Best Super Bowl Commercial 2020: Doritos

Best Super Bowl Commercial: Doritos with Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott and Dancing Horses

It’s been a week since Super Bowl LIV, in which the Kansas City Chiefs came out victorious over the San Francisco 49ers, 31-20. Meanwhile, much of the talk over the past week has been on the greatest Super Bowl commercials, which are usually a highly anticipated aspect of the event, sometime even more so than the half-time show. One of the funniest 2020 Super Bowl commercials did indeed involve horses—but it wasn’t the Budweiser Clydesdales. Instead it was for Doritos in a commercial starring Sam Elliott and Lil Nas X of “Old Town Road” fame.

Best Super Bowl Commercial This Year?

Lil Nas X (Montero Lamar Hill) is the rapper, singer, and songwriter who went viral in 2019 using the Internet and social media—especially on Tik Tok—for promotion of his song “Old Town Road,” which is a country rap/country trap song. It hit the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 list for 19 straight weeks, breaking a record for longest time spent on the chart. Lil Nas X was able to catch the attention of Billy Ray Cyrus to do the remix (see below), which won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video.

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Many applauded the “showdown” between these Lil Nas X and actor Sam Elliott, of western movie fame, with their two “dancing” horses in the 2020 Super Bowl commercial for Doritos. And we can’t forget the cameo from Billy Ray Cyrus. The commercial is reminiscent of the original music video of the song, in which Lil Nas X rides a horse, ironically for the first time despite the song being all about horses, according to the singer.

We also came across a video about the making of the commercial that you’ll want to see (see below), done by Access Hollywood.

So you tell us, which one won the dance showdown: Lil Nas X or Sam Elliott?
And which horse won?

Sarah Evers Conrad is the former Digital Content Editor for Horse Illustrated and Young Rider magazines. During her time at Horse Illustrated, she handled all digital initiatives, cohosted the Horse Illustrated podcast, edited all publications, and oversaw the redesign of the new www.younrider.com site. Her career also includes time at The Horse: Your Guide to Equine Health Care and the United States Equestrian Federation’s (USEF) Equestrian magazine, before she became USEF’s Director of E-Communications. She also spent time as a content manager/travel writer for a Caribbean travel agency before she opened her own business, All In Stride Marketing. Throughout her career, she has been published in equine publications such as Horse Illustrated, The Horse, Blood-Horse, Equestrian, Arabian Horse Life, USDF Connection, the American Quarter Horse Journal, Paint Horse Journal, Driving Digest, American Farrier’s Journal, Off-Track Thoroughbred, Stable Management, Equine Wellness, and Camp Business Magazine. She has also served as the editor for the Certified Horsemanship Association’s official publication, The Instructor magazine, and for multiple books. Conrad has a BA in Journalism from Western Kentucky University with a double major in Agriculture with an Equine Science emphasis. You can learn more about her at http://www.equestrianjournalist.com.