The Most Dramatic Celebrity Transformations Ever Seen In Super Bowl Ads

The Super Bowl isn't just the pinnacle for an NFL team. It's also the pinnacle for companies that want to put their brand in front of a massive audience. Advertisers spend millions for a coveted spot during the biggest game of the year, often hiring celebrities to do the heavy lifting for their products. Some A-listers undergo dramatic transformations in the name of the game, with results ranging from emotional ads that tug on your heartstrings to silly ads that tickle your funny bone. "It's one of the last remaining collective viewing experiences and, with the impact you can have on culture, I would say 100% it's worth it," Margaret Johnson, the chief creative officer at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, told Business Insider about the phenomenon that is the star-studded Super Bowl commercial.

In today's competitive marketplace, companies are no longer content to create content with Clydesdales. They want personality power for ads that will stick with people long after the final whistle. Brynna Aylward, North America chief creative officer of the ad agency Adam & Eve DDB, told Business Insider, "It's a shortcut to get people's attention, to get people really excited, and to really say what your brand stands for in tying it to a personality." For many of the stars, the exposure and attention could be a big draw. But for some, like Adam Brody, who appeared in a Pringles commercial during game time, the reason is more basic. In an interview with Pure Wow, the "Nobody Wants This" star described it as simply a "fun experience."

With his tattoos, spiky blonde hair, goatee, and larger-than-life personality, "Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives" host Guy Fieri is hard to miss. That's why fans were shocked when the legend of the culinary world revealed that he had completely changed his appearance to appear in a 2026 Super Bowl commercial for Bosch. Although it's not Fieri's first Super Bowl commercial, the Food Network star told People, "If you're going to go big, go big," and said he even agreed to the company's request to shave his goatee. "This is such an important commercial. This is such a big deal," he explained.

The ad features a clean-shaven "everyman" version of Fieri in a button-down and khakis, his signature Billy Idol-esque hair replaced by a conservative brown side part that would look more at home on a high school English teacher than a rock-n-roll foodie. Fieri teased his alter ego, known as "Just a Guy," on Instagram to celebrate his 58th birthday, prompting son Hunter to comment, "Dad...when did you start selling insurance?" Hunter wasn't the only one confused by the look. The "Guy's Big Bite" star told People that his own mother wasn't convinced the man in the photo was really him. "She said, 'It really looks a lot like you, but I know it's not you.' I said, 'Mom, that's me.'" Fieri said the transformation was fun but labor-intensive — the wig alone took two hours to put on —and promised that the end result would leave viewers very surprised.

With his ripped body and wild mane of hair, Jason Momoa shot to fame on "Game of Thrones." But prior to that, he starred on the sci-fi series "Stargate Atlantis," where he built a devoted legion of fans. "They've stood with me through everything," Momoa told Parade.  Well, make that almost everything. Momoa's fans had a very strong reaction to his appearance in what was a slightly cringy 2020 Super Bowl ad for Rocket Mortgage Quicken Loans. 

The ad featured Momoa walking into his home and getting "comfortable" first by taking off his muscles to reveal a skinny frame, then by removing his hair to reveal a partially bald head. Viewers took to X to share their shock at the "Aquaman" star's watered-down look. Some praised his willingness to shed his swoon-worthy looks, while others were less than impressed. "I hate Rocket Mortgage for making me see Jason Momoa that way," wrote one user, while another commented, "I need to cleanse my eyes from that Jason Momoa commercial." The public response didn't deter Momoa from singing and dancing his way through a "Flashdance" inspired" Super Bowl ad for T-Mobile in 2024 — hair and abs intact. For the hunky star, it was a chance to flex a different set of muscles. As he told People, "I'm not normally hired for comedy, so I love being able to come in and do stuff like this."  

Viewers of the 2026 Super Bowl may flip out when they see Ben Stiller looking like a missing member of the Bee Gees as he sings alongside Benson Boone and tries to execute one of the "Beautiful Things" singer's signature somersaults. The ad is for Instacart, and the goal is to make people aware of the convenience of online grocery shopping, specifically the new "Preference Picker" feature that allows customers to choose the ripeness of their bananas. "The job of the spot is to just drive excitement so that people then are interested in why we're talking about bananas, and then go and find more information," Laura Jones, Instacart's chief marketing officer, told Variety. 

The 30-second spot was directed by none other than Spike Jonze, who shot the whole thing on vintage cameras for an old-school video vibe. "It's going to seem like it's being piped in from almost another universe," Jonze told Variety. Stiller told Today.com that he was thrilled to work with the "Being John Malkovich" director. "I've known Spike for a long time, but we never worked together, and I knew that if Spike was doing it, he was going to dial it in a super specific way, and just committing to the ridiculousness of it and the physicality of it was really fun," he said, and added, "I had a blast, dude." If the teasers are any indication, viewers are sure to go, well, bananas!

Let's face it — Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Greek god has never been a stretch for the imagination, but that didn't stop viewers of the 2022 Super Bowl from getting a jolt when the action hero showed up as Zeus in a BMW commercial. Wearing a toga, with long gray hair and a matching beard, the "Kindergarten Cop" star (along with Salma Hayek, who played his wife Hera) was almost unrecognizable as he sped through Palm Springs, throwing lightning bolts, and singing "Electric Avenue" to promote the BMW iX electric car.

The former California governor told the Los Angeles Times that he was drawn to the ad because of the way it addressed climate change without being "in your face" about it. "Fear and threats and all this stuff doesn't work," he said. "We have to bring people in and make them be part of the solution." Schwarzenegger is an advocate for talking about air pollution (something people can relate to) over carbon emissions (which sounds more mysterious). "We have to educate the general public, and we have to communicate better with the general public — not talking about climate change, because no one understands what the hell we're talking about, but talk about [how] we have to get rid of pollution," he continued. "And here are the things we can do to get rid of pollution, and one of the things that you can do is drive [electric] cars." Not shockingly, the actor owns several. 

Some things you just can't unsee, like the singer Seal turned into a singing seal in one of the more disturbing Super Bowl ads ever. The metamorphosis occurred in a 2025 spot for Mountain Dew's Baja Blast. Like some kind of fever dream, singer Becky G and company spokesperson "Mountain Dude" take a swig of the soda and find themselves on Baja Beach, where (wait for it) they are met by a singing seal bearing Seal's face (what was in that drink anyway?). Seal (the seal) is crooning "Kiss from a Lime," a spoof on Seal (the singer's) hit "Kiss from a Rose," before suddenly being circled by sharks — because it wasn't strange enough without sharks, apparently.

In a statement from Seal (per Adweek), the singer had nothing but good things to say about his out-of-body experience. "I had a blast coming up with new lyrics and loved collaborating with their team to bring this campaign to life in such a fun and unexpected way," he said. The singer was a good sport and told Today.com that he doesn't mind laughing at himself. "There are aspects and parts of my life that are really serious, that require focus and responsibility and accountability," he said. "And so, anytime I get a chance to laugh and make fun of myself with a meme that was with my head on a seal, I mean, it's hilarious and it's a good antidote of relief to the seriousness of life." 

He might have been one of America's best friends, but even the most die-hard fans may have found it hard to recognize Ross, aka David Schwimmer, in a 2018 Super Bowl ad for Skittles. Unlike other Super Bowl ads, this one took a different approach and released four teaser ads featuring four quirky versions of an almost completely unrecognizable Schwimmer. The ads featured the star doing everything from feeding Skittles to a talking sandwich to shooting laser beams out of his mouth and eyes. "I kind of gravitated to the four characters that I connected to the most as an actor, that I thought would be the most fun to play," he said per the Chicago Tribune.

But believe it or not, Schwimmer's characters weren't the strangest part of this ad campaign. The icing on the candy was that the actual commercial was only seen by one person during the Super Bowl, a Los Angeles teen named Marco Menendez. Stay with us here — viewers would see Menendez's reaction, not the commercial itself. The actor, who is admittedly a fan of Skittles, called it the "most-exclusive Super Bowl ad ever" because of the limited audience (per Adweek). "It just made me laugh that it was going to be so exclusive that only one teenager was going to see it," he told the Chicago Tribune. As for Menendez's reaction? Per Reel Chicago, he raved, "It was one of the best commercials I've ever seen in my entire life."

The only thing more famous than Eugene Levy's talent is his bushy eyebrows, and they got really unruly in a 2025 Super Bowl ad for Little Caesars Pizza's Crazy Puffs. Levy's eyebrows took on a life of their own as they left his head and flew around the city, causing chaos before they landed on his real-life daughter, Sarah, who shooed them away, unfazed.

While it's unclear what flying eyebrows have to do with pizza, what is clear is that to see Levy without his trademark thick brows is unsettling to say the least. The prospect didn't seem to bother the "American Pie" star, who told People, "It's always fun to be doing a Super Bowl commercial and Little Caesars has a great penchant for producing funny spots," he said, and added, "It's an incredibly competitive field and you know you need an eye-raising premise to begin with." However, the "Schitt's Creek" star did admit to USA Today's Ad Meter that when he first heard the idea, he raised an eyebrow.  "And then I actually thought about it," he said. "The fact is people have been talking about these things forever and I thought, you know what, maybe this is the way to pay it off in a lovely way." He added, "The more I thought about it, the more excited I got." Sadly, Levy's brows didn't get their own agent after the gig, but safe to say they stole the show. 

There are two facts about Texas-born and bred Matthew McConaughey that you may not know: First, he loves football and can often be seen on the sidelines of a U.T. Austin game, cheering on the Longhorns. Second, he and his family often use Uber Eats to get Raising Cane's delivered to their door. Why do those things matter? Because they may explain why the Lone Star State's golden boy wound up in a 2025 Super Bowl commercial looking unrecognizable, and promoting Uber Eats. 

The ad featured McConaughey (and a star-studded cast), posing the theory that football is nothing more than a scheme to make people want more food. The "Dallas Buyer's Club" star wore a variety of costumes as he traveled back through time to prove his point. "The character I play in this is a salesman," he told USA Today's Ad Meter. "You go through this sort of Rolodex of all the history of getting up to this time about how he's figured out how it's really 'food ball' and how it's a conspiracy." The conspiracy theory campaign has been so successful for Uber Eats that they decided to continue the saga with a 2026 version that will feature McConaughey and Bradley Cooper in a showdown to settle the debate once and for all. If the teaser is any indication, the actors will not be undergoing any dramatic transformations for this iteration, but we're sure it will be "alright, alright, alright." 

Facial hair was flying as much or more than footballs in the 2025 Super Bowl ads. Besides Eugene Levy's eyebrows taking off, mustaches were on the move. Thanks to a fictional snack shortage right before the big game, some of the most recognizable mustaches left their famous owners' faces and flew off to gather cans of Pringles. Set to the "Batman" theme, it was arguably one of the more bizarre ads of the 2025 game. The stars of the commercial, Nick Offerman, Adam Brody, NBA star James Harden, and Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid were selected as much for their diversity as for their facial foliage. "We wanted to borrow celebrities that were famous for their 'staches," Sarah Reinecke, Kellanova's US VP of marketing, salty snacking, told Marketing Brew. "We also wanted some talent that just really brought a lot of different audiences together."

The Emmy-award-winning Offerman said he was thrilled to be included among such notable 'stache growers and jumped at the chance to participate. "I don't have to tap dance or do much talking," he joked to Distractify. "I just have to carry my mustache to the set and then stand where they tell me while they film my mustache." He described the experience as "fun" and added that he thinks viewers will be "impressed." "They've seen my mustache do some things over the years, but this is a whole new can of worms."