Despite the apocryphal warning of W.C. Fields, kids and animals can sell stuff.

And as a result, both have had their moments at the Super Bowl. Most notably, Budweiser made frogs talkin 1995, with immediately ranking the ad among “most iconic alcohol campaigns in advertising history.” And you didn’t need to be a parent to cheer for the little Darth Vader in Volkswagen’s”The Force” by Deutsch in 2011.

Generally though, animals were the clear favorite on the biggest stage in advertising for a long time. According to ad measurement firm iSpot, animals appeared in nearly twice as many ads as children in 2014. 

But in 2017, kids pulled ahead, appearing in 26% of ads compared with 20% for animals. Amazon actually had one of each in two separate ads to advertise its Alexa Echo smart speaker.

Over the next eight years, the number of Super Bowl ads with children and animals stayed fairly close, and were actually equal in three of those years.

Then in the 2025 Super Bowl, kids pulled ahead in a big way: 37% of ads featured a child, while only 25% had an animal. 

A kid was front and center in the ad rated No. 1 for likability last year: Pfizer’s “Knock Out”, which was 19% above the past five-year Super Bowl norm. The ad tells the story of a young boy who had battled cancer, and followed him along a boisterous parade route home from the hospital.

Another Super Bowl 59 ad, Lay’s “Little Farmer,” featured a little girl planting and caring for a potato to be like her dad. The ad ranked 21st out of the nearly 70 spots, with 7% higher likeability compared to all other Big Game ads last year.

By comparison, Budweiser’s 2025 Super Bowl ad featuring a determined Clydesdale foal ranked No. 3 for Big Game ads by likability, outscoring the five-year norm by 17%, according to iSpot.

The 2026 Super Bowl already has two strong contenders for best kid and animal ads. 

To humanize its Gemini AI tool, Google’s Super Bowl 60 ad follows a mother showing her young son how their lives will look in their new home, virtually decorating his new room with his current things and rebuilding their backyard garden. 

Meanwhile, once again it’s Budweiser with the big animal-centric ad, but this time it’s the opposite of funny. The brand doubled down on its baby animal concept, this time with a lost bald eagle hatchling being raised by a Clydesdale from chick to Free Bird. Instead of Lynyrd Skynyrd, you can almost hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” as eagle-and horse-take flight. 

But we miss the Budweiser frogs, and weird animals in general. Nothing about the Quiznos “spongemonkeys” made us crave a toasted sandwich, but they sure were fun.

Time will tell if kids will win out again this year, or animals will pull ahead again for Super Bowl 60.