Vanilla. To herald the release of its latest product line, Coffee mate launched its first-ever Super Bowl commercial (via YouTube) during Super Bowl LIX. A legend of the country pop scene was featured in the ad, but we wouldn't blame anyone who failed to clock her cameo. "Let's go tongues!" a sentient tongue declares as it juts out of a young man's mouth, inspired to perform by a sip of Coffee mate's cold foam. The voice behind the tongue is none other than Shania Twain, who puts on a waggling performance in her new lingual form. 

Other memorable lines from the spot include, "I'm a dancing tongue" and "Have you ever seen a tongue do this?", at which point the tongue bursts out of the man's mouth, twists around, and dives back in. Is this commercial funny? No. Was it directed by John Carpenter? I don't think so. Does it inspire a sense of dread and unease? A little. Despite the somewhat off-putting nature of the ad, Twain seemed pleased. Speaking with People, the singer/Brad Pitt-detractor said, "The fun of the cold foam and the dancing tongue was great." 

If you've ever wondered why Pringles come in a can instead of a bag, it's to prevent the delicate crisps from breaking. In 2025, Pringles aired an ad during Super Bowl LVI (as seen on YouTube) dedicated to another trademark of its packaging: the mustache of the brand's longtime mascot, Julius Pringles. In the commercial, actor Adam Brody is beckoned to "just blow in the can" by a disembodied voice after realizing he's fresh out of Pringles. Brody heeds the call, which ultimately ends in several celebrities being liberated from their signature facial hair. 

The first victim is Nick Offerman, who gained fame playing Ron Swanson on "Parks and Recreation." Offerman's iconic mustache takes flight and is soon joined by the mustache of Andy Reid, coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, who loses his lip hair during a press conference. Next up is James Harden, point guard for the Los Angeles Clippers, who's left with an Amish-style beard after his mustache bids him farewell. Mr. Potato Head also loses his plastic mustache in the commercial, but it's hard for me to talk about that without crying. Accompanied by flying cans of Pringles, the mustaches eventually make their way to Brody, who appears as perplexed as many viewers at the ad's conclusion.

Are woodland creatures equipped to handle the bold flavors of modern snacks? Frito-Lay seems to think so based on its 2022 Super Bowl LVI spot, which touted a collab between Doritos and Flamin' Hot Cheetos. The ad, which we caught on YouTube, featured a bird-watcher who inadvertently drops their bags of Doritos and Cheetos in the woods. The fiery nature of these crunchy treats intrigues all manner of animals, including a sloth, a deer, a grizzly bear, and other assorted forest dwellers. As the critters sample the goods, the unmistakable tones of Salt-N-Pepa's 1986 banger "Push It" begin to play. 

You may be thinking to yourself, "I was told Megan Thee Stallion and Charlie Puth were in this commercial." They did make an appearance, but they're not easy to spot. The iconic rapper and the singer-songwriter show up as animals. Megan Thee Stallion takes on the form of a cardinal nestled in the mouth of a crocodile, while Puth portrays a dancing, beatboxing fox. One might question the point of hiring celebrities only to conceal them, but it could be argued that "Push It" is the real star of the commercial. We've been in the grip of '80s nostalgia for some time now, and having modern stars revisit a popular song from the era is a great way to appeal to a wide swathe of Super Bowl viewers. 

British singer-songwriter Seal (aka the former Mr. Heidi Klum) may no longer be a household name, but he had radio listeners all over the world in a stranglehold during the '90s thanks to hits like "Kiss from a Rose" and "Crazy." Seal is no longer churning out easy-listening earworms, but he's still in the public eye thanks to a humorous but somewhat disturbing Mountain Dew commercial that ran during Super Bowl LIX (via YouTube). In the ad, singer Becky G is offered a Mountain Dew Baja Blast by Mountain Dude, a long-haired man in a fuzzy green coat. Upon taking a sip, Becky G is transported to an island paradise with friends, where they encounter a singing Seal, but as a seal. Seal has become seal. Seal is seal. 

Perched on a rock with other seals, human-animal hybrid Seal belts out his biggest hit, "Kiss from a Rose," with the lyrics changed to express his love for Baja Blast. The revised version also includes the line, "The more I think of it, it's strange I'm a seal, yeah," which we fully agree with. Hybrid Seal also laments, "my flippers can't hold Mountain Dew/it slips right on through, what a shame," and, yeah, that's a real bummer. In an even more surprising twist of events, the Super Bowl spot was directed by Taika Waititi, known for hit movies like "Thor Ragnarok" and "What We Do in the Shadows." 

Matthew McConaughey is one of those rare actors who's as adept at comedy as he is at drama. His very first movie role was in the 1993 teen comedy "Dazed and Confused" and has been captivating audiences ever since. McConaughey has also experienced a bit of notoriety within his personal life, including tales of his being a lovable stoner (like that time he was arrested in 1999 for possession of marijuana while playing bongos in the nude). Despite his reported penchant for the devil's lettuce, McConaughey is a highly respected actor, and his acting chops are on full display in a 2025 Uber Eats Super Bowl ad, shared on YouTube. 

McConaughey transcends space and time in the commercial, first giving a pep talk in a vintage boardroom, then as a key player in the founding of football, before moving to the time period where guys wore those weird leather helmets, and later trouncing through the decades in an effort to uncover the origins of several widespread associations between football and food. He goes through multiple wig and costume changes, and definitely doesn't hold back when it comes to the scenery-chewing acting style that made him famous. McConaughey is also joined in the commercial by fellow celebrities Kevin Bacon, Sean Evans of "Hot Ones" fame, Charlie XCX, Martha Stewart, and director Greta Gerwig. 

In 2025, Dunkin's 2025 commercial during the Super Bowl LIX broadcast was a star-studded affair. The spot included Ben and Casey Affleck, former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and comedian and content creator Druski, to name a few. The Affleck boys kick off the ad as the DunKings, a musical act competing against other coffee brands in an effort to uphold Dunkin's coffee supremacy in the Java Jam. To assure victory, the DunKings recruit actor Jeremy Strong to participate.

The commercial depicts the stars playing exaggerated versions of themselves, but Strong briefly became less recognizable due to his infamous method-acting preferences. One minute and 48 seconds into the extended version of the commercial (courtesy of YouTube), Strong is seen emerging from a large container covered in wet coffee grounds. In an apparent effort to get better acquainted with his role as a DunKing, the actor explains, "I'm just trying to talk to the beans, immerse myself in the beans." 

Strong made a name for himself on the hit HBO show "Succession," where he was known to employ method acting techniques like actually getting drunk when his character is supposed to be, and actively avoiding castmates to create a sense of alienation. While Strong was praised for his performance, even winning a lead actor Emmy in 2020, not everyone was impressed. "Succession" co-star and film legend Brian Cox famously criticized Strong's approach to Town & Country magazine, dubbing it "f***ing annoying" and advising, "Go back to your trailer and have a hit of marijuana, you know?" 

Hey, remember the '90s? Remember Kaia Gerber 1.0, better known as Cindy Crawford? Asking if you recall Rodney Dangerfield might be an exercise in futility, but surely your grandparents know who he is. If not, find a person with gray hair and back pain to help expand your knowledge of curmudgeonly comedians of the 20th century. Now that we have that out of the way, let's take a trip back in time. In 1993, Super Bowl XXVII featured a Pepsi ad starring Crawford (courtesy of YouTube), who was part of a cadre of elite supermodels known for their jaw-dropping beauty. Crawford has appeared in a few Super Bowl ads for Pepsi, as well as some updates and reboots since her heyday as a professional bombshell.

In the commercial, Crawford is put in a Pepsi deprivation tank by a scientist (played by actor Michael Richards, aka Kramer from "Seinfeld") to study the effects that a Pepsi-less existence can have on a person. When she emerges after a month, she's transformed into Dangerfield, who proclaims, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm dying for a Pepsi!" in Crawford's voice. In addition to playing on Crawford's glamorous persona, the Pepsi commercial was also a humorous dig at Dangerfield, a master of comedic self-deprecation, who was best known for his catchphrase "I don't get no respect!" Sadly, Dangerfield died in 2004 at age 82 after experiencing heart surgery complications.

These days, Eugene Levy is best known for his hilarious role on "Schitt's Creek" and for siring actor and showbiz extraordinaire Dan Levy. However, the elder Levy is a comedy legend in his own right, getting his start on the famed Canadian sketch show "SCTV" and appearing in hit movies like "American Pie," "Best in Show," and "Father of the Bride". While Levy is jam-packed with comic timing and talent, and appears to have bestowed his comedic gifts upon his son, Dan, the actor is also recognizable for his magnificent set of eyebrows. When asked about his famous attribute by The Guardian, Levy quipped, "They didn't hinder or help my career ... Nobody has ever asked me to hire a landscaper and take them down for any job." We beg to differ, as Levy's attention-grabbing brows are the likely reasons why the actor landed a role in Little Caesars' Super Bowl LIX advertisement. 

Levy is seen snacking on the restaurant's Crazy Puffs, which have a startling effect: Levy's eyebrows fly clean off his head and into the sky (via Today). I cannot explain why disembodied facial hair was such a popular motif during the 2025 Super Bowl commercials, but rest assured, this fact will keep me up at night. Levy's eyebrows make their way around town, scaring mothers, helping caterpillars find religion, and they eventually land on the hand of the actor's real-life daughter, Sarah Levy, who casually explains, "My dad's eating Crazy Puffs again." 

Like many of his castmates, David Schwimmer is best known for his role on the hit '90s and early aughts sitcom, "Friends." The actor has gone on to enjoy a very respectable career illustrated by stints on "Band of Brothers" and "American Crime Story," but he'll always be Ross Geller to us. In 2018, Schwimmer starred in a series of Skittles commercials that ran during Super Bowl LII, and donned a variety of personas for each one. As demonstrated by clips shared on YouTube, Schwimmer appeared as a shaggy blond fellow in some kind of liminal space, a beleaguered office drone arguing with a talking sandwich, a ventriloquist dummy's dummy, and an alien-like being with a curled-under bowl cut. 

Here's the catch: Schwimmer's clips aren't the actual Super Bowl ads, but teasers. The real ad was reportedly shown to a single person, and their reaction was subsequently broadcast the night of the big game. The teasers are downright bizarre, with Schwimmer bringing a lot of unsettling Ross energy to the table. Skittles now has a reputation for its absurd yet humorous advertising campaigns, and at one point, the candy company even launched its own musical. Another Skittles spot featuring Steven Tyler of Aerosmith made our list of the most ridiculous Super Bowl commercials that live in our heads rent-free.