Super Bowl LVI is lurking right around the corner with less than a month to go before kickoff. Die-hard fans are still placing bets on their favorite team making it to LA’s SoFi Stadium and crushing it. Even if you aren’t into big, hulking men in spandex throwing around an oblong ball and dumping Gatorade on each other, the Super Bowl still has something special for you. It’s a perfectly acceptable excuse to gorge yourself silly on snacks before the ink on your motivational calendar with your New Year’s Resolution to eat better has dried. There are also ads! Yeah, those things still exist, and there’s no clicking out of them or surfing through them during the live event, but we aren’t even mad. Super Bowl commercials are notorious for giving us belly laughs, breaking our hearts, and inspiring us. They’re an integral part of the experience, and today we’re looking back at some of our favorite ads from the past 55 years of the Super Bowl.
“Mean” Joe Green is Actually Pretty Nice
Forget the adorable Coca-Cola polar bears; we’re all about this ad where a little football fan manages to tame “Mean” Joe Green with nothing more than a bottle of Coke. The Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle turns from mean to serene and tosses the boy his towel as a thank before flashing a smile sweet enough to give us diabetes.
Coca-Cola intercepted our hearts and gifted viewers of the 13th Super Bowl a commercial that would continue to be a crowd favorite for decades to come. We see football players as rough and tough guys, but this ad reminded us they’re just as soft and sentimental as the rest of us.