I don’t know about you, but I like watching the Superbowl commercials almost as much as I like watching the game. Well, that’s not true. I love the game more, but I still like the commercials as well. This Superbowl was no exception, though I felt like the commercials were a little less extreme and certainly less inspiring than other years.
Less controversial.
No toe fungus and no creepy talking baby (thank goodness for that!).
A little less sappy.
And where were the Clydesdales?
Still, there was enough to like, hate, and talk about in this year’s Superbowl commercials. My favorite one this time was the Audi commercial about equal pay for women:
(but I admit that since I am a woman, I may be prejudiced here…)
I also loved the commercial from Budweiser where they highlighted the immigration-roots of their brand (which was made way before Trump’s immigration order by the way, though of course still in response to the election one may assume):
Air BnB went fully political as well, though in a touching way:
Then there was 84 Lumber who only showed the first part of a story about a mother and daughter traveling from somewhere inSouth America to the Unites States. They invited you to watch the rest on their site, but apparently hadn’t counted on the traffic, so it crashed. Luckily, it was also available on YouTube. Still, there’s a lesson there…be prepared. It was a beautifully done video, but it was highly political…
Coca-Cola’s commercial wasn’t new, but its message was still awesome:
I liked Honda’s yearbook-commercial, though it had little to do with the brand (actually, I had to look it up who was behind it again, even though I liked the commercial):
There were some reasonably funny ones, like Melissa McCarthy’s commercial for Kia.
And Terry Bradshaw (assisted by amongst others Gronkowski) for Tide worked as well:
Justin Timberlake and Christopher Walken were enjoyable too, for Bai:
Buick tried to be funny with Cam Newton and Miranda Kerr, but that didn’t really do it for me. Neither did the Illuminati about avocados from Mexico by the way (though even as a Patriots fan, I could appreciate their Deflategate joke). Juston Bieber and (again) Rob Gronkowski for T-Mobile were okay, John Malkovich for Squarespace wasn’t even remotely funny, neither was Humpty Dumpty for Turbotax, and those creepy Fifty-Shades mocking ads for T-Mobile were just inappropriate.
There were a ton of teasers for new shows as well. Legion got way too creepy for my 9-year old, as did the Handmaid’s Tale. Logan was violent, Fast and Furious whatever was violent, and so were 24 Legacy and others. Is that really necessary when we know so many kids are watching? In that sense, The Walking Dead kept it way more classy and subtle.
At least the half-time show this year with Lady Gaga was relatively safe to watch for kids, with no wardrobe malfunctions, no crazy-sexy costumes, and no big no-nos. Plus, she really made it into an entertaining show (no left shark though, sadly…). And Luke Bryan did a solid job on the National Anthem as well, with little embellishments and a perfect pitch.
OK, that was my personal ‘scorecard’ for the commercials and trailers/teasers this year. How about you? What did you think of this year’s commercials? Any favorites or dislikes?
CurtisMSP says
You didn’t mention why 84 Lumber had to put the second part of their commercial on their website.
Rachel Blom says
No. That was because at the time I wrote this post, I couldn’t verify whether FOX really refused to broadcast the whole thing. It looks like that’s indeed the case, but with all the fake news and ‘alternative facts’ circulating these days, I didn’t just want to repeat a rumor…
Beth Ellen says
I let my inner girly girl out and swooned over the two commercials with Jason Statham (Wix and F&F8). I know I know there were explosions but, just like for Benedict Cumberbatch and Sam Elliott, any moment they are on screen is swoon worthy 🙂
Rachel Blom says
Haha, gotta love that 🙂 I don’t object to the guys, but there was a lot of creepy stuff and violence in the teasers and trailers, considering how many kids will be watching. I just wish they’d be stricter in that.
Greg Simmons says
As an older guy on most of these threads, I miss the days when commercials were about the products and services a company offered and didn’t try to make a statement. Call me mean or whatever, but if I were a shareholder, I would be aggravated that a company I invested in would spend millions on politics instead of focusing on it’s core business. I know I’m in the minority on that…and I’m ok with it.
Political ads in general – lame waste of shareholder money. Special mention to 84 lumber for fumbling the ball on the 2nd half of their ad online. Somebody is looking for a job now.
As far as the other ads, I’ll make it simple:
* Alfa-Romeo – nice cars, but doubtful of the appeal to middle class viewers
* T-Mobile – 1 funny, the rest were 50 shades of tasteless and even more reason to ignore them as a company
* Buick – cute with Cam Newton stiff-arming small kids
* Google – 1 minute of “Hey Google” (I still don’t want you listening to me)
* Honda – funny
* Hulu – Handmaid’s Tale – inappropriate with kids in the audience
* Skittles – funny (mmm, Skittles)
* Kia – hilarious
* Paramount – new Baywatch – funny, but not sure if it’ll last
* Beer commercials – nothing overly impressive here. Busch was unique in their approach
* Fast and Furious – really? Another one?
* Pirates of the Caribbean – pretty close to jumping the (left) shark
*
Rachel Blom says
Well, some companies did decide to not do a super-expensive commercial and instead do something for their employees, which was a ballsy move, I thought. And I agree, some of these commercials are ‘great’ but have little to do with the product and won’t likely increase sales. It seems we have pretty similar tastes, looking at your quick review 🙂 By the way, it seems that Google ad inadvertently set off a lot of people’s Google thingamajiggies…not sure of that was what they were going for!