Budweiser, Dunkin’ score most-talked-about ads during Super Bowl LX

The brands that rose to the top had very different creative approaches, Brandwatch found.

Watch the full, minute-long commercial at the bottom of this story.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – For the second year in a row, Budweiser’s Clydesdale horse commercial was rated the Super Bowl’s best.

This year’s Budweiser ad featured a Clydesdale foal that grew up with a bald eagle — a nod to America’s 250th anniversary.

The young horse and eagle first meet while the foal is out frolicking and sees the bird fall out of its nest. The eagle then follows the horse back to the barn, and before long, the two are trudging through the rain and snow.

As the commercial goes on and the two keep growing, the Clydesdale seemingly tries to help the eagle fly … at first to no avail.

The ad has one shot that shows the eagle riding on the horse’s back, with its wings spread wide. At that moment, the horse jumps over a fallen tree and for a brief second looks like the Clydesdale is about to take flight — only for the eagle to then soar.

All the while, the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Free Bird” plays while a farmer watches the two from afar. By the end, the farmer is moved enough by their bond that he sheds a tear.

The ad ends with a golden-hour shot of the eagle flying high while the now fully grown Clydesdale runs through a field below.

The 60-second commercial was good enough to take the top spot in USA Today’s Ad Meter ratings. Budweiser’s 2026 win marked its 10th time taking USA Today’s highest ranking. The full commercial can be watched at the bottom of this story.

Including the Bud ad, the top five was as follows:

Budweiser Clydesdale
Lay’s potato farmer
Pepsi polar bear
Dunkin’s “Good Will Dunkin’”
Michelob ULTRA Olympics

Budweiser left nothing to chance in taking home its record 10th first-place finish in USA TODAY’s Ad Meter contest.

The King of Beers was once again the king of Super Bowl Sunday commercials, easily outpointing Lay’s in balloting that culminated at midnight Feb. 9, hours after the Seattle Seahawks trounced the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 60.

In “American Icons,” Budweiser emptied the tank to mark its 150th anniversary while strongly tying itself to the USA’s 250th. Naturally, its not-so-secret weapon – the iconic Clydesdale – was front and center.

Mix in the birth of an American Bald Eagle, nursed into adulthood by the caring steed until it soars freely on its own – picking up the pace in time with Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” – and the 60-second spot broke through the competition typically loaded with nascent brands and nostalgia-fueled celebrity spots.

“That’s what we wanted to bring to life, this idea of celebrating two icons, the Budweiser Clydesdale, the American Bald Eagle at the same moment,” Anheuser-Busch’s chief commercial officer Kyle Norrington told USA TODAY before the Super Bowl, noting that “Free Bird” was the first and only choice for the soundtrack.

“There’s not a lot of dialogue, so ‘Free Bird’ really carries this narrative in an epic way.”

In a sense, the proven formula stood out even more against an occasionally dark ad lineup heavy on artificial intelligence (including some fratricide among the brands), surveillance for your puppy and de-aging technology of beloved stars of yore that fans on social media found unsettling.

Budweiser claimed its first Ad Meter crowns in 1999 and 2000, before yielding to its Anheuser-Busch cousin, Bud Light, in five of the next six years. Bud prevailed five more times between 2007 and 2015, then had a 10-year drought before the Clydesdale returned it to the winner’s circle in 2025 with “First Delivery.”

This time, it scored a 4.0 out of 5, defeating Lay’s “Last Harvest,” which chronicles the emotional final lap for a potato farmer. Pepsi’s “The Choice,” which co-opts Coca-Cola’s iconic polar bear, was third at 3.48, with Dunkin’s “Good Will Dunkin’,” fueled by both the 1997 Ben Affleck-Matt Damon film and ‘90s-era NBC comedy icons, fourth at 3.48.

Michelob Ultra (3.47) rounded out the top five with a star turn from Kurt Russell and appearances from Winter Olympic icons Chloe Kim and T.J. Oshie.