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Look, we all know the Super Bowl is basically a four-hour excuse to eat buffalo wing dip and judge multi-million dollar marketing budgets. Usually, brands play it safe with a cute puppy or a celebrity making a self-deprecating joke. But now and then, a marketing team loses its collective mind and produces something so bizarre that the entire world just stares at the screen in silence.
We aren’t talking about commercials that aged poorly. We’re talking about the ones that felt like a fever dream the second they aired. Here are the all-time champions of the “Who approved this?” category.
Just for Feet (1999)
This one is a strong contender for the “What were they thinking?” hall of fame because it is widely regarded as one of the most tone-deaf things to ever hit a TV screen. The ad shows a group of white American athletes in a Humvee tracking down a barefoot Kenyan runner in the desert. They actually drugged his water and then forcibly strapped sneakers onto his feet while he’s unconscious and struggling.
It was supposed to be a joke about how everyone needs their shoes, but it looked like a colonial nightmare of forced assimilation. The company even tried to sue its ad agency after the public backlash because it was just that offensive.
Pringles (2025)
This one is a nightmare. The ad starts with Adam Brody at a party where everyone has run out of chips. He blows into an empty Pringles can like it’s a horn, and suddenly, “all hair breaks loose.”
Across the country, the mustaches of celebrities like Nick Offerman, James Harden, and even Coach Andy Reid literally peel off their faces like sentient caterpillars. These disembodied “monstashes” then fly through the sky in a giant swarm, dive-bombing grocery stores to hijack cans of chips and deliver them to the party.
They end up splatting against the window like confused birds. It was surreal, it was hairy, and it left everyone wondering if they should be impressed or just deeply uncomfortable.
Fast forward to this year’s Super Bowl LX, Pringles has traded the flying facial hair for pop star Sabrina Carpenter. The teaser shows her sitting on a kitchen floor, wearing kitten heels and picking “petals” off a bouquet made entirely of Pringles chips.
84 Lumber (2017)
84 Lumber, a supplier of building materials and services for professional builders, had an ad that went viral for being a political lightning rod right at a time when the country was already at a breaking point.
It followed a mother and daughter making a grueling journey through Mexico toward the U.S. border, only to be stopped by a massive wall. The network banned the full version, so people had to go online to see the ending, where they find a wooden door built by the company. Whether you liked the message or not, it was a wild choice to use a humanitarian crisis to sell construction lumber just weeks after a new president took office.
General Motors (2007)
Nothing says “buy a reliable car” like a small yellow assembly-line robot suffering a total mental breakdown. In this ad, a robot drops a single screw and gets fired, then eventually hurls itself off a bridge into the dark water below.
It turns out it was all a dream, but the image of a suicidal robot was so dark it left the country needing a hug. It was a bizarre way to talk about quality control.
Tubi (2025)
Tubi, the streaming service owned by Fox Corporation, loves to mess with our heads — but the 2025 Super Bowl spot did it with a twist. The ad follows a man born with a cowboy‑hat‑shaped head, a lifelong symbol of his love for Westerns. From childhood bullying to adult acceptance, he ultimately embraces his passion, proving that Tubi has something for every viewer, no matter how niche.
It’s surreal, sure, and a little strange to see someone’s head shaped like a hat, but it’s also oddly touching. Half of America left the commercial wondering if they were watching a weird fantasy story or just realizing that Tubi really does have “all the content you love.”
Mountain Dew (2016)
This one is an undisputed king of the fever dream. Mountain Dew Kickstart combined a pug, a monkey, and a baby into a disaster. It wiggled its hips and licked people’s faces while chanting its own name in a rhythmic drone.
The creature was terrifying and annoying, but we are still talking about it 10 years later. It is the proof that being unhinged is a great way to stay relevant.
The 2026 betting board: Betting on the bizarre
If you think these were wild, then you might want to check what prediction markets for the 2026 commercials are already preparing. You can actually find some hilarious contracts if you want to put a little money on the chaos of this year’s broadcast.
Between the Bad Bunny halftime show and these unhinged marketing budgets, your phone is going to be blowing up all night.
